Radford Jones brought his expertise from working as a Secret Service agent to MSU and created a series of Homeland Security classes, to better equip communities in handling emergency situations and threats of disaster in today's world.
"In any major disaster, it is important to understand the process to respond and recover, whether it is with equipment or people," Jones a criminal justice specialist and instructor, said.
In the fall semester of 2004, a three-part program was launched to educate undergraduates, graduates or lifelong education students of the basics of Homeland Security, terrorism and preparedness. When these three online courses are complete, students receive a government-issued Homeland Security certificate.
This program is an example of how education has been adapted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. MSU and several other universities around the country have developed programs to accommodate the growing desire to be more knowledgeable of the changing states of security.
"When I came on with the university in 1997, I started to make presentations to some alumni groups on travel awareness," Jones said. "As a result of that, there was interest from the university and they asked me to put it online."
Jones' experience and lessons on the job in the security field have influenced and shaped the curriculum for his course "Public-Private Partnership in Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security."
Jones said his class talks about how the community comes together in planning for disasters.
"What I talk about is when you check into a hotel, you should take time to understand what the evacuation procedures are. So if an alarm goes off, you know what it is. If you have a terrorist incident, then those are the same processes you are going to use."
Jones was involved in creating protocol for programs like this, and received a grant to begin working on it. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he received additional money from the Department of Homeland Security to continue developing the private and public joint response plans.
Joining Jones in the development of this three-part program, criminal justice specialist and instructor Phillip Schertzing took his experience working with MSU Police Emergency Management Division and applied his knowledge to the class development and curriculum.
"It is such a complex and rapidly evolving discipline, a lot of schools across the country are developing it," Schertzing said. "Part of the potential value of the education is that people can see where they can fit in and contribute, what their role is; it is such a huge, encompassing organization."
Schertzing, who teaches the "Foundations in Homeland Security" course, has helped practitioners like Don Dougherty become more educated and aware of the world they live in now, specifically dealing with the facets of Homeland Security.
Dougherty, a city of Troy firefighter, just received his Homeland Security certificate in the mail last week after completing all the courses as a Lifelong student.
"The way they got it structured is you get some background, one section specifically on terrorism and the culminating point on preparedness," the MSU alumnus said. "The last course teaches how we can take all these points and roll them out with a contributing point, implementing and suggesting points of preparedness."
Which is exactly what Dougherty has done. He is currently working on a preparedness plan for a major corporation and shopping mall, as a result of the courses.
"It has given me an opportunity to (implement) many of the thoughts I have had as a practitioner," he said. "I can go to my community with more than just ideas, I can go with a roll-out plan."
