CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hundreds of Emergency Management Service (EMS) professionals from across the state are now in week two of a new leadership certificate program from the University of Charleston.
300 EMS professionals enrolled in the program that began on July 5 that is designed to enhance the leadership skills of first responders. It is part of West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s Emergency Management Services Initiative.
According to Dr. John Barnette, Dean of Continuing and Professional Education at the University of Charleston (UC), the program is over 21 weeks and participants will complete five, 7-week courses, earning an EMS Leadership Certificate and 15 college credits that can be applied to a leadership degree program.
” For us and first responders, there is a whole lot of enthusiasm. We think it’ll make a difference because they are in every community in the state. If we can have an impact there, we are more than happy to do that,” he told MetroNews.
Participants are organized into regional cohorts that engage online with supportive and experienced industry faculty through Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
Courses taught in the program include crisis leadership, the importance of vision and culture in emergency management, stress and preventive means for physical and emotional aspects, and decision making and judgment. There is also a final course on EMS personal and professional conflict.
The EMS Leadership Certificate Program is part of a broader statewide initiative to address West Virginia’s need to attract, develop, and retain emergency medical service professionals, UC officials said. Barnette said UC has never done something to this scale in terms of a leadership program.
Barnette believes this will give hundreds of EMS professionals the ability to lead on the front lines, making their communities a better place.
The new “EMS WV: Answer the Call Program” is backed by CARES Act funds.
Barnette said the program is scheduled to finish at the end of November and will have on-campus graduation on Dec. 9.