Faculty Focus: John Pennington
John Pennington is a popular faculty member among College of Business and Security Management students. John’s background is in the homeland security and emergency management field, with experience in emergency response operations and management in the state of Washington and across the nation. He has recently accepted a full-time position with CBSM, bringing his expertise to the HSEM program. We spoke to John about his HSEM experience.
What attracted you to the emergency management field?
My father was a police officer for 42 years and my mother was a nurse for 30 years, so I like to say that I was genetically disposed to be in the emergency management profession. I represented the area between Olympia and the Portland, Oregon border in the Washington State House of Representatives for four terms. The area includes Mount St. Helens and was prone to disasters like flooding and landslides and, quite obviously, volcanic activity.
Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, I found myself immersing into emergency management quickly and fully coming on board with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and eventually the soon-to-be created Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to restructure the way our nation approaches response coordination to terrorism and natural disasters.
Why did you choose to teach for CBSM?
UAF is a world class research university, and the opportunity to participate on that level is humbling. Specifically, teaching for CBSM allows me to pursue my passion for learning about Alaska’s indigenous people, and to become involved in the community.
What are you learning from your students?
Part of my successful approach to teaching in HSEM is to provide context for students as soon as feasible. I encourage students to look into their own community for the first few assignments and apply that view to the material. In every single case, students teach me about their specific community, from rural Pennsylvania to the most remote Alaska Native village. I learn from and with other students in the class.
Setting aside the classroom, what advice do you have for your students regarding the HSEM field?
Prepare yourself for the unexpected. Foremost, the profession is evolving, and quickly. Terms, phrases, and definitions that one would believe to be permanently adopted are, in reality, not. What "emergency management" is or is not depends on what state you are in, which person you talk with, their worldview of public safety, and on and on.
Second, don’t limit your search options to only “government” opportunities. There are distinct parallel tracks that are increasingly becoming part of the larger HSEM enterprise, including homeland security, emergency management, business continuity, NGOs, tribal, international aid, humanitarian assistance, and more.
