E3 - Critical Skills for Emergency Management-David Kang Director Of Planning And Exercises, FEMA

Riding the Wave-Project Management for Emergency Managers

I spoke by phone with Mr. David Kang at FEMA’s headquarters in Washington, DC. David Kang currently serves as the Director for the Planning and Exercise Division, Response Directorate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In this role Mr. Kang oversees the development of the nation’s interagency and joint local, state and Federal response plans for catastrophic incidents and FEMA’s exercise conduct. Prior to his position at FEMA headquarters, Mr. Kang worked in the State and Local Homeland Security and Emergency Management field as a Program Manager for Operations, Preparedness, and Planning for the State of Alaska. In Operations, Mr. Kang worked response and initial recovery operations in the State Emergency Operations Center for numerous disasters and full-scale exercises. Internationally, Mr. Kang was the U.S. Lead Planner in the development and implementation for the Government of Ukraine’s Energy Action and Resiliency Plans and had numerous engagements with the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Programs. In our interview, we talked about what aspects of project management and skills are critical to effective emergency planning and management, in particular hazard mitigation and operational planning, as well as infrastructure recovery. The FEMA Operational Planning Manual is an excellent example of what Director Kang is referring to in our interview, and may be found at: https://emilms.fema.gov/is_2002/media/142.pdf