NDSU emergency management students recently presented their problem statements given to them by FEMA Region 8 as part of an innovative problem-solving course.
联邦紧急事务管理局 Region 8 recently partnered with NDSU to engage students in the emergency management program by tackling a series of disaster-related problems identified by FEMA staff.
应急管理专业的学生Kayla Niedzielski说 having the opportunity to be a part of the Region 8-sponsored FEMA Innovative Problem-Solving course was an “incredibly eye-opening and insightful experience.”
课程讲师Carol Cwiak说, 景观建筑学名誉教授, 抗灾能力和应急管理, 卡洛琳·哈克洛特, 景观建筑学助理教授, 抗灾能力和应急管理, 向班级介绍了联邦应急管理局第8区工作人员确定的七个不同的复杂问题, 每个小组分配一个. 协助完成任务, 一群联邦应急管理局问题发起人, 谁提出了问题陈述, 帮助学生理解和概念化问题.
这些挑战包括一系列需要解决的问题, including effectively communicating messages in rural areas ensuring thorough after-action reporting and enhancing the capabilities and capacities of rural emergency management systems at the local level. 这些问题是广泛而深远的，迫使团队跳出框框思考.
“Partnering with FEMA Region 8 provided our students with an opportunity to connect their classroom experiences with real world challenges and our students really stepped up. 团队制定了可行的政策, process and physical products to meet the unique needs of our rural North Dakota communities that our FEMA partners are reviewing for incorporation into their approach to disasters and emergency management,哈克洛特说. “The process challenged students from multiple disciplines to work together to consider complex problems. They were so successful that many of them received immediate offers to present their work nationally as well as employment and internships. 另外, we’ve been approached by many external partner organizations wanting future classes to tackle their problems too.”
The course will continue to be offered every spring semester and Hackerott encourages students from any discipline to enroll to learn how they can contribute to disaster management.
Niedzielski’s team was given the challenge of using publicly available datasets to assist FEMA in distributing aid more equitably to underserved populations in Region 8. Niedzielski said her team’s process started with several subject matter expert interviews with various stakeholders, 包括当地的, 州政府和联邦政府, 部落国家和私营部门应急管理的不同成员.
Through these interviews it became clear to Niedzielski’s team that their initial scope was not going to meet FEMA’s root challenge. This moved the project toward a conceptual framework based on the emergency management literature surrounding vulnerability, 公平性和交叉性.
“These concepts were fundamental when discussing FEMA’s ability to begin addressing the problem of equitable aid distribution, as datasets are not comprehensive enough and do not reflect the complexity of Region 8’s underserved populations,Niedzielski在联邦应急管理局网站上的一篇在线文章中说.
通过采访和调研过程, Niedzielski said a major theme that emerged was emergency management is most effective at the local level and requires consistent and strong community-level engagement. 联邦应急管理局的工作人员强调了使用创意的重要性, 创新和复杂的问题解决战略，同时解决这一差距.
在联邦应急管理局工作人员的帮助和支持下, Niedzielski said collaboration with stakeholders opened her team members minds to creating a new diagram to illustrate the complexity of an individual's layered and multi-dimensional path to equity in a disaster. 乐虎集团ing this model provided an opening for difficult conversations within the federal government regarding how equity is managed through multiple programs, 尤其是在恢复阶段.
Niedzielski’s team created a new model of possible equity challenges during a disaster that reflect both the context gathered from subject matter expert interviews and the theoretical literature within emergency management.
“While these findings and models provided only a starting point in addressing the problems of inequity in rural areas within Region 8, I am thankful to be a part of the new wave of emergency management professionals committed to confronting and addressing rural vulnerability, 不平等和帮助建立广泛的复原力,涅兹尔斯基说.
The experience of this course provided students with a chance to navigate and explore solutions to the government's strongest challenges and has provided them with a new perspective on the true complexity of the federal government’s different programs as well as the barriers that exist in allowing emergency managers to accomplish the mission of protecting lives, 生计和生活质量.
涅茨基说，通过讨论和研究, 她觉得自己准备得更充分了，可以完成期望的工作，提高工作质量, 不仅仅是在联邦层面, but to the entire region to build resilience and help communities better respond to disasters.
“Having the opportunity to contribute to the literature of emergency management has been a wonderful experience and will continue to motivate me while transitioning to an emergency management career,”她说。.
