Emergency Management Careers in Madison, Wisconsin

Madison is no stranger to tornadoes and flooding spawned by severe thunderstorms, and that is why these disaster events are of primary concern to the city’s Emergency Management Team. Made up of representatives from agencies including public works, emergency services, the Mayor’s Office, and County Emergency Management, the Madison Emergency Management Team – led by the fire department – works to ensure the city’s residents are prepared in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.


Planning for Emergency Management Careers in Madison

Many positions require or prefer candidates with an emergency management certification. These courses are available at locations throughout the state in coordination with the Wisconsin Division of Emergency Management and include topics such as:

  • National Incident Management System
  • National Response Plan
  • Operations at Multiple Casualty Incidents
  • Mass Fatalities Incident Response

Other positions will be seeking candidates with an educational background of either an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in emergency management, available at locations across the Badger State as well as online. The foundation of an emergency management degree includes the history, theory, and current practice of the field. A bachelor’s degree will expand on this foundation and offer study in a particular area of specialization involving practicums and field work. The range of these specializations includes:

  • Resource distribution and allocation
  • Radiological, biological, and chemical contamination
  • Public information communication
  • Severe weather specialists
  • Emergency medical service and utility coordinator

Emergency management careers in Madison are also open to professionals in related fields or new graduates with associate and bachelor degrees in areas such as:

  • Meteorology
  • Communications
  • Criminal Justice
  • Business
  • Engineering
  • Nursing
  • Psychology

Emergency Management in Madison

The EM Team in Madison works on a daily basis to maintain the four tenets of its mission for disaster readiness: Prepare, Respond, Recover, and Rebuild. EM agencies prepare by conducting emergency management training operations in Madison and its surrounding vicinities, as well as through public education and awareness campaigns. Response is critical and when a disaster does strike the variety of joint training exercises allows responders to act in a controlled and effective manner. Recovery demands an organized emergency management team that can both handle removing debris in hazardous environments while at the same time supporting the victims of disaster. And finally rebuilding is a long term process where EM officials can assess what worked and what didn’t and make appropriate improvements.

Perhaps the most important aspect of emergency management is inter-agency collaboration. Under the leadership of the Emergency Management Team the following agencies work through their various representatives towards the end of protecting the residents of Madison:

  • Madison Police Department
  • Dane County Sheriff’s Office
  • Public Health of Madison and Dane County
  • Dane County Department of Emergency Management
  • Wisconsin Department of Emergency Management
  • American Red Cross of Badger and South Central Wisconsin

Those entrusted with emergency management jobs in Madison can work for any number of agencies in many different roles that ultimately can mean the different between life and death.

Back to Top