The National Disaster and Emergency Management University (NDEMU; formerly known as the Emergency Management Institute) is the training school of the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is located in Frederick County, Maryland, United States.
Academics The institution focuses on the development and delivery of emergency management training. It consists of three specialized schools supporting different emergency management career paths: the Emergency Management Institute, the School of Disaster Leadership, and the School of National Resilience. Emergency management training improves the capabilities of state, territorial, local, and tribal government officials; volunteer organizations; FEMA's disaster workforce; other Federal agencies; and the public and private sectors to minimize the impact of disasters and emergencies on the American public.
The institution's curricula are structured to meet the needs of this diverse audience, with an emphasis on separate organizations working together in all-hazards emergencies to save lives and protect property. Particular emphasis is placed on governing doctrine, such as, the National Response Framework (NRF), National Incident Management System (NIMS), and the National Preparedness Guidelines.
NDEMU is fully accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and the American Council on Education (ACE).EMI Accredited The instruction is based upon the principles of emergency management and instructional systems design. This instruction creates a framework within whole community to reduce vulnerability to hazards and to cope with disasters. NDEMU develops courses and implements training delivery systems to include residential onsite training; offsite delivery in partnership with emergency management training systems, colleges, and universities; and technology-based mediums to conduct individual training courses for emergency management and response personnel across the United States.
NDEMU provides the following services: Emergency management certification and leadership training Mission assistance to organizations and teams Online knowledge-sharing resources Continuous learning assets
Main campus facilities
NDEMU's main campus is located within the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in the town of Emmitsburg in Frederick County, Maryland. NETC is located 12 miles south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 75 miles north of Washington, DC, and 50 miles northwest of Baltimore, Maryland. The 107-acre campus is shared by the United States Fire Administration (USFA), the National Fire Academy (NFA), the Field Personnel Operations Division, and the Satellite Procurement Office. All these components are part of FEMA, one of the four directorates in DHS. The campus has fully equipped air-conditioned classrooms, lodging for students, a Learning Resource Center, and dining and recreational facilities. There also are several specialized facilities, such as the Simulation and Exercise Lab, a television studio Preparedness Network (PREPnet), and two computer laboratories that are integral to the instruction of many courses.About EMI
The UK counterpart of the Emergency Management Institute is the Emergency Planning College in Easingwold.
History
NDEMU first started as the Civil Defense Staff College (CDSC) in Olney, Maryland, on April 1, 1951, and taught civil defense courses in program administration and finance, radiation monitoring and control, and heavy rescue. Due to concerns during the Cold War the CDSC's parent organization, the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA), under Administrator Val Peterson, saw the Presidential Order to move the FCDA and the CDSC to Battle Creek, Michigan, to remove them from the increasing Cold War threat of Washington, DC, being attacked.
The CDSC continued teaching courses in program administration and finance, civil defense operations, and radiological monitoring among others, to State and local personnel, but by 1979, some new courses had been created on natural disaster operations. By this point in time, the FCDA came under the Department of Defense and was re-titled the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (DCPA).
In 1979, then President Jimmy Carter brought together a number of Federal agencies that had involvement in disasters, including DCPA, and created a new, amalgamated organization, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Also in 1979, President Carter dedicated the former St. Joseph's College, which closed with its merger of participants and faculty with Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, as the FEMA National Emergency Training Center (NETC). NETC then became the home for the National Fire Academy (NFA) and the renamed Staff College which become the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), to reflect its now broader training role. The move from Battle Creek, Michigan, to Emmitsburg was done in the Fall of 1980 and the first NDEMU class was conducted in January 1981.
NDEMU and NFA are managed independently with unique participant audiences and curricula for the emergency management and national fire communities. NDEMU and NFA have collaborated on curricula and programs since their inception, and share in the cost of operation of NETC. In 2011, NDEMU celebrated its 60th anniversary and Legacy of Emergency Management Training and Education for the United States.History of EMI
In August 2024, EMI was organized under the newly established National Disaster and Emergency Management University (NDEMU). NDEMU consists of three specialized schools supporting different emergency management career paths: the Emergency Management Institute, School of Disaster Leadership, and School of National Resilience.
