UW Integrated Preparedness Plan

Greetings,

We are pleased to publish the Academic Year 2026/2027 to Academic Year 2028/2029 UW Emergency Management Integrated Preparedness Plan (UWEM IPP). This is the first IPP developed for the UW enterprise. This document lays out our enterprise-wide road map to emergency planning, training, and exercise over the next three years.

As I shared in our Strategic Plan, the work of preparedness involves anticipating and preparing for the unexpected. When an emergency is real, we don’t have time to think—practice makes the response automatic. This IPP is designed to build that enterprise-wide reflex across our campuses. It is rooted in two core preparedness philosophies: first, that strong working relationships are central to coordinated response, which is why we must prioritize practicing with our partners beforehand. Second, every procedure we rely on must pass the “2 AM test”—if a plan wouldn’t work for our team members waking up to an emergency, then it is exactly what we need to train on and exercise next.

Just like our Strategic Plan, this IPP is not a catch-all wish list. It is a deliberate, progressive three-year calendar directly informed by our recent Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) efforts and surveys of our campus partners, which identified the need to build capabilities and bridge identified readiness gaps. We do this through training, exercises, and deliberate planning.

By laying out a clear schedule for foundational courses, advanced ICS training, and EOC drills, this plan gives us direction when allocating future time and resources. Furthermore, this plan will be updated every summer to ensure we are continuously adapting and improving our operational readiness.

I want to share my gratitude for the collaboration across our enterprise that made this framework possible. Thank you to the respondents from our campuses who provided the survey feedback needed to build this plan. Your insight, experience, and dedication are essential to creating a more resilient UW.

Best,

Kelley Biastock
Director, University of Washington Emergency Management

The University of Washington Integrated Preparedness Plan (IPP) establishes a coordinated approach to preparedness across the UW enterprise.

The IPP serves as a multi-year roadmap for planning, organizing, equipping, training, and exercising activities that strengthen the University’s ability to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from emergencies and disasters. The IPP supports preparedness efforts across UW Seattle, UW Bothell, UW Tacoma, UW Medicine, and University units with emergency management responsibilities. Through a structured and collaborative approach, the IPP aligns preparedness activities with institutional priorities, identifies capability gaps, emerging threats, regulatory requirements, and best practices in emergency management.

The purpose of this IPP is to guide the University’s preparedness activities and ensure that training, exercises, and planning efforts are strategically coordinated to build and sustain the core capabilities necessary to address a wide range of hazards and incidents. Priorities identified in this plan support the continuous improvement of emergency management programs and the University’s overall resilience.

Methodology

The development of the University of Washington IPP employed a collaborative process engaging stakeholders across the UW enterprise.

Inputs used to develop preparedness priorities included:

• Findings and recommendations from After Action Reports and Improvement Plans.
• Feedback gathered through the annual Integrated Preparedness Planning process and preparedness assessment survey.
• Strategic priorities identified by emergency management stakeholders through the Threat and Hazard Identification Risk Assessment.
• Training and exercise needs identified by units, departments, and emergency response partners.

UW in Seattle Emergency Management staff and Emergency Preparedness Staff from UW Bothell and UW Tacoma collaboratively reviewed existing plans and preparedness initiatives to identify opportunities for plan validation, capability development, and stakeholder engagement. Particular attention was given to plans and procedures requiring updates, recently revised plans requiring validation, data from the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment, areas where additional training or exercises could strengthen institutional readiness and input from Unit Response Center staff.

Stakeholder feedback was collected from representatives across UW Seattle, UW Bothell, UW Tacoma, UW Medicine, as well as administrative and operational units. Participants identified preparedness priorities, capability gaps, training needs, and exercise objectives to inform future preparedness activities.

The resulting priorities were organized using the Preparedness Cycle (Figure 1), which emphasizes a continuous process of planning, organizing, equipping, training, exercising, evaluating, and improving. This approach ensures preparedness activities are coordinated, measurable, and aligned with institutional needs over multiple years.

Preparedness activities identified in this IPP are intended to support the development and sustainment of core capabilities while fostering collaboration among internal University stakeholders across the enterprise as well as external partners. As priorities, risks, and organizational needs evolve, the IPP will be reviewed and updated annually to ensure preparedness efforts remain relevant and effective.

The University of Washington’s campuses operate in complex urban environments and must be prepared to respond to incidents that require large-scale protective actions, mass care, reunification, and continuity of operations. Active shooters and other mass casualty incidents remain a significant planning consideration for higher education institutions and highlight the need for coordinated response and recovery capabilities. To strengthen institutional resilience, the University will prioritize developing, validating, and exercising reunification procedures, mass care strategies, and continuity plans to support students, faculty, staff, and visitors in the event of a major incident.

Rationale

• Active shooter/active threat situations continue to be a high risk for universities across the country that are open to the public and have thousands of people on campus every day. These situations are complex and require coordination among internal and external partners.
• Active threat communication drill (January 2026) highlighted that people want more information for their personal preparedness and understanding of the university’s response to active shooter incidents.
• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Continuation of the annual active threat/active shooter communication drill.
• Focus on planning efforts related to active shooter/threat response, mass care, and reunification to add as an annex to the Emergency Operations Plan.
• Testing of the University of Washington Police Department camera drone to assist with situational awareness during active shooter incidents.
• Plan to hold a drill to simulate decision-making and situational awareness with EOC, ICT, and EEG groups participating.

As a large public university with open campuses and significant public visibility, the University of Washington regularly hosts demonstrations, protests, and other expressive activities that reflect its role as a center for learning, civic engagement, and public discourse. While these activities are often peaceful and protected forms of expression, they can create operational challenges that require coordinated planning, communication, and resource management. Preparedness priorities include enhancing operational coordination, situational awareness, information sharing, public information management, continuity planning, and executive decision-making capabilities to support safe campus operations while upholding the University’s commitment to freedom of expression.

Rationale

• Multiple real-world incidents over the past few years.
• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Development and testing of the University of Washington Emergency Operations Plan as it relates to civil disturbances.
• Civil Disturbance Annex and related TTX

As a large public university system located in the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington faces persistent risks from earthquakes and other seismic hazards. A significant seismic event could disrupt academic, research, healthcare, residential, and administrative operations across the University, as well as regional infrastructure and emergency services. Given the University’s complex operating environment and critical role within the region, preparedness priorities include strengthening operational coordination, emergency communications, damage assessment, continuity of operations, resource management, reunification, public alerts and warnings, and recovery capabilities to support an effective response and long-term recovery following a major seismic event.

Rationale

• Geographic location of all University of Washington physical footprint across the Pacific Northwest and multiple fault lines, including the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
• The last significant earthquake in the area was the Nisqually Earthquake, Magnitude 6.8, in February 2001.
• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Continued participation in the Washington Great ShakeOut across the UW Enterprise to include the annual test of the UW Alert system, draw awareness to earthquake risk and encourage earthquake preparedness including drop, cover, and hold on.
• Continued delivery of Preparedness 101 training and development of earthquake-specific preparedness with partnership from the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
• Testing of primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency communication capabilities.
• Participation in regional drills and exercises.
• Continuation of ATC20 being offered for the Seattle Campus.
• Drill for ICT to EOC activation and initial start-up procedures for the EOC related to an earthquake scenario.
• URC exercises and drills to test departmental earthquake plans and procedures.

The University of Washington’s role as a leading research institution and healthcare provider requires preparedness for hazardous materials incidents that could affect laboratories, healthcare facilities, academic operations, and critical infrastructure. Preparedness priorities include enhancing coordination among safety, research, healthcare, facilities, and emergency management stakeholders while validating response, continuity, and recovery procedures through planning, training, and exercises.

Rationale

• Real world incidents involving hazardous material incidents and gas leaks.
• Presence of radiological materials on campuses.
• Storage, handling, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) requirements (i.e. OSHA, healthcare standards) for responding to hazardous materials incidents or environmental conditions through the UW Pre-entry Assessment Team (PEAT) and Rapid Assessment Team (RAT).
• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Training and exercises related to the Pre-Entry Assessment Team (PEAT) and Rapid Assessment Team (RAT) coordination and communication.
• Continued work on the Critical Facilities Index.
• Develop recommendations for business continuity planning for faculty and staff working with hazardous materials in the event UW operations are disrupted, including an assessment of how building-specific disruptions are communicated.

The University of Washington’s academic, research, healthcare, and administrative functions depend on a complex network of information technology systems and third-party service providers. Disruptions to these systems, whether caused by cyber incidents, technology failures, vendor outages, human error, or other hazards, can affect instruction, research, healthcare operations, communications, financial systems, and critical University services. Efforts will focus on improving coordination among UW-IT, UW Medicine, Emergency Management, University leadership, and operational stakeholders while validating plans, procedures, and response frameworks through training and exercises.

Rationale

• Real world incidents that affected other universities and organizations.
• Canvas outage that disrupted academic operations in May 2026.
• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.
• Listed as an area of emphasis in the IPP survey sent to university stakeholders.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Emergency Operations Plan and Cybersecurity Annex Continued Tabletop Exercises planned, developed, and executed with University of Washington IT and UW Medicine IT.
• Improve coordination between UWEM, UWIT, and UW Medicine IT throughout the planning cycle.
• Cybersecurity training for people who work within operations and emergency management.

The University of Washington relies on a complex network of operational technology (OT) systems to support essential campus functions, including building automation, HVAC systems, energy distribution, laboratory operations, elevator systems, and utility management. The University’s reliance on both campus-managed infrastructure and external utility providers creates interdependencies that can complicate response and recovery efforts. Preparedness priorities include strengthening coordination among stakeholders in facilities, utility operations, information technology, research, healthcare, and emergency management; improving situational awareness and resource management processes, and validating response, continuity, and recovery procedures through planning, training, and exercises.

Rationale

• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.
• Requirement of coordinated response across many university departments and external university partners.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Development and testing of the University of Washington Emergency Operations Plan as it relates to Operational Technology Disruptions.
• Tabletop Exercise for a large campus power outage.

As a globally engaged institution with a highly mobile population, dense residential communities, extensive social networks, and a major academic healthcare system, the University of Washington must be prepared to respond to communicable disease outbreaks that could affect students, faculty, staff, and community members. Disease outbreaks have the potential to disrupt academic, research, residential, and administrative operations while requiring coordinated public health response measures across the University. Preparedness priorities include strengthening public health coordination, disease surveillance and information sharing, emergency communications, continuity planning, healthcare coordination, and executive decision-making capabilities.

Rationale

• COVID-19 Pandemic response.
• Increasing concerns around communicable diseases that impacted UW, like H1N1 and monkeypox, and concerns at universities across the nation related to measles.
• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Continue to review the Communicable Disease Outbreak Management Plan on an annual basis.
• Tabletop Exercise to test the Communicable Disease Outbreak Management Plan involving external city, county, and state partners.

Located in the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington campuses are susceptible to winter storms, windstorms, and ice events that can disrupt transportation, utilities, campus operations, academic operations, and research activities across the UW enterprise. Preparedness priorities include enhancing operational coordination, emergency communications, continuity planning, critical infrastructure response, and recovery capabilities to support the University’s ability to maintain essential functions during severe weather incidents.

Rationale

• Recent severe winter weather with federal disaster declarations due to extensive damage have impacted the Western Washington region.
• Listed in the 2026 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Continued annual meeting of the Weather Status Assessment group when the winter weather outlook is provided to UWEM.
• Crisis Communications Plan for university operational disruptions.
• Development and testing of the University of Washington Emergency Operations Plan as it relates to severe weather.
• Tabletop Exercise with an extensive power outage across campus that also impact operational technology.

Continue to strengthen a coordinated emergency management structure that integrates with departmental operations, enabling units to manage incidents within their areas of responsibility while UW Emergency Management coordinates enterprise-wide situational awareness, resource support, and strategic response efforts.

Rationale

• Ongoing adoptions and implementation of a departmental EOC model.
• Many departments and units across the University of Washington Enterprise have robust emergency response capabilities and take action when an incident occurs.
• Throughout the 2025-2026 academic year, many tabletop exercises and real-world experiences highlighted the need to exercise coordination across the university and the enterprise system while also not getting in the way of individual campus, department, or unit responses.
• Large-scale events that are hosted on the University of Washington in Seattle campus that require coordination with city, county, and state partners.

Organizational Changes, Equipment, Training, Exercises or Plans Supporting this Capability

• Equipment includes providing more training to URC and departmental responders on the virtual EOC platform (Microsoft Teams) and the physical EOC space in the UW Tower and the backup space in Spratlan Hall.
• Training includes offering a G191: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and Incident Command System (ICS) Interface.
• Training includes offering multiple in-person ICS 100/200/700 classes on all three UW campuses to allow emergency responders to have a base understanding of the ICS system and how it relates to their roles.
• Test activations and discussion-based exercises to create confidence in URC-EOC structure.
• Departments and units designated to maintain a Unit Response Center will develop, maintain, and periodically validate Unit Response Center Emergency Operations Plans aligned with the University of Washington Emergency Operations Plan.

• Preparedness 101
• Preparedness 201
• UW Alert 101
• ICS 100/200/700
• EEG Training
• G0191 – ICS and EOC Interface
• Hazwoper Training (EH&S – PEAT; Invite Only)
• ATC20 (Facilities; Invite Only)
• Annual ICT Review and Training
• Weather Status Assessment Group Winter Weather Briefing and Training

• WA Great Shakeout
• Earthquake Tabletop Exercise
• PEAT Drill
• EOC Activation Drill
• Active Threat/Active Shooter Full-Scale Exercise
• Husky Football/Athletics Tabletop Exercise
• Quarterly ICT Activation
• Yearly EEG Activation