On January 10th, 2024, the MACEM&PS, supported by a team of internal and external stakeholders (representing the FCC community, our professional services partners, public safety organizations, and more), published the first iteration of A Progressive Strategic Analysis and Plan for the Mid-Atlantic Center for Emergency Management & Public Safety at Frederick Community College.
This plan is the culmination of a yearlong process – beginning in summer 2023, the MACEM&PS team created an ongoing opportunity for an external evaluation of the MACEM&PS and its operating environment. This evaluation was conducted by four doctoral candidates in Frostburg State University’s Higher Education Leadership program, who reviewed the history of our development, our current status and operating prospectus, and the array of future opportunities as both MACEM&PS and FCC continue to grow beyond our current inflection point. The FSU evaluators used that information to present a stabilization plan, as both a resource to us and a practicum project for their doctoral studies. That plan included the following recommendations:
- Improve the MACEM&PS identity within FCC (including both academic and entrepreneurial professional services)
- Develop a Marketing Plan
- Increase grant activity with the Department of Justice
With the support of FCC’s Provost and Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success, Dr. Anne Davis, the MACEM&PS team then convened a broader focus group, tasked with helping to develop a strategic plan that met not only these identified recommendations, but also a variety of other issues on the horizon (e.g., equity concerns, labor market preparedness, learning and program completion initiatives, etc.
The focus group’s recommendations, the MACEM&PS Advisory Council continuous improvement recommendations from Fall 2023, the recommendations from our recent Council for the Accreditation of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Education (CAEMHSE) accreditation review, along with input from student interns and team members, all combined to produce this strategic plan. We expect to begin implementation in Spring 2024…but that’s not all!
Rather than a “plan on the shelf,” we’ve designed this to be a living document that is regularly updated as both map and reference for our efforts going forward. We’re looking forward to hosting another external review (this time via Loyola University (MD)), a revisit from the focus group after implementation begins, and a variety of other ongoing input and assesment activities.
And one of those…is you! As friends of MACEM&PS, we’d love input from you as well. Use the button below to access a copy of the plan – give it a read, and please feel free to forward any comments or suggestions to Steve Carter at scarter@frederick.edu. Thank you!
