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Full-Text Articles in Public Administration

Evaluating The New Fema Post Pkemra, Christine G. Springer Jun 2009

Evaluating The New Fema Post Pkemra, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Presentations

In 2002, with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and more than 20 other agencies/entities became part of a new organizational entity. Subsequent performance failures by FEMA, specifically preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina, led to a number of internal and external reviews and investigations to determine the causes of these failures and to identify potential solutions. Congressional concern led to the passage of PL109-295, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which set in motion a series of expectations and provided considerable resources for FEMA’s ‘transformation’. Since then, …


Of Government, Innovation And The Social Sector: An Interview With Ngiam Tong Dow, Tong Dow Ngiam Jan 2009

Of Government, Innovation And The Social Sector: An Interview With Ngiam Tong Dow, Tong Dow Ngiam

Social Space

With homelessness and unemployment looming large in the 1960s, the pioneer public service team turned the situation around within a span of 10 years. Veteran civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow shares his insights from the days of coming nose-to-nose with social breakdown – a time when creative resourcefulness was the only option. Retired and with the benefit of hindsight, he shares with Social Space his thoughts on innovation, government and the way forward for the social sector.


Emergency Managers As Change Agents, Christine G. Springer Jan 2009

Emergency Managers As Change Agents, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Since 2001, FEMA and others have been defining and refining competencies for emergency management professionals. In so doing, they have addressed directly and indirectly the qualities of leaders. We know that leadership is not a person or a position. It is a complex relationship between people, based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good. We also know that transformational or change-based leadership has become an organizational necessity given the fact that emergency management as a profession is just now coming into its own and emergency management jobs are not traditional in terms of the how, …