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Sep 29, 2023

Building the Future of Emergency Management: FEMA Vanguard Executive Leadership Program

Written by: Billy Don Farris, Tom Seamands & Erin Sutton

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Today’s leaders in emergency management (EM) face a level of complexity, interconnectivity, uncertainty, and volatility far beyond anything seen before. Leading in this environment—where events have far-reaching impacts—requires integrative thinking, advanced problem-solving, predictive analysis, and coordinated communication across a range of organizations and teams.

So, with such a daunting problem set, what's to be done?

The FEMA Vanguard program was born out of the new reality facing emergency management to provide purposeful connections, enhance role awareness across all facets of EM, introduce new leadership frameworks focused on innovation, inclusion, and adaptability, and address pressing and emerging issues and solutions.

To do this, McChrystal Group developed and executed a series of highly experiential, expert-level, integrated engagements and events to prepare senior emergency managers and crisis response leaders from across the EM community for the challenges ahead through increased awareness, meaningful connections, and empowered leadership.

 

This week has allowed us to step away from our office, which is going 150% every single day, and take that time to do what we don't normally get to do. It allows us to get our head out of the day-to-day so we can analyze some things that we never seem to have time to do, but also listen and find similarities in the challenges others have and how they overcame those challenges.”

 

The series of cohorts participated in a one-week in-person session in Washington, D.C., and a second week-long session at locations across the country to build cohort relationships and expose participants to innovative approaches to emergency management.

Hear first-hand from cohort participants about how the program helped them create a cohort of networked senior leaders with strong, meaningful relationships, deepen their understanding of the EM landscape, and shift operations at the senior level from transactional to transformational.

 

At some point, we’re going to be doing something in 10 or 20 years saying, ‘Can you imagine what we’re tackling now?’ If we are thinking about that right now, we will set up our future teammates and our future selves in a better place.”


The series of cohorts participated in a one-week in-person session in Washington, D.C., and a second week-long session at locations across the country to build cohort relationships and expose participants to innovative approaches to emergency management.

Hear first-hand from cohort participants about how the program helped them create a cohort of networked senior leaders with strong, meaningful relationships, deepen their understanding of the EM landscape, and shift operations at the senior level from transactional to transformational.

Building the Future of Emergency Management: FEMA Vanguard Executive Leadership Program

Resources

Insights
What is Crisis Leadership? 10 Tips for Leading Effectively in a Crisis
LEARN MORE ›

SHARE ARTICLE