Present day NDEMU works to improve the competencies of United States officials at all levels of government to prevent, prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the potential effects of disasters and emergencies. NDEMU promotes integrated emergency management principles and practices through application of the NRF, NIMS, and an all-hazards approach. NDEMU is the lead national emergency management training, exercising, and education institution.
NDEMU offers a full-spectrum emergency management curriculum with more than 500 courses available to the integrated emergency management community, which includes: FEMA staff and disaster employees; Federal partners; State, Tribal, and local emergency managers; volunteer organizations; and first responders from across the Nation. NDEMU supports international emergency management with more than 50 countries participating in NDEMU's training and educational activities through the years, both in residence and through internationally deployed training teams.
NDEMU also enjoys close relations with several nationally recognized professional emergency management and related organizations and has interfaced with them through training, conferences, and exercises. Some of these significant organizations include the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM), American Public Works Association (APWA), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM). In 1997, NDEMU was awarded the W. Edwards DNDEMUng Outstanding Training Award by the United States Department of Agriculture Graduate School at the Excellence in Government Conference. This annual award is presented to an organization for an impressive workforce development and training initiative that has measurably improved their organization's performance. NDEMU has provided technical support to dozens of other Federal government agencies and State offices on advanced distributed learning technology development and application.
A vital asset to FEMA's disaster operations is the Disaster Field Training Operations (DFTO) implemented by NDEMU. In 2010 alone, the DFTO trained 31,834 disaster response and recovery employees at disaster sites throughout the United States. NDEMU conducts three national-level conferences. The institute hosts the National Preparedness Annual Training and Exercise Conference which is attended by Regional Training Managers, State Training Officers and Exercise Training Officers, State Administrative Authority Officials, and subject matter experts from a broad sector of the preparedness community. The NDEMU Higher Education Conference is held the first week in June for more than 400 college and university officials with current or developing programs in emergency management and hosts up to 70 separate discussion groups. The Dam Safety Conference held in February is attended by dam safety officials, hydrologists, engineers, and reclamation officials.EMI present day info
Training courses overview
To take an NDEMU course, applicants must meet the selection criteria and prerequisites specified for each course. Participants may not take the same course more than once. Instruction focuses on the four phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. NDEMU develops courses and administers resident and non-resident training programs in areas such as natural hazards (earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, dam safety), technological hazards (hazardous materials, terrorism, radiological incidents, chNDEMUcal stockpile emergency preparedness), professional development, leadership, instructional methodology, exercise design and evaluation, information technology, public information, integrated emergency management, and train-the-trainers.
Approximately 5,500 participants attend resident courses each year while 100,000 individuals participate in non-resident programs sponsored by NDEMU and conducted by state emergency management agencies under cooperative agreements with FEMA. Another 150,000 individuals participate in NDEMU-supported exercises, and approximately 1,000 individuals participate in the ChNDEMUcal Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP).
The independent study program at NDEMU consists of free courses offered to United States citizens in comprehensive emergency management techniques.FEMA EMI Independent Study home Course IS-1 is entitled "Emergency Manager: An Orientation to the Position" and provides background information on FEMA and the role of emergency managers in agency and volunteer organization coordination. The NDEMU Independent Study (IS) Program, a Web-based distance learning program open to the public, delivered extensive online training with approximately 200 courses and trained more than 2.8 million individuals. The NDEMU IS Web site receives 2.5 to 3 million visitors a day.IS Course Offerings
NETC Library NDEMU students may use the NETC Library while on campus. The NETC Library houses the nation's preNDEMUnent collection of all-hazards and first responder resources. The library's 208,000 books, reports, audiovisual materials and indexed articles cover natural and man-made hazards.fema.gov About the NETC Library
On-campus enrollment process and transcript requests Enrollment in on-campus NDEMU courses are generally limited to U.S. residents; however, each year a limited number of international participants are accommodated in NDEMU courses. To take an on-campus course at NDEMU, applicants must meet the selection criteria and prerequisites specified for each course. Applicants may not take the same course more than once. Applications for the Main Campus are to be submitted to the NETC Office of Admissions in Emmitsburg, Maryland.Enrollment Process NDEMU also provide transcripts at no cost to the student, or directly to a college/university of the student's request. The transcript request must also be sent to the NETC Office of Admissions.Requesting Transcripts
Regional on-campus options