Nickle, who grew up in Easton, Pa., earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and women's studies in 1998 and a master's degree in sociology in 2000. She said her new position is an excellent opportunity to give back to UD.
“It's actually kind of cool to be back because the University gave me a great education that enabled me to get those wonderful positions, so it's good to be back to make it a better place for other students,” she said.
Nickle's responsibilities include coordinating training for staff and students, conducting exercises in “What if?” situations, as well as planning for special and major events on campus. She also will serve as the liaison with external government and municipal agencies.
“In light of the tragedy that occurred at Virginia Tech, the Department of Public Safety here at UD is not only reviewing our emergency preparedness plan, but we have started the process of purchasing an emergency notification system that will include text messaging,” James T. Flatley, director of UD's Department of Public Safety, said. “We have been meeting with law enforcement agencies in the state to discuss what happened at Virginia Tech and look at what we have in place and what we might need to adjust.”
“Marcia Nickle brings vast knowledge and experience, which will be very beneficial to the whole University community,” Flatley said. “In this day and age, her role is extremely important because, as we experienced in the past, not only with manmade disasters, but with things like Hurricane Katrina, we must be prepared. It doesn't have to be a major incident; we need to be prepared even for small incidents that could disrupt University activities.”
Soon after her appointment last month, Nickle read through several thick files containing all UD emergency and disaster plans, which she is planning to revise.
“The University already has a good basis,” Nickle said. “There are groups on campus that have been meeting and planning, so I'm only coming to tweak what is already there and not to start from scratch. In that respect, UD is much better prepared than other places. We have a good basis to start from.”
During her graduate studies at UD, Nickle worked as a research assistant at the Disaster Research Center, where she worked on a federal project impact review program and a survey project on the Northridge earthquake in California.
At the New Castle County Office of Emergency Management, Nickle's work was “a little bit of everything,” including writing plans, organizing programs, making presentations, budgeting, field work and responding to scenes of fires and other emergencies.
“I come from a background of writing plans for multiple hazards rather than specific hazards, so I'll use an all-hazards approach, and my tendency is toward that kind of plan writing,” Nickle said. “I tend to focus on floods because they are more likely to happen, but I also have to think of where we are. There are lots of hazards around, as well as terrorism and pandemic flu, but you have to make sure you don't get wrapped up in one thing and lose sight of the big picture.
“There is a lot of criticism of the response to Katrina, and it shows that there is a lot of information and preparedness that didn't get into the planning process because of the focus on terrorism,” Nickle said. “We are going to plan for all situations, but we will be realistic about what is more likely to affect us and what we need to be focusing on.”
Nickle said she will be meeting routinely with contacts from all campus units and departments, from the Department of Occupational Health and Safety to Residence Life and administrators.
Nickle and her husband, Matthew Nickle, who received a bachelor's degree in operations management and a minor in management information systems from UD in 1998, are expecting their first child, a girl, in June.
Article by Martin Mbugua
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson