Undergraduates who complete a degree in geography have a toolkit of excellent skills that fit well for a career in emergency management. Emergency management personnel at the local, state, federal, or nonprofit sectors are involved in all four phases of emergency management – mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Most of an emergency manager’s time is spent on preparedness and mitigation activities. Geographers understand hazards and their impact on populations. Through the use of tools that geographers understand, such as hazard maps, demographic data, and GIS, geographers make excellent emergency planners and are able to develop scenarios that appropriate responses to those scenarios.
During the crisis and organized chaos of the response and recovery phases of a disaster, geographers are able to obtain and analyze information from a variety of sources to help make effective decisions. An internship or by working with a disaster response or relief organization can help provide the experience and expertise necessary to learn how to deal with emergencies and disasters.
Coursework
Geography majors considering a career in emergency management should take a wide range of geography courses and as much specific coursework in hazards and weather or climatology as possible. Additional coursework in GIS, cartography, geomorphology, and urban geography is also beneficial.
Minoring or additional appropriate coursework in a field like geology, sociology, meteorology, political science, or business administration are good choices because those fields will provide supplemental information to the prospective emergency manager. If you have a foreign language requirement and/or want to become an even more effective emergency manager in the United States, become as fluent in Spanish as possible.
Experience
An essential component for obtaining a career in emergency management is volunteering or interning to gain essential experience necessary to obtain an entry level job in emergency management. Many city and county governments offer formal internship programs so if local government has an emergency management program, you can try to get an internship there.Another experiential option is volunteering with an organization like the American Red Cross. The Red Cross offers free disaster training that provide competent individuals such as geography majors the knowledge to ability to serve as a disaster relief worker locally or across the country.
By getting involved with the Red Cross locally, you can potentially spend a significant amount of time during your summer break on disaster assignment, especially following a hurricane. I became involved with the Red Cross disaster program by taking training during my freshman year and spent almost all of the following summer on disaster assignment – I was a relief worker following an earthquake, a forest fire, and hurricane.
If you’re going the Red Cross route, take as many disaster training courses as possible and be persistent and assertive in your desire to be involved. Enter your ZIP code on the Red Cross home page to find your local chapter.
An additional option for getting fully immersed in emergency management would be the AmeriCorps national service program. Many Red Cross chapters and other disaster response organizations hire AmeriCorps members to help with their disaster preparedness and response programs. While the pay isn’t great, you’ll definitely have a life-enriching experience that will provide you the experience necessary for an entry level position in emergency management.
For More Information
For a more thorough overview of the job of an emergency manager and whether it might be right for you, you should to take the free FEMA online Independent Study course "IS-1 Emergency Manager: An Orientation to the Position." It’s available at the FEMA Independent Study website. Other valuable courses are also available as you begin your emergency management career preparation.
The International Association of Emergency Managers is also a great resource. They have bulletin boards for job announcements and internships.
