Emergency Management: Plan, Prepare for, and Prevent Major Emergencies

What Is Emergency Management?

A degree program in emergency management teaches you how to prepare for natural and man-made disasters. As an emergency management officer, you'd be responsible for developing warning systems, figuring out evacuation plans, and preparing for everything that would need to be done following a major disaster.

What Does a Degree in Emergency Management Involve?

Considering the huge responsibility involved, an online or traditional degree in emergency management covers a wide variety of topics, including:

• Coordinating disaster response
• Crisis management
• Disaster preparedness training
• Emergency plans and procedures for various types of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hazardous material spills, and hurricanes
• Healthcare leadership
• Hospital emergency management
• Preparedness
• Recovery and mitigation
• Simulation program management

Work experience in a related profession (as a police officer, emergency medical technician, or fire fighter) can help you to enter emergency management.

Job Opportunities in Emergency Management

While job growth is expected to be about as fast as average through 2016, the current international climate has brought the role of emergency management officers into public consciousness. Jobs are available within local, state, and federal government, and in the private sector.
Emergency management specialists earned a mean salary of $51,470 in 2007. Local and state governments are this field's largest employers, but the highest paying industries are:

• Electric power generation, transmission and distribution (mean salary of $73,650)
• Other fabricated metal product manufacturing ($67,670)
• Waste treatment and disposal ($66,290)
• Scientific research and development services ($65,280)
• Elementary and secondary schools ($62,220)

It's a field with intense responsibilities, and one in which you hope your services will never actually be needed. But the role you can play, and the lives you might save, could be incredibly rewarding.
Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Emergency Management Specialists
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Job Opportunities in the Armed Forces
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Management and Business and Financial Occupations
Emergency Management Online Degree Programs

Laura Horwitz has worked as a freelance writer and researcher for seven years in both London and the US, focusing frequently on education and career advice. She has also taught English and journalism. She currently lives in Los Angeles.