Emergency management professional leveraging technology

The rapid pace of technological change and the deployment of sophisticated computer-based tools that have grown out of it, clearly, have revolutionized almost aspect of everyday life including emergencies. They’ve improved first responders abilities to prevent, respond to and mitigate potential disasters.

Allison G.S. Knox, Emergency Medical Technician and Instructor at the Emergency Management and Fire Science Department at the American Military University said, during an interview on the Federal News Radio program Academic Insights: Emergency Management, social media has led the way.

When it comes to potential weather related disasters like hurricanes, floods etc., Knox said, “Emergency managers have done a fantastic job putting out notifications through Facebook and other outlets like Twitter and it’s been fantastic letting people know what’s coming and what they need to do to actually prepare.”

Additionally, according to Knox, “there have been other outlets like the American Military University’s great Disaster Crew Twitter page where individuals learn about what’s happening from people like me that are following these different storms and really follow what’s happening with emergency management from policy standpoints.”

Recovery and response operations also benefit significantly from social media, particularly after disasters, letting people know when they return to their homes, she said.

Knox, a member of the board of Trustees for Pi Gammu Mu, and a leader of the chapter at AMU, has four Masters’ degrees from American Military University. She is also working on a doctorate in emergency management at Jacksonville State University .

She says it’s a hub of sophisticated learning and teaching, but not just for AMU students.

“We have the EDM Digest blog, with a lot different faculty writing about issues coming up. It also helps educate the general public too, on issues coming up with hurricanes and another types of disaster,” Knox said.

Two top issues currently, according to Knox are:

“Recruitment and retention response for agencies in rural communities. Patients in those areas may not receive the care that they need in that emergency scenario they are dealing with.
Dealing with active shooters: The public safety world essentially is trying to figure out how to prevent them from happening, and then of course when they do happen, how to better manage mass casualty incidents with so many patients.”

Teaching students how to integrate the many new powerful, communications, productivity and creativity applications available to the emergency services field into practical applications, is a key objective for AMU.

Knox said their students are well prepared for the challenge.

“The beautiful thing at the American military University is that we have so many students that are already in public safety or they have backgrounds in the military.”

Many of them already have a good understanding of how to respond to different types of incidents.

“What we do at the American Military University is add in the different social dimensions to help them understand how to mitigate these different problems and really understand these different problems in the social science aspect,” Knox said.

The Path to Emergency Management as a Career

How do you go about fighting a fire? What are the different pieces for fighting a fire? Fires can be pretty complicated, based on what they are constructed of. Fire science looks at how you are going to fight that fire. There's also the pieces of how do you stop that fire before it even starts.

Allison G.S. Knox

Instructor of Emergency Management and Fire Science, American Military University

Social Media and Emergency Management

Where different emergencies are concerned particularly where we know what's going to be happening -where hurricanes are coming up the coast and could possibly hit a particular area, social media has been fantastic and notifying the general public about these different issues that are coming up.

Allison G.S. Knox

Instructor of Emergency Management and Fire Science, American Military University

Public Policy Issues in Emergency Management

Recruitment and retention response for agencies in rural communities -patients in those areas may not receive the care that they need in that emergency scenario they are dealing with.

Allison G.S. Knox

Instructor of Emergency Management and Fire Science, American Military University

Listen to the full show:

American Military University (AMU) alumnus and adjunct professor, Allison Knox, is an emergency medical technician and has experience working in a level-one trauma center emergency department. She holds four master’s degrees in emergency management, national security studies, international relations, and history. She serves on the Board of Trustees for Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society as Chancellor of the Southeast Region, Vice Chair of the Tactical Emergency Medical Support Committee with the International Public Safety Association, and serves as the Advocacy Coordinator of Virginia with the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. She is also a member of several committees including the Editorial Committee with APCO, the Rescue Task Force Committee with the International Public Safety Association and the Advocacy Committee with the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. Allison is a frequent contributor to its AMU’s news sites EDM Digest and In Public Safety, and she is a member of the AMU Disaster CREW – the university’s brand-new Twitter feed that focuses on emergency and disaster planning.

JJ Green is the National Security Correspondent at WTOP radio. He reports daily on international security, intelligence, foreign policy, terrorism and cyber developments and provides regular on-air analysis.

He joined WTOP on March 11, 2004. In the years since then, he has traveled to dozens of countries investigating, reporting and analyzing the U.S. war against terrorism and has interviewed the leadership of all the key national security components of the U.S. government and many security and foreign government officials around the world.

He hosts the weekly podcast, Target USA, which examines the threats facing U.S. He also hosts the weekly broadcast program “The Hunt,” and conducts in-depth interviews with experts on ISIS, al-Qaida, the Taliban and other emerging terror threats.

He’s been embedded with the U.S. military three times in war zones. He has reported from Kandahar, Zabul province and Kabul in Afghanistan. While embedded with the U.S. Air Force in 2006, he traveled 18,000 miles, to 10 countries, including Iraq, Djibouti, Afghanistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and others in 31 days, covering the war effort.

He has traveled to Israel, the Golan Heights, Israel’s borders with Syria and Lebanon, and Gaza. He interviewed Israeli and Palestinian political officials about the conflict there and the prospects for peace, and the roadblocks. Since 2013 he has spent a lot of time in North Africa, covering the rise and fall of ISIS and the flow of foreign fighters.

He is the recipient of the 2017 Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense for his series Anatomy of a Russian attack. He has also received a National Edward R. Murrow Award (2009) for “Hidden Hunter” — his reporting aboard a nuclear-powered, Los Angeles Class submarine underway in the Atlantic Ocean. He also won the prestigious Associated Press Douglas S. Freeman award in 2010 for his investigative series, “Dignity Denied,” which explored decades of neglect at America’s hallowed Arlington National Cemetery.

He has also won more than two dozen regional and local awards since he started working at WTOP. In 2012, he was honored by the University of Maryland, University College as their commencement speaker, in recognition of his broad body of national security reporting accomplishments. He has also been recognized by top national security officials for his deep knowledge of international affairs and ability to succinctly analyze complex issues.

In addition to his work at WTOP, JJ lectures regularly at universities and colleges on national security issues and speaks often to U.S. government, military and national security organizations. He is also a contributor to Jane’s Intelligence Review magazine.

Before joining team WTOP, he traveled to and reported on the events, issues, people and places of Africa, Latin America and Europe for the six years on public and international television. He began his career in Washington in 1989 at WMAL radio. In the mid-1990s he was trained as a TV correspondent at ABC News’ “Nightline.” Later he worked as a general assignment part-time correspondent at CNN. In the late 90s he was brought on at CSPAN as weekend host of the Washington Journal. In 1998, JJ began working as a correspondent for the Voice of America Television on Window on America and as host and correspondent of Africa Journal while traveling there frequently until he joined WTOP in 2004.

JJ graduated magna cum laude from Hampton University. He’s fluent in Spanish, speaks working level French and is studying Korean. An avid athlete, he is an accomplished speed skater, a regular runner, and swimmer, cross trainer and is an expert kickboxer.

You can email J.J. at jgreen@wtop.com or follow him on Twitter.

Insight By American Military University

Emergency management professional leveraging technology

The Path to Emergency Management as a Career

Social Media and Emergency Management

Public Policy Issues in Emergency Management

Featured speakers

Allison G.S. Knox

JJ Green

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