Tom Russo
Practitioner with an Academic Curiosity
Specialties & Interests
Emergency Management
IAEM Certified Emergency Manager; applied emergency management language and training to the newly created role of public health with the duty to interact with the traditional emergency response community
public health
Background in education and training, used to ready the public health workforce for emergency response while providing leadership for the homeland security exercise and evaluation program
Pandemic Preparedness
Readied local communities for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic while publishing works on the logistics of mass vaccination for both the H1N1 Pandemic and the COVID-19 Pandemic
ABOUT
Tom Russo is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College, South Carolina, in the emergency management program. He teaches homeland security courses, including courses in epidemics and bioterrorism. A former instructor with Louisiana State University’s National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT) Tom taught a course titled “Healthcare Facility Planning for Disaster,” with an emphasis on the role of healthcare coalitions in catastrophic health events. He also taught the NCBRT Zoom “Pandemic Awareness” course during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
His background includes eighteen years in public health. Now semi-retired, for the last twelve years, Tom served as the emergency manager for the coastal region of South Carolina. He holds a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) credential from the International Association of Emergency Managers and graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security with a Master’s Degree in Homeland Security Studies. His thesis, “Strategic Policy for Pandemic Vaccine Distribution,” provides the contextual background to convey the complexities of emergency mass vaccination in the twenty-first century.
Tom’s published works have addressed topics of pandemic preparedness, directed to various emergency service sectors as well as articles on the application of continuity of operations planning (COOP) for medical facilities. His most recent work is “Pandemic Response: Logistics of COVID-19 Mass Vaccination” a chapter in a forthcoming book Immigration, Borderlands and the Resilient Homeland by Bernan Press. His first book Chicago Rink Rats: The Roller Capital in its Heyday won first place/Gold award in the historical category in the 2019 Feathered Quill Book Awards.
CHDS AFFILIATION
- Master’s Program Alum
Tom Russo's thesis
The CHDS program truly provides the linkage for practitioners who wish to exploit their academic curiosity as it relates to homeland security. It builds a body of knowledge for the many aspects that have come under the umbrella of the academic discipline.