Welcome to the inaugural issue of Pracademic Affairs! We are thrilled to bring this forum to practitioners and practitioner-scholars to have a place, as our mission states, to provide emergency management and homeland security practitioners a welcoming platform to write, explore, analyze, and examine real-world critical lessons learned to improve the resilience of our communities. This collaboration was born out of a challenging year for those in the field. We remain grateful to the Editors of the Homeland Security Affairs Journal and the staff of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security for their support and assistance with making this idea a reality.
In “Federal Agencies and Government Partnerships in Public Health Emergency Management: Implications for Continued Covid-19 Preparedness and Response,” the team of Kevin Pohlman, David S. Markenson, Abigail Marriott, Jake Feingold, Jason Kreinces, Jonah Lowenstein, Rajkumar Pammal, and Sacha Roberts consider the COVID-19 response through the lens of previous pandemics and suggest best practices for public agencies involved in the ongoing response in the United States. In “Building Healthcare Resiliency through Employee Personal Preparedness,” Lindsay Hammer and Meghan McPherson investigate the impact of hospital staff levels of personal preparedness and their impact on overall resiliency. In “Top Cybersecurity Trends For 2021 and Beyond,” William Rials examines the cybersecurity landscape during COVID-19 and ponders future cybersecurity trends and predictions. In “Theoretical to Practical: Documents That Take Us from Planning to Response,” David Hesselmeyer weighs the practitioner’s ability to use strategic, operational, and tactical plans efficiently in the field. In “Responder to Emergency Manager: How Do The Skills Translate?” Bradley Hubbard explores the transition process of first responders moving into the emergency management profession. In “Data, Policy and the Disaster of Misrepresentation and Mistrust,” Monica Sanders examines the evolution of social media and other data sources in the emergency and disaster management field from Hurricane Katrina until the present, including a review of the larger context of over surveillance and sources of mistrust of technology in BIPOC communities. Finally, in “Implementing Space Technology and Innovation into Homeland Security and Emergency Management Operational Activities,” Arthur J. Simental, Tina Bynum, and John Holst discuss how space capabilities and technological innovations are redefining how we approach challenges and activities in the discipline.
