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Emergency Management Directors

Also called: Emergency Management Director, Emergency Management System Director (EMS Director), Emergency Planner, Public Safety Director

What they do:

Plan and direct disaster response or crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g., nuclear power plant emergencies or hazardous materials spills) disasters or hostage situations.

On the job, you would:
  • Consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.
  • Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment.
  • Coordinate disaster response or crisis management activities, such as ordering evacuations, opening public shelters, and implementing special needs plans and programs.
On the job, you'll need:

Safety and Government

  • public safety and security
  • law and government

Business

  • management
  • customer service

Communications

  • multimedia
  • telecommunications

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Basic Skills

  • talking to others
  • keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Social

  • looking for ways to help people
  • changing what is done based on other people's actions

Verbal

  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say

Ideas and Logic

  • use rules to solve problems
  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information

Attention

  • do two or more things at the same time
  • pay attention to something without being distracted

Visual Understanding

  • quickly compare groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things

Enterprising

People interested in this work like activities that include leading, making decisions, and business.

  • Integrity
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Leadership
  • Dependability
  • Adaptability/Flexibility
  • Cooperation

Geographic information system

  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • Geographic information system GIS software

Presentation software

  • Microsoft PowerPoint

Data base user interface and query software

  • Relational database software
  • SoftRisk Technologies SoftRisk SQL

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Average.

New job opportunities are likely in the future.

Median Annual Salary: $79,180

Education

Bachelor's degree or master's degree is usually needed.

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