Announcements
EPM Students Gain Real-World Experience
National Emergency Management Awareness Month is observed every August to highlight the vital role of emergency management professionals who help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. This year, two Emergency Planning & Management (EPM) students marked the event at a disaster response field exercise.
Joe Dilauro and Glene Pierre applied concepts and skills that they learned in the classroom during the EPM 205 Field Experience July 30 to August 2, 2026. Assigned to 8-9 person teams, they served in a variety of key positions over the four days, and were challenged with mass casualty situations, water rescue operations, urban search & rescue, and complex incident management.
The annual field training exercise, executed by the Consortium for Humanitarian Service and Education (CHSE), is called New York Hope and is held at the New York State Preparedness Training Center near Oriskany, NY. The students used the facility’s swift water & flood training complex, urban search & rescue simulator, and a state-of-the-art mobile command post.
The Mighty Macs participating in the field experience this year lived up to the CHSE motto of docere volentes — to prepare the willing.
EPM major Joe Dilauro (l) and his teammates evacuate an injured hiker using a sked during wildland search and rescue training.
EPM major Glene Pierre prepares to lead his team through the urban search and rescue training at the EPM 205 Field Experience.
