When established in the late 1990s, the role of a federal coordinating officer with the Federal Emergency Management was centered on managing traditional disaster events in support of state and local agencies.

That role expanded as the agency began to incorporate homeland security concerns in its mission, particularly in responding to Chemical-Biological-Radiological-Nuclear-Explosives, or CBRN.

CHDS graduate Tony Russell (MA 0703/0704), a former FCO who is now superintendent of the Emergency Management Institute, sought to clarify the roles and duties of FCOs in his thesis, Preparing Federal Coordinating Officers (FCOs) to Operate in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Environments.” His thesis is now being used to train FCOs on CBRN threats.

“We didn’t have people trained to do that,” Russell said. “We need people at the leadership level do work in environment that may be contaminated. You have different objectives, different requirements, all those things we don’t have to worry about in normal disaster.”

1) Russell’s thesis traces the history of the FCO role in FEMA, dating from the late 1990s, and examines the examines the job as it related to the emerging challenge of CBRNs, distinguishing how those events differ from traditional disasters.

He proposed three recommendations to address the lack of CBRN training for FCOs: full implementation of a FCO Tiered Qualifications Plan to provide FCOs with a basic understanding of CBRNs; decentralization of command and control; and, establishing an Incident Management Assistance Team dedicated to CBRN incidents.

“If the recommendations herein are adopted, the critical command and control function of the FCO in a CBRN environment will be substantially enhanced and the readiness level of the federal response system greatly improved,” Russell wrote

2) As he researched his topic, Russell said he became increasingly concerned as he found that had FEMA needed to support a state, it didn’t have the leadership training to work in a CBRN environment at that time.

“As I read more I thought, ‘wow, if this happened, what would we do?” Russell recalled. “It had to be addressed.

3) At the time, FEMA had no substantive protocol to address CBRN threats from the executive leadership, “boots on the ground” perspective, The agency is utilizing Russell’s thesis as the genesis for developing a training program for the Federal Coordinating Officers (FCOs).

https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=232603