August is designated as National Emergency Management Awareness Month. To recognize the impact Rice University’s four-member emergency management team makes on campus, Rice News spoke with the group to discuss its role in preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies and disasters.
Emergency management is often thought of only in the moment disaster strikes, but the majority of the work happens long before any sirens sound or alerts go out. At Rice, the emergency management team serves as a prime example of this quiet but critical preparation. Behind every weather warning, well-executed event and safe recovery is a team of experts working tirelessly to safeguard against potential threats.
Led by director Jerusha Kasch, the team is rounded out by deputy director Lach Mullen, associate director Korista Lewis and coordinator Henri Barbarin.
Holistic approach to safety
Rice’s emergency management team doesn’t just wait for emergencies; it engineers resilience. The team operates under what Kasch refers to as the 90/10 split: 90% of its time is spent preparing, mitigating and recovering from incidents, while only about 10% involves active emergency response. This ratio underscores a fundamental truth of emergency management — more preparation leads to less scrambling.
“There’s no department that emergency management does not collaborate with or touch, and so our focus is on working together to ready systems, people and things for situations that we cannot prevent or stop,” Kasch said.
The team’s work covers the five internationally recognized phases of emergency management: prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery. At Rice, these principles translate into a campus-wide comprehensive effort. From developing emergency policies to conducting drills and simulations, the team is embedded in the university’s systems, ensuring that all parts of campus life are prepared for what may come.
All hazards, all the time
A standout feature of the team’s approach is its “all hazards” preparedness philosophy. Whether it’s a hurricane, winter storm, campus protest or large public event, the emergency management team builds response frameworks that can adapt to any situation. However, the members don’t stop at general preparedness — they also maintain a living risk profile of the university. This profile is updated regularly and identifies Rice’s top risks.
“We have developed a risk profile for the university. It tells us — based on everything that could happen in the world, in the United States, in the city of Houston and in our corner of the city of Houston — what our top threats and hazards are,” Kasch said. “We identify the things that will impact us most frequently, and then we ask what that impact is going to be. Based on that information, we examine the highest risks and the worst potential impacts, and then we try to build the capabilities to respond to that in tandem.”
The team also accounts for less obvious but plausible concerns such as a helicopter crash. While that may sound improbable, Kasch explains that helicopters frequently fly over campus, making it a nonnegligible risk in their scenario planning. Their job is to anticipate the unthinkable and build contingency plans just in case.
The scope of emergency management at Rice extends well beyond crises. The team plays a central role in planning and coordinating major university events, including everything from football games and commencement ceremonies to concerts and high-profile visits. Team members also contribute to campus safety at student events and parties, helping ensure that fun doesn’t come at the expense of safety.
It takes a village
Beyond following campus policies and standard operating guidelines, emergency management extends its actions to include “planners” and “doers.” In addition to Kasch’s staff, the planners include the crisis management advisory committee (CMAC), a team of university senior leadership that provides overall strategic and policy direction during a response.
The doers include the incident management team (IMT), which is comprised of essential personnel from across the university who are responsible for developing objectives, strategies and tactics for incident and event management.
Lewis described the necessity of getting ahead of the curve with proper planning and training.
“We host tabletop sessions for CMAC to help them understand their role as policy providers, and IMT participates in quarterly trainings to effectively act as our public information officers,” she said. “We perform in-service trainings and other activities to equip them to respond on behalf of the campus.”
The trainings are beneficial not only for the campus but also for local groups who could reap the advantages from the exercises, Barbarin emphasized.
“We will have a sports and special events management training soon which is pretty unique because it is offered only once in a region, and at Rice, participants can access it for free,” he said, referencing the upcoming FIFA World Cup activities as an immediate example of the training’s usefulness for partners as they prepare for a variety of happenings across the area.
Informed and connected
To stay ahead of emerging risks, the emergency management team taps into a variety of external intelligence networks, including the FBI’s Fusion Center, the National Weather Service and regional threat assessments from entities like Houston Police Department, Houston Fire Department and myriad city and county responders.
Mullen highlighted the importance of regional collaboration, explaining how participating in broader emergency planning with local agencies helps them bring back valuable insights to apply specifically to Rice.
“We proactively lean forward with the partners who will respond here,” he said. “We partner with them whenever we can. For example, we facilitate trainings here, and we always try to invite them, so they can get to know us and see our space. We also work with our partners to perform security and threat assessments for some of our structures on campus. We’re integrating ourselves throughout the region and keeping that steady pulse of communication going.”
Culture of preparedness
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the emergency management team is not just what its members do but how they do it. They foster a culture of readiness without instilling fear, acting as partners to the university community. They aim to be proactive, not reactive; supportive, not obstructive.
“Our goal,” says Kasch, “is to help people do crazy, cool, fun stuff safely.” It’s not about saying no; it’s about finding a way to say yes, safely. That mindset is what makes the team indispensable to the fabric of the university.
For more information about emergency management at Rice, visit emergency.rice.edu.