EMSI Cadre

With years of real world experience in responding to incidents, the EMSI cadre are highly qualified international and national response experts, giving EMSI a unique background in managing all-risk, all-hazard incidents and responder needs at every level of government and industry.

The collective cadre has experience in nearly every emergency response and emergency management discipline, including:

  • All-Hazards Incident Management
  • Firefighting (wildland and structural)
  • Hazardous Materials
  • Search & Rescue (urban, land, and maritime)
  • Oil Spill Response
  • Terrorism & WMD
  • Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE)
  • Radiological Response
  • Law Enforcement & Security
  • Military Operations
  • Defense Support to Civil Authorities
  • Natural Disasters
  • Public Health
  • Medical

Our cadre members have an exceptional diversity of emergency management and incident management backgrounds, especially with the Incident Command System (ICS) and Multiagency Coordination System (MACS). Many of the EMSI cadre members have functioned as Area Commanders, Incident Commanders, and other Command and General Staff positions on Type 1 National Incident Management Teams that have managed large, all-risk, all-hazard incidents throughout the United States. Our cadre has responded thousands of times using ICS on both large and small scale incidents over the years, ranging from natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes, to urban fire and rescue and wildland fire incidents, to oil, chemical, biological, radiological, public health, environmental, and terrorism incidents, as well as special events. Notable incidents that EMSI cadre members have been involved in the management of over the last 25 years include the World Trade Center Bombing (1992), Oklahoma City Bombing (1995), 9/11 Terror Attacks (2001), Anthrax at the Capital (2001), Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster (2003), Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005), Deepwater Horizon (2010), Japan Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster (2011), and Hurricane Sandy (2012).

Our cadre members are proven leaders, whether it is general leadership in a routine environment or it is incident leadership in a chaotic incident or crisis environment, having lead responders in some of the most complex and stressful incidents. Several cadre members are currently serving as members on national and international Incident Management Teams Additionally, many of our cadre members have taught leadership courses, bringing their extensive real-world leadership experience to the classroom.

Predating ICS, several of our cadre have experience with wildland fire management dating back to the Large Fire Organization (LFO), the precursor to today’s ICS. These cadre members were either involved in the creation or original implementation of ICS during the 1970s and 1980s. Within this group are some of the first response professionals to be qualified as Type 1 and 2 Incident Commanders, Command Staff Officers, General Staff Section Chiefs, and Area Commanders. In addition to serving on Incident Management Teams, they held positions of leadership in the Wildland Fire community, including Assistant Director of Fire & Aviation for the U.S. Forest Service and Director of the National Advanced Resource Technology Center (NARTC).

Starting as a grass roots program, several members of the EMSI cadre were instrumental in helping FEMA develop the National Urban Search and Rescue Response Program (US&R). Our cadre members were directly involved in the overall effort including designing and developing systems, conducting training courses, developing an operational readiness evaluation process, documenting the overall system, and publishing a Field Operations Guide (FOG). Additionally members of the EMSI cadre served on FEMA US&R Task Forces or Incident Support Teams, including as Task Force and Incident Support Team Leaders. After their significant efforts, this program is now considered the one of the premier emergency response programs in the world.

Boasting long and successful careers in urban fire departments, EMSI cadre have served in major metropolises such as Los Angeles City and Fairfax County, rising to various positions of leadership within these departments, including Chief Officers. Our urban fire department cadre members bring a tremendous wealth of experience in managing all-risk, all-hazard, multi-discipline incidents spanning from day-to-day or routine (Type 4 or 5) to highly complex (Type 1).

In the 1990s and early 2000s, members of the EMSI cadre were integral to the implementation of ICS within the U.S. Coast Guard. EMSI President Ron Cantin was the first Type 1 Incident Commander in the Coast Guard and was critical to the national adoption of ICS by the Coast Guard. Mr. Cantin and his Coast Guard colleagues developed and managed the Coast Guard Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMATs), developed and delivered ICS training for Coast Guard personnel and their response partners, and assisted in the development of several Coast Guard ICS documents, most notably, the USCG Incident Management Handbook (IMH). Additionally, several members of the EMSI cadre were members of the prestigious Coast Guard National Strike Force, responding to a variety of oil and hazardous materials incidents domestically and abroad, as well as assisting and training national and international partners in emergency management. The efforts of our cadre are ingrained throughout Coast Guard incident management processes and methods of operation and continue to have impacts on the organization’s response efforts today.

For nearly nine months during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, EMSI cadre members served as the official ICS and incident management advisors to the U.S. Coast Guard and their response partners. At one point during the response, nearly fifty Type 1 and Type 2 qualified EMSI cadre members were deployed to the incident serving in various capacities at the Area Command in Louisiana, the Incident Command Posts in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, and the Forward Operating Bases throughout the Gulf.

Members of the EMSI cadre also have experience with the Multiagency Coordination System (MACS), coordinating incident management and support activities above the field level in Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) at the local, state, and federal level, including FEMA Joint Field Offices. These cadre members have extensive expertise in MACS procedures and system design, EOC organization and management, resource management, situation and information management, policy support, incident support planning, Emergency Support Functions, and emergency management coordination.

Several members of the EMSI cadre are public information and joint information specialists with expertise in the Joint Information System (JIS). These EMSI cadre members have extensive experience in all aspects of public information, including Joint Information Center (JIC) organization and management, public messaging, media coordination, social media, and crisis communications. They have served as Public Information Officers at every level of government and industry.

In addition to responding to domestic incidents under the National Contingency Plan (NCP), National Response Framework (NRF), Stafford Act, and other emergency response authorities, EMSI cadre members have considerable international response experience. EMSI cadre have taught ICS to various multi-national corporations around the world, to include Canada, Norway, Malaysia, Panama, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil, and more. Not only does EMSI’s cadre bring their wealth of knowledge to these courses, but they bring home best practices and lessons learned from those other countries’ responders and incorporate them into our own materials to better serve future courses. It is this response expertise that not only makes our cadre expert practitioners but also outstanding instructors. Most of our staff have taught various emergency management topics, including ICS, MACS, and leadership, at nationally recognized training centers including the National Advanced Resource Technology Center (NARTC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) National Fire Academy (NFA) and at the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Training Centers.

Outside of the response arena, our cadre members have been involved in numerous emergency management exercises including design and development, scenario and simulation, control and evaluation, and after action. Several members of our cadre have experience with the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation System (HSEEP) and others maintain certifications as Master Exercise Practitioners (MEPs).

With Type 1 and Type 2 qualified incident management professionals across all ICS functions, proven incident leaders, Certified Emergency Managers (CEMs), safety professionals, haz-mat experts, Public Information Officers (PIOs), military veterans, policy analysts, Project Management Professionals (PMPs), master instructors, MEPs, and more, EMSI boasts the most qualified and experienced emergency management cadre in the industry.

Disaster defines character. EMSI can help your response organization be at its best when things are at their worst. How can we help you?