For more information visit Carol Cwiak's personal page.
Carol L. Cwiak, J.D.
Degrees:
- J.D., Western State University, 1995
- B.S.L., Western State University, 1993
- A.S., Victor Valley College, 1992
Carol Cwiak has been teaching in the Emergency Management Program since 2004 and joined the faculty full-time in the Fall of 2006. She holds a law degree and is in the process of completing her Ph.D. work in Emergency Management. In addition to her teaching responsibilities she is the Internship Coordinator, Disaster Resistant University Project Coordinator and EMSA Advisor.
Ms. Cwiak owns her own consulting business and consults on emergency management and business continuity projects for all levels of government and the private sector. She created North Dakota’s Business Continuity Planning Guide in a partnership between Cass County Emergency Management and the Department of Emergency Services. She has also done a number of projects for FEMA’s Higher Education Project specifically-focused on practitioners, practitioner and academic relations, and higher education needs.
Ms. Cwiak is a member of FEMA’s Emergency Management Roundtable, the group working to delineate the principles and doctrine of emergency management. Presently she is working on a statewide mitigation project (the North Dakota Prepared! calendar) funded under 5% HGMP funds with NDSU graduate student Jeanine Neipert. She is also working in conjunction with Dr. B. Wayne Blanchard of FEMA’s Higher Education Project as the Higher Education Conference Planning Team Coordinator.
Ms. Cwiak is a FEMA/DHS certified trainer for Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Disaster Resistant Jobs, and Multi-hazard Emergency Planning for Schools. She has been a member of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services Boy’s State Exercise Facilitation Team for four years and was a key member of NDSU’s Boy’s State Exercise Development Team. She has completed a number of FEMA/DHS courses and trainings both in-state and at the Emergency Management Institute.
Ms. Cwiak served on the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services Advisory Committee (DESAC) in her capacity as the President of North Dakota InfraGard (an FBI sponsored organization that seeks to protect critical infrastructure and enhance homeland security efforts via private sector partnering), and is a member of IAEM, NDEMA, EMPOWER and other academic and emergency management focused groups and committees. Ms. Cwiak speaks locally and nationally on emergency management topics as they relate to her experience and interest areas.
Ms. Cwiak is particularly interested in the areas of preparedness and mitigation via education. Her focus areas are: emergency management legal issues, chaos theory, business continuity, public/private sector partnerships, practitioner/academic relations, professionalization, practitioner’s educational needs, seamless integration between education and experience, and creating a new paradigm of sustainability.
Courses:
- Emergency Management 411/611, Community Disaster Preparedness
- Emergency Management 413/613, Building Disaster Resilient Communities
- Emergency Management 431/631, Disaster Response Operations & Leadership
- Emergency Management 461/661, Business Continuity & Crisis Management
- Emergency Management 483/683, Holistic Disaster Recovery
- Emergency Management 453/653, Emergency Management Law and Ethics
