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Can you outline your career path and the pivotal experiences that brought you to your current position?
Scott E. Kensinger, VPEM, EFO, MA, Emergency Management Coordinator at City of Winchester, VA
I firmly believe in taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves and being willing to accept a level of risk for the uncertainty changing jobs could bring. My career path in Public Safety did not begin until my mid-thirties when I left a private industry job as a structural designer. This switch was merely a family move to help my wife adapt to a newly established business and assist the community by volunteering for a local fire company while still working in the private sector. Due to the training commitment associated with being a volunteer firefighter, an opportunity was presented to take public safety a step further by becoming a career firefighter for the City of Winchester.
Moving forward eight years, the opportunity came as a promotion to Lieutenant, allowing me to move from a street provider to a department administrator. Again, the 22 years spent as a fire service leader gave me several more opportunities to advance the career ladder and eventually land the Assistant Fire Chief of Administration position. Here, I was able to transition from the traditional response mode that majority of fire personnel operate under to the other four FEMA mission areas of prevention, protection, mitigation and recovery.
My final role within the fire department allowed me to gain extensive experience by being the liaison to the City Emergency Manager (EM). This integration of services prepared me for what was to happen next. In 2019, opportunity knocked again and I was appointed as the Emergency Management Coordinator for the City. While seeking advancement, I used my work experience, advanced education and training to become a well-rounded EM. I am convinced that seeking every avenue to enhance my education and experience in emergency management has allowed me excel in this position.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your role within the government administration?
The previous Emergency Management (EM) Coordinator was a part-time Parks & Recreation department head and Emergency Manager. When I took over, the role was restructured to a full-time position and as a department head. This allowed me to dedicate 100% of my time to planning and exercising for disaster events and engaging stakeholders to create critical relationships. As a department head, I had a seat at the senior management table, which facilitated buy-in from peer departments. I realized other city departments didn’t understand their roles in EM, so I met with each entity and their personnel to develop this understanding. These one-on-one meetings became one of the greatest accomplishments for the EM Department, repeatedly paying dividends.
As a result, we overcame the hurdle of people fearing their performance in crisis situations and set clear expectations for providing services during disasters. Another hurdle was revising our National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliance plan, disseminating training requirements for various hierarchical levels and bringing each individual into compliance. In our strategic plan, we set goals for NIMS compliance. Today, our senior management team has achieved approximately 80% compliance, exceeding our expectations. The third ongoing hurdle involves each department creating its own continuity of operation plan to support their roles and responsibilities beyond blue sky days.
How do you prepare for high-pressure situations in crisis management?
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend two separate open forum discussions with a former FEMA Director. He described his approach to addressing issues by asking three questions of his groups during disaster events: “Where are we? Where do we want to be? How do we get there?” If you approach each situation with an open mind, the ensuing dialogue will bring calm to the situation and allow everyone to work through the issues to reach a common goal. For me, it is about asking the aforementioned questions, understanding your community's risks and lessening the pressure, employing critical thinking concepts such as A.P.I.E. (analyzing, planning, implementing, evaluating) to work through the issues.
Can you describe a recent emergency management exercise you conducted and its outcomes?
End of 2022, the City conducted an active shooter full-scale exercise at one of our schools. This was the 3rd such type of exercise in seven years. The difference with this exercise was that extensive workstation training was conducted leading up to the drill including unified command, public information dissemination and EOC activation/operations. Several outcomes were revealed including unified command needed to expand to support all incident needs, medical personnel took too long to make entry into the building to stop the dying and public information needs were not understood.
These outcomes helped us solicit the assistance of another jurisdiction that was ahead of us in developing operational enhancements to their program. This involved developing a Joint Response Guide for all public safety agencies involved, including how rescue task force medical teams integrate with law enforcement thus getting medical treatment to injured people promptly. Additionally, we developed and exercised Joint Information System plans for disseminating information to the public and the media. Lastly, granting fund, we are exercising the Joint Response Plan through skill station drills for tactical movement and unified command operations.
What we have learned from these enhancements will once again be exercised in a full-scale drill in 2025. This entire process was a positive experience for our public safety agencies, creating a sense of readiness amongst our agencies.
What advice would you offer to emergency management professionals aiming to make a significant impact in the public sector? What are the essential skills and qualities they should develop?
Before parting ways with my predecessor, he told me, “Emergency Management is what you make it. You can sit back and collect a paycheck or take a deep dive into the vast arena of possibilities and make a difference in the community.” We must understand that most people don’t think like emergency managers and will seek community leaders for guidance.
With that, put yourself out there, engage all stakeholders during blue sky days and prepare together for the gray sky days. Dig deep into the FEMA concepts of the whole community and become the subject matter expert for others to follow. Become task-driven and employ critical thinking techniques such as A.P.I.E. to help solve complex issues and never assume that you have seen everything. Most importantly, understand the risk potential in your community.
There are long days and nights and constant monitoring of situations. Ask yourself what keeps you up at night and then address it by creating a solution before it takes place. Plan and then constantly review your plans! Always remain steps ahead of others and know what is needed to accomplish tasks logistically, and to not scare people away, this job is not the run-of-the-mill 8-5 adventure.
The reward of aggressive crisis management is knowing that you have done everything possible to prepare the community for disasters.
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