A Service-Driven Approach

     As director of Oklahoma's Department of Emergency Management since 1997, Albert Ashwood has seen it all first-hand, overseeing responses to ice storms, tornadoes and a bridge collapse and leading his state through the turbulent times surrounding 9/11 and the birth of homeland security. Now, as president of the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), he is in a position to wield national influence on where the field goes from here. He recently spoke with Associate Editor John Erich about his plans for the organization and the needs of emergency management in the post-9/11, post-Katrina era.

     What are your priorities for NEMA during your tenure?
     I think the first issue is how recent legislation from Washington is going to be implemented, and the transfer of some powers and authorities within the Department of Homeland Security back over to FEMA. A lot of it's oversight right now; we're working with various Congressional committees to make sure everything is accomplished.

     After Katrina, you testified before a House subcommittee and called FEMA 'a shell of its former shelf.' With the changes instituted by Chief [R. David] Paulison, does FEMA seem to be moving in a better direction now?
     I've had several meetings with Chief Paulison, and I have every bit of confidence in him right now. I want to make sure we do everything we can to help him. He's listening to what the states and local jurisdictions are telling him, and we want to make sure we have a unified effort between the state, local and federal in proceeding and building the new emergency management system in the United States.

     From NEMA's perspective, what are the biggest challenges currently facing the medical component of emergency management, in particular EMS?
     Well, of course EMS is an integral partner in any system. Emergency management is strictly a system for coordinating and supporting those responders who come in first-basically, if we do our job, it makes your job easier. So the first thing we have to do is treat you all as customers and make sure we're listening to your needs. Too often we get involved in just stovepiping ourselves within our own little disciplines. We need to make sure we hear what your beefs are and what your issues are, then find solutions for them.

     What emergency medical needs to do is, No. 1, make sure you're organized with what those solutions are, and what the problems and issues you're facing are. We're in a really interesting time right now as a nation-there's so much money being poured into the emergency services through Homeland Security, but we have a real problem making sure we have our arms around it and have it all coordinated.

     That's the biggest issue we face right now: making sure we're talking about long-term solutions-what's best for our cities, what's best for our states and eventually what's best for our nation-and don't get off on this tangent of just chasing the money.

     Certainly the stovepiping has been an issue, and those horizontal connections are as important as the vertical ones.
     Absolutely. If we're not strong here in the state of Oklahoma, or in the cities of Oklahoma City or Tulsa, then how can we possibly be strong nationally? It's all from the bottom up, and I think sometimes we lose sight of that, especially when you get into Washington. It's not a top-down approach, it's a bottom-up approach. We're in a service business; I don't think a lot of people realize that.

     In November, you held a joint press conference in DC with Chief Paulison, George Foresman from DHS, and Mike Selves, president of the International Association of Emergency Managers. What did that cover?
     There were a few things we wanted to stress. No. 1, especially with Katrina, we'd kind of lost the identity of the emergency management profession. So one of the things we did was unveil a new logo for emergency management. Basically it's kind of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval-type thing, so if you have an emergency management organization, the general public or any other customer can see that you're recognized within the emergency management community. It's not a certification program; it's identifying emergency management with a symbol.

     What's positive these days? NEMA's biennial report, for instance, cites progress in the use of standards by states to assess their capabilities.
     Never before has there been such a variety of missions that states are taking on-things like border control and elements of homeland security have always been there, but were never brought to the surface. So I give a great deal of credit to DHS for that. But at the same time, we can't forget that all disasters and all tactics are local, and they have to be worked from the bottom up. We have to listen to what the needs are, and meet those needs on a prioritized basis.