Master of Public Health student Kade Anderson will be presenting his project, “Incident Command System (ICS) and Public Health,” at the Graduate Student Showcase.
Here’s what Kade had to say about his presentation:
What will you be presenting at the Graduate Research Showcase?
My presentation focuses on Incident Command System (ICS) and its intersection with Public Health (PH). ICS and PH both use systems level strategies to coordinate prevention activities, respond to health threats, and perform community collaboration to protect our communities health. ICS is used by different Emergency Management entities throughout the area, each having unique structures, resources, and challenges.I will be presenting my findings from a completion of an internship with St. Luke’s Emergency Management Dept, taking a series of FEMA independent study courses, and interviews with Emergency Management professionals throughout the area.
What originally interested you in this research subject?
I have a background in EMS/Fire first response and have seen ICS put to work effectively during “boots on the ground” applications. I took part in emergencies ranging from car accidents to major federal wild land fires. I was amazed to see emergency management professionals tackle disastrous events and safely perform complicated operations with such impressive outcomes. During my MPH program I have learned the importance of system level thinking, interventional design, and community collaboration and saw their correlation with ICS. I wanted to explore how ICS applies these concepts in a variety of Idaho organizations.
How did your faculty mentor help facilitate the success of your research?
Dr. Sarah Toevs has been helping me with my capstone — she was instrumental in structuring my initial ideas and hopes into a cognitive project. She specifically came up with the idea for the interviews of community members. She knew I would enjoy performing these, the information I gathered has been remarkably insightful, and has also helped me make professional connections.