IAEM Announces Winners of 2007 Awards

October 19, 2007 (Falls Church, Va.)– The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) has announced the winners of the IAEM 2007 Public Awareness Awards, Technology & Innovation Awards, Partners in Preparedness Awards, the Business & Industry Preparedness Award, and the Membership Award.

Awards will be presented at the IAEM 55^th Annual Conference & EMEX 2007, Nov. 11-14, 2007, Reno, Nevada, where the IAEM Awards & Recognition Committee also will announce the winners of the IAEM Career Excellence Award, the Academic Recognition Award, the Clayton R. Christopher Award, Executive Citations, and Presidential Citations.

The IAEM Public Awareness Awards recognize outstanding public awareness programs or public education products related to emergency management, homeland security, and/or disaster preparedness. The 2007 award recipients include:

Public Awareness Award (Division 1, Local Emergency Management Agency)

• First Place: Region 5/6 Office of Emergency Management, Fremont (NE), for its public awareness education on emergency management issues.
• Second Place: City of Leeds, United Kingdom, for its Planning for Emergencies booklet.
• Third Place: San Diego County (CA) Office of Emergency Services, for its "Preparedness Starts with You" Campaign.

Public Awareness Award (Division 2, State/Regional National Government, International, or Non-Profit Organization)

• First Place: The Oklahoma Dept. of Emergency Management, for its “McReady Oklahoma” Family Preparedness Program.
• Second Place: The North Central Texas Council of Governments, for its “KnoWhat2Do” Regional Public Education Program.
• Third Place: The National Organization on Disability’s Emergency Preparedness Initiative, for its "Congregations Who Care - Prepare" Campaign.

Public Awareness Award (Division 3, Commercial or Other For-Profit Organizations)

• First Place: The Theta Pro2Serve Management Company LLC, for its Emergency Management Public Awareness Program, originated and developed by Steven D. Arnold.
• Second Place: The U.S. Enrichment Corporation (Paducah, KY), for its Community Calendar for Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant Neighbors.

The IAEM Technology & Innovation Awards recognize the development of technology and innovation to improve emergency management operations, public education, or the emergency management/homeland security field. The 2007 award recipients include:

Technology & Innovation Award (Division 1, Local Emergency Management Agency)

• First Place: The City of Seattle (WA) Office of Emergency Management, for its Web-based employee preparedness training program.
• Second Place: The Collier Co. (FL) Emergency Management Department, for its emergency management Web site redesign.
• Third Place: The Orange Co. (FL) Office of Emergency Management, for its
  “OC Alert.Net - Keeping Our Citizens Alert” emergency text-based alert system.

Technology & Innovation Award (Division 2, State/Regional National Government, International, or Non-Profit Organization)

• First Place: The Integrated Information Management System (IIMS), that bridges civilian, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, and U.S. Dept. of Defense domains by supporting the exchange of emergency communications, like Common Alerting Protocol (CAP 1.1) messages and polygons. IIMS demonstrates that interoperability is possible among multiple organizations and disparate technologies.
• Second Place: The Florida Dept. of Health, for its 2006 Influenza Control Exercise/Tabletop Exercise System Technology (ICE/TEST).

The Partners in Preparedness Awards recognize programs or processes that demonstrate innovative, multi-participant involvement between local governments/governmental entities and private sector businesses, non-governmental organizations/non-profits, or individuals which have resulted in effective and efficient incident management, emergency management or homeland security processes. Two Partners in Preparedness Awards were granted this year:

• Florida’s Rapid Incident Scene Clearance Team.
• The San Diego County Office of Emergency Services (OES) "Preparedness Starts With You" Campaign.

The Business & Industry Preparedness Award is based on excellence in implementing a program that plans for multiple hazards, sets implementation priorities, is cost effective, links all levels of the organization, and coordinates with local emergency response and management agencies. The program must be repeatable by similar organizations in business and industry. This year’s winner is The George Washington University’s Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management for its Emergency Preparedness Exercise Program.

The IAEM Membership Award went to Bradley Wilson, Ira Marks, and George Nunez for sponsoring the most new IAEM members.

Learn more about the IAEM Awards Program at www.iaem.com, where the 2008 Call for Nominations will be posted in Summer 2008.

The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) is a non-profit organization consisting of more than 4,000 emergency management professionals from local, state and federal governments, the military, private industry, and volunteer organizations. IAEM has consistently promoted the goals of saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters since its founding in 1952 as the U.S. Civil Defense Council.