Masters Degrees in Emergency & Disaster Management, USA

From earthquakes and train derailments to cybercrimes and terrorist acts, anything can happen, and today's emergency management professionals must be ready to respond.

Walden’s online master’s in emergency management program helps prepare you with the advanced skills you need to lead emergency response efforts, improve public policy, and protect communities from natural and human-caused disasters. Whether you work in the nonprofit, private, or public sector, this online master’s program will help enable you to serve in a variety of emergency management leadership roles. These roles may include collaborating with first-responder and critical incident-management teams, working with government leaders to improve public policy, and developing and delivering training to response teams and communities.

The online master’s in emergency management program focuses on the key competencies related to creating and implementing disaster prevention and response plans. Coursework will also help prepare you to earn certificates from Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Emergency Management Institute.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this master’s degree in emergency management program will be prepared to:

1. Apply the theoretical underpinnings of emergency management to practice.
2. Apply different research methodological approaches to theoretical and practical issues in emergency management.
3. Interpret and analyze research data results related to emergency management.
4. Critically analyze the emergency management cycle (mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery) as applied to urban and rural settings.
5. Demonstrate competency in assessing risk susceptibility, resilience, resistance, and vulnerability among communities and organizations.
6. Critically evaluate the role and purpose of response and recovery in emergency planning and policy development and implications for social change.
7. Demonstrate advanced management skills specific to the needs of emergency management.

Find detailed information for the general specialization of this program, or all other specializations of this program, including possible occupations, completion rate, program costs, and median student loan debt.

MS in Emergency Management Degree Specializations

Walden’s MS in Emergency Management program offers a General Program as well as a variety of specializations to help you meet your personal and professional goals.

• General Program 
• Self Design

Career option

With the effects of 9/11 still impacting both the public and private sectors, the spending on emergency management and need for field specialists has become increasingly important. A U.S. News & World Report article calls the role of emergency management specialist one of the 50 best jobs of 2011 and anticipates an increased need for this type of specialist over the next decade. Further, the article also states that the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment in the emergency management field to grow by 2,800, or 22%, between 2008 and 2018.*

Walden’s MS in Emergency Management program can help prepare you for a broad range of leadership positions within government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as other public and private sectors of society, including health, public works, transportation, and community services.

Potential career options in emergency management include:

• Public safety
• Emergency response
• Disaster risk reduction
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Department of Homeland Security
• Fire services
• Law enforcement
• Community emergency response
• First response teams
• Intelligence and/or Security Studies
• State/County Emergency Management
• Red Cross – Disaster Relief

Career options may require additional experience, training, or other factors beyond the successful completion of this degree program.

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This certificate is designed for public health, environmental health, occupational health, and emergency professionals along with managers and educators who need to upgrade their skills in the area of protecting people in emergencies. HEA520 provides a solid preparation in fundamental skills such as epidemiology and public health practice, while ENV530 allows the student to learn how to identify, measure and control environmental hazards. ENV545 and ENV551 expand the student’s knowledge about risks and how they are measured, modeled and communicated. ENV570 and 575 focus on the specifics of emergency preparedness and on the mitigation of the risks of chemical and biological hazards.

The 18-credit certificate consists of the following courses:

• HEA520: Public Health Epidemiology
• ENV530: General Environmental Health
• ENV545: Risk Assessment
• ENV551: Environmental Toxicology
• ENV570: Emergency Preparedness
• ENV575: Bioterrorism & Public Health

All courses are taught in convenient evening and/or condensed formats, ideally suited to the working professional.

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