Six students from Prairie View A&M University’s College of Juvenile Justice and College of Business were a part of an invited HBCU delegation at the International Association of Emergency Managers Annual Conference in Savannah, Georgia, on Nov. 14 and 15.
The students were accompanied by COJJ Interim Dean Camille Gibson, Ph.D., who directs a 12-credit certificate program at PVAMU in Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The program began in 2014 with the support of a grant from the Department of Homeland Security.
Another program at PVAMU that some students are a part of is the Crisis Informatics and Emergency Management Minor, which began as a result of another grant from the Department of Homeland Security awarded to Louis Ngamassi, Ph.D., in the COB.
The invitation and delegation coordination were by the Chair of the IAEM DEI committee, deputy emergency manager for Los Angeles, Leslie Luke. Student attendance was partially sponsored by IAEM Region 6 under the leadership of Region 6 president David Alamaia, emergency manager for Baytown, Texas.
For IAEM, the delegation is an investment in diversity toward more rigorous emergency management. According to Leslie Luke, “There are many paths to an emergency management career. HBCU graduates can enter, listen and learn, then bring solutions.” He advised students to “Be innovative, build trust, take responsibility for decisions, while not expecting everyone to be happy with crisis decisions, nor expect to get things right all of the time. None of us do.”
Students involved found the opportunity an excellent one to learn and connect with emergency managers regionally and nationally. As criminal justice major Robert Vasquez put it, “The conference was a great opportunity to network and gain knowledge on many different aspects of emergency management.”
For more information on the certificate and minor at PVAMU, visit www.pvamu.edu/cojj.