July 8, 1998 Special Presentation

by Bruce Marshall and Carole Eiben
FEMA's Emergency Manangement Institute

Emergency Education Network (EENET)

SUMMARY

Edited Version of July 8, 1998
EIIP Classroom Online Presentation

"EENET"
Emergency Education NETwork

Carole Eiben
Producer, Emergency Education NETwork
FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI)

Bruce Marshall
Chief of Support Systems Branch, Training Division
FEMA's Preparedness Directorate

The Internet is also used as a means to provide feedback to the producers or to submit suggestions for future broadcasts via a link from the fema.gov Web site, and a mailing list is also available to receive notices about the programming schedule.

Recent experiments with shows for the Department of Transportation succesfully demