MBA students learn leadership, teamwork during Disaster City exercise

A group of MBA students in the Texas A&M Mays Business School got some realistic training in crisis leadership and team-building at Disaster City®.

The 8th annual TEEX Leadership Development Symposium drew 859 emergency responders from across Texas, seven other states and as far away as Peru to San Marcos.

Children are often at the center of a disaster or crisis, and TEEX is providing specialized training to emergency response communities and hospital and healthcare personnel to help them plan ahead for managing a disaster that impacts this vulnerable population.

Forty-two new firefighters graduated from the 11th Online Firefighter Recruit Academy at TEEX. The program has graduated 386 firefighters since the first online class was held in 2011.

Participants in a new course on Crude by Rail emergency response train on a full-scale training prop with actual rail tank cars – specifically designed to simulate fire scenarios involving crude oil leaks or other flammable liquid railcar emergencies.

The 8th annual TEEX Leadership Development Symposium will be held Jan. 11-13, 2016, in San Marcos, Texas. Sessions are geared to meet continuing education requirements for Texas fire officers, law enforcement officers and EMS personnel.

Thirty-five fire service leaders recently graduated from the capstone Fire Service Chief Executive Officer (FSCEO) program,which is a joint initiative between TEEX and the Texas A&M University Mays Business School.

Medical specialists serving on a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force recently attended a Medical Team Specialist class – the first FEMA course held at Disaster City® as part of the TEEX contract to deliver training for the National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) System. The pilot class was also the first time the course had been delivered in the blended learning format.

TEEX has received approval for $469,000 in funding under the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) EMS Education Grant to provide EMS training in rural and frontier areas of Texas.

A ribbon-cutting was held Oct. 8 for the new 12,000-square-foot Rescue Classroom Building at Brayton Fire Training Field. Nearly 100 guests attended the event and toured the $3.1 million facility, which includes several large classrooms and staff offices.