National Preparedness Directorate
Dennis R. Schrader - Deputy Administrator, National Preparedness
Overview
The 2006 Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA) mandated the creation of the National Preparedness Directorate (NPD), unifying DHS’ preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery missions. Established on April 1, 2007, NPD oversees the coordination and development of the capabilities and tools necessary to prepare for terrorist incidents and natural disasters. The NPD provides strategy, policy, and planning guidance to build prevention, protection, response, and recovery capabilities among all levels of government throughout the Nation. The Divisions of the NPD are:
Preparedness Policy, Planning, and Analysis
Strengthens national preparedness by leading special initiatives, directing preparedness policy planning efforts, and analyzing policy and program results within the scope of the National Preparedness Directorate’s mission
Technological Hazards Division
Coordinates the National effort to enhance the emergency preparedness and response capabilities of communities surrounding commercial nuclear power plants and chemical weapons stockpile sites.
National Integration Center
Develops, manages, and coordinates all homeland security training, education (external), exercise and lessons learned programs, as required, to ensure the Nation is prepared to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against all hazards, natural or manmade.
Community Preparedness Division
Seeks to engage, educate and train Americans of all abilities on all-hazards preparedness. Working through the Citizen Corps program, the division brings community and government leaders together to involve community members in all-hazards emergency preparedness, planning, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Preparedness Coordination Division
Develops and executes a field-based, all-hazards preparedness program to enhance the capacity of Federal, State, and local agencies, and the private sector, to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from threats, acts of terrorism, major events and other emergencies through regionally-based Federal Preparedness Coordinators, enhanced regional staff, and national-level programs for technical assistance, preparedness planning, capabilities assessments and requirements, and preparedness reporting.
Organization and Administration
NPD organization and administration is based on six functional areas:
- Training, Exercises Lessons Learned: Develop and coordinate training, exercises and lessons learned programs credentialing, and response policy programs designed to teach, practice, test, and improve critical preparedness capabilities
- Preparedness Policy, Planning, and Analysis: Strengthen national preparedness by leading special initiatives, directing preparedness policy planning efforts, and analyzing policy and program results
- Chemical and Radiological Preparedness: Develop procedures and protocols to manage emergencies involving contamination from chemical and radiological agents
- Community Preparedness: Build preparedness at the community level by coordinating and encouraging citizen participation in preparedness activities
- Technical Assistance: Provide expert assistance on complex homeland security projects to jurisdictions nationwide
- Preparedness Coordination: Coordinate and provide assistance for regional and State preparedness efforts
Directorate Highlights
- The National Response Framework (NRF or Framework) establishes a comprehensive, national, all-hazards approach to domestic incident response. It intends to capture specific authorities and best practices for managing incidents ranging from the serious but purely local, to large-scale terrorist attacks or catastrophic natural disasters.
- The National Preparedness Guidelines (NPG) outlines the top priorities intended to synchronize pre-disaster planning, prevention and mitigation activities throughout the nation, and to guide federal, state and local spending on equipment, training, planning and exercises. The Guidelines provide an overarching vision, tools, and priorities to shape national preparedness.
- The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a systematic, proactive approach for guiding government departments and agencies, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work seamlessly to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, in order to reduce the loss of life, property, and harm to the environment.
- The Target Capabilities List (TCL) is a national-level, generic model of operationally ready capabilities defining all-hazards preparedness. These are capabilities that may be needed in the event of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, health emergencies, and other major events. No single jurisdiction or agency is expected to perform every task identified and no two jurisdictions require the same level of capabilities.
Last Modified: Tuesday, 05-Aug-2008 10:53:13 EDT
Online Tools
- Responder Knowledge Base
- Lessons Learned Information Sharing
- System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER)