Higher Education Practice
 James Lee Witt Associates: Helping colleges and universities protect their students, faculty, staff, and assets.
From campus violence to catastrophic hurricanes and large-scale floods, recent events have demonstrated that the long-term health of a higher educational institution is inextricably linked to how it prepares for, responds to, and recovers from disasters.
As FEMA Director, James Lee Witt created the Disaster Resistant Universities (DRU) initiative. The initiative emphasized the economic impact and interdependence of universities with their surrounding communities and remains the model for hazard assessment and mitigation planning for colleges and universities across the nation. When Mr. Witt formed his company in 2001, he kept his commitment to higher education emergency management.
James Lee Witt Associates (JLWA) has worked with higher education clients since the company’s inception. The company’s first client was the nation’s largest university system, the California State University System. Since then, JLWA has had contracts with more than 20 college and university clients. Our clients include the largest and second largest university systems in the U.S.; the nation’s largest arts college; technical community colleges and their auto and aviation maintenance campuses; major universities such as Virginia Tech, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and George Washington University; and a 19-member for-profit college system. Our team has a broad perspective of best practices, working with public, private non-profit, private for-profit, large, small, and mid-sized institutions and community colleges, with owned, leased, and multi-tenanted buildings, and their respective systems, departments of higher education, or boards of regents.
The James Lee Witt Associates Higher Education Team has specific, extensive experience working with dozens of colleges and universities in all phases of crisis management, public safety, security, and business continuity. We understand that the bottom line of every comprehensive emergency management program is to protect lives, minimize damage, and provide a process and structure so that the college or university can continue or resume its administrative operations and academic programs as quickly as possible in a disaster.
We recognize that building a comprehensive program requires an approach where all activities and plans are integrated. Our team members have decades of combined experience working with colleges and universities to create processes that build on accomplishments and strengthen internal and external partnerships – leading to true integration of safety and security.
Our higher education specialists on staff include a former university emergency manager; a founding member of the International Association of Emergency Mangers (IAEM) Universities and Colleges Caucus (UCC), the premier group of higher education emergency managers in the U.S.; a Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) certified exercise planner with specialization in higher education; and a FEMA Emergency Management Institute (EMI) instructor for the new Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education course.
JLWA Higher Education Services include:
- Safety, Security, and Emergency Management Program Review and Development
- Mitigation Planning for Mission-Critical Facilities and Infrastructure
- Emergency Operations/Response Planning
- Business Continuity Planning
- Threat and Vulnerability Assessments
- Crisis Communications and Emergency Notification
- Training and Exercises for Administrators, Staff, and Students
- Athletic Event and Sports Facilities Risk Management
- Emergency/Crisis Contingency Planning for Students Studying Abroad and International Programs
- Mass Evacuation Planning and Exercises
- Collaboration/Strategic Planning with Local, State, and Federal First Responders, Public Safety Officials, and Community Organizations
- Standby Response and Recovery Services
For more information about our higher education services, click here.
More information about the Higher Education Practice:
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Suzanne Blake serves as James Lee Witt Associates' Higher Education Specialist. To read her bio, please click here. |
For case studies of selected higher education projects, click here.
For testimonials from higher education clients, click here.
For a list of past and present higher education clients, please click here.
For more information about James Lee Witt Associates' Higher Education Services, please contact Suzanne Blake, Higher Education Specialist, at sblake@wittassociates.com or 202-531-1776.
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