Flagler County’s Jonathan Lord Graduates FEMA’s National Emergency Management Executive Academy

Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord on Thursday (August 15) graduated from the FEMA Emergency Management Institute’s National Emergency Management Executive Academy. The program hones strategic leadership thinking for senior leaders involved with multi-jurisdictional, national, international, public health, private industry, and institutes of higher education homeland security and emergency management policy development responsibilities.

“It was a great honor to be selected to participate in this academy with a diverse group of senior emergency management leaders,” Lord said. “It was a very collaborative learning experience. We had an incredibly accomplished cohort, and we were able to leverage that collective wealth of knowledge to bolster the doctrine, policy, and practice that shapes the future of our profession.”

Lord, a member of the12th cohort, was required to take four weeklong courses in the past six months at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Those courses included: Examining Emergency Management Policy and Doctrine; Leading Complex Systems; Interpreting the Contemporary Emergency Management Environment; and, Creating the Emergency Management Stakeholder Community.

There was also a team capstone project that required biweekly sessions to work on the joint project. Lord and his fellow team members focused on how equity can be better assessed and incorporated into disaster recovery programs by local emergency management agencies. The project led to the development of a benchmarking tool and its presentation to the FEMA National Advisory Council.

“We are very fortunate to have Jonathan Lord serve as our Emergency Management Director,” said County Administrator Heidi Petito. “He always goes above and beyond to better serve our community, and this is just one example of the extra effort he takes. We are very proud of him and this professional accomplishment.”