Director’s Message
Greetings!
Welcome to the 2025-2030 UW Emergency Management strategic plan. On the pages that follow, you’ll see what we, UWEM and key partners, have concluded are the essential building blocks that will allow us to more effectively serve the greater UW community.
The work of preparedness involves anticipating and preparing for the unexpected. When emergencies impact our campuses, our responsibility is to ensure the University of Washington community has the support and coordination needed to respond safely and effectively. This strategic plan charts the course for UWEM’s continued leadership during those critical times when our community needs us most.
This strategic plan reflects the next steps that UWEM will take to continue leading the University community in all aspects of preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.
A strategic plan isn’t a catch-all wish list, but a well-thought plan that reflects essential improvements for our program as it now stands. As such, it will give us direction when allocating future time and resources beyond our daily operations.
I want to share gratitude for the collaboration between UWEM, UW Medicine, UW Bothell and UW Tacoma Emergency Management teams whose experience, insight, and dedication is reflected in the plan. This collaborative foundation has been essential in developing this strategic framework.
Best,
Kelley Biastock
Director, UWEM
Executive Summary
This 5-year strategic plan is designed to create a consistent, proactive, and agile framework for the UW Emergency Management (UWEM) program as it evolves. Our goal is to standardize systems and processes across campuses and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and preparedness.
By integrating streamlined communication platforms, comprehensive training frameworks, and strategic partnerships, UWEM will be positioned as a leader in emergency management across the UW enterprise and the greater Puget Sound region.
Our Goal
We aim to: Be the effective, innovative, quick-reacting lead for emergency management across the UW — marked by operational excellence and a collaborative, prepared community.
Through: Developing and implementing an enterprise-wide emergency management program that standardizes processes while maintaining adaptability; fosters continuous improvement; and ensures readiness through strategic planning, consistent training, and multi-disciplinary collaboration.
Strategic Objectives
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Standardization and Simplification
Ensure communication and coordination channels are clearly defined, streamlined, and consistent across campuses and enterprise levels.
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Policy & Program Development
Establish policies and operational standards that define roles, responsibilities, and thresholds for emergency management at all levels.
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Continuous Improvement
Foster an environment of regular review and learning through incident debriefs, exercises and performance metrics that drive program enhancement.
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Stakeholder & Partnership Engagement
Strengthen internal and external partnerships to support emergency management through coordinated leadership, collaboration with academic and research units, and alignment with local emergency management agencies.
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Readiness & Capacity Building
Build a workforce and community that is thoroughly trained and continually engaged in emergency preparedness and response planning.
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Hazard Mitigation & Resilience
Advance resilience through integrated hazard mitigation planning that addresses infrastructure, environmental, operational and technological vulnerabilities.
Program Management & Standardization
Consistent, proactive, agile processes and tools
Initiative 1: Develop a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan and related policy
- Conduct an enterprise audit of current standards and practices.
- Establish a unified set of Emergency Management standards and operational requirements to drive consistency, clarity and excellence across campuses.
- Outline roles and responsibilities and requirements of Incident Coordination Team, Emergency Operations Center staff, Unit Response Centers, executive leadership, and Preparedness Oversight Committee during all phases of the disaster cycle: preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.
- Establish clear thresholds for declaring an emergency.
- Update emergency management procedures and related policies as needed.
Initiative 2: Simplify the communication and coordination environment in Microsoft Teams and SharePoint
- Determine clear purposes for each Microsoft Teams team and channel.
- Audit and archive outdated or unused Teams.
- Communicate purposes and set expectations for each shared/collaboration platform usage across UWEM and participants.
Initiative 3: Drive continuous improvement by routinely reviewing incidents, exercises, and response plans to sharpen our strategies and strengthen our readiness
- Develop an enterprise standard for continuous improvement practices to include hot washes, After Action Reviews, and clear action items.
- Monitor implementation and completion of corrective action items.
- Define clear key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure program impact, track progress, and demonstrate value.
- Produce an annual report for stakeholders and deliver quarterly updates to the Preparedness Oversight Committee (POC).
- Promote resilience through encouraging engagement with BARC planning efforts.
Initiative 4: Empower the POC to fulfill its role as a high-impact advisory body to provide strategic direction and meaningful support for readiness and response efforts
- Develop a UWEM annual report for POC to use to champion enterprise-wide preparedness efforts.
- Provide opportunities for reviewing and guiding emergency plans, exercises, and after-action items.
- Elevate preparedness and mitigation as strategic priorities across the enterprise.
- Host a periodic POC retreat to reflect on the program’s progress and collaboratively set objectives for the year ahead.
Readiness & Capacity Building
Trained people, practiced plans, tools and structures in place
Readiness ensures we have trained people, practiced plans, and the right tools and processes in place. When these are consistently applied, standardized, and tailored to the unique needs of our campus communities, we work towards a more resilient UW. When everyone understands their role in an emergency, we lessen reactivity and lead with confidence. While this work is led by UWEM, collaboration with and support of partners at UWB, UWT and other UW locations is essential to overall success.
Initiative 5: Develop an enterprise-wide Integrated Preparedness Plan to align and prioritize training, exercise, and planning efforts
- Set standards and expectations for training and exercise for all levels of response personnel (URCs, Incident Coordination Team, EOC staff, senior leaders, with a tri-campus focus).
- Develop curriculum and adapt existing training to meet the needs of the UW community.
- Integrate emergency preparedness training modules into employee onboarding and student orientations.
- Regularly offer hazard-specific preparedness training based on THIRA results and after-action reviews.
Initiative 6: Establish a collective planning process that actively engages both internal and external stakeholders to strengthen operational readiness for effective response and recovery
- Create and maintain a structured calendar and project plan to guide regular reviews, updates, and planning cycles.
- Use the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) and Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs) to clearly define roles, responsibilities, and expectations for incident response and recovery.
- Develop and implement standardized planning templates for use by Unit Response Centers (URCs) and all campuses.
Initiative 7: Develop and implement consistent standards for the functionality and operations of physical and virtual Emergency Operations Centers across all campuses
- Clearly define roles aligned with NIMS and our departmental ICS structure.
- Develop bench depth for key positions to avoid dual response roles for staff.
- Ensure physical and cloud-based access to plans, contact lists, and templates.
- Hold regular drills to ensure familiarity with virtual and physical EOC protocols.
- Develop standardized forms, processes and training for working in the EOC.
- Equip EOCs with necessary and updated technology.
Initiative 8: Facilitate the development of a resource management process to ensure the timely identification, allocation, and tracking of critical assets before, during, and after an incident
- Link resource management processes with the defined levels of activation in the CEMP.
- Create enterprise and regional agreements for mutual aid.
- Standardize resource request processes in coordination with government partners.
- With Finance and Risk Management, develop standards for tracking response costs.
Strengthening Partnerships
Leadership in emergency management across the UW enterprise, collaborative EM partner across the Puget Sound region
Emergency Management requires strong, trusted, collaborative partnerships to ensure coordinated response and recovery. Partnerships allow us to coordinate information quickly, align resources, and objectives to better serve our communities. In disaster preparedness, it is often said that you’re a step behind if you exchange business cards for the first time at the disaster.
Initiative 9: Strengthen regional collaboration and information sharing with local, county, and state partners
- Develop formal mutual aid agreements and identify collaborative opportunities with local, regional, and emergency management partners.
- Participate in internal and external work groups and committees, training and exercises, and conferences.
- Align and test plans to ensure interoperability of protocols.
Initiative 10: Engage Unit Response Centers, academic and research departments, and communications teams in preparedness efforts
- Ensure training and exercises can be tailored to meet the needs of internal partners.
- Support participation of academic departments in emergency planning and preparedness efforts.
- Work with communications colleagues to promote UWEM activities.
- Promote resilience through encouraging engagement with Business, Academic, Research, and Continuity planning efforts.
Culture of Preparedness
Individual, unit, and campus preparedness efforts are an integral part of the fabric of the UW
Foster a culture of preparedness by equipping staff, faculty, and students with information, tools, and resources to feel empowered to respond effectively to emergencies. Preparedness starts with the individual. Prepared Huskies create a stronger, more resilient UW.
Initiative 11: Engage directly with campus communities through outreach events, such as staff and student orientations, open houses, and safety fairs
- Promote preparedness through creative outreach programs that inform and involve campus communities.
- Partner with Student Life, campus departments, building coordinators, and student organizations to integrate preparedness into daily routines.
Mitigation & Resilience
Support improvement of operational and informational infrastructure and facilities
Proactively reducing the impact that hazards have, as well as improving our capacity to recover from disruptions, greatly reduces the risks at UW.
Initiative 12: Develop an interdisciplinary enterprise-wide hazard mitigation work group with the following focus:
- Gain better awareness of mitigation, capital projects, risk management, real estate gaps and capabilities.
- Based on THIRA findings and Preparedness Oversight Committee recommendations, identify and prioritize projects.
- Annually review and revise hazard mitigation projects and formally recommend projects to leadership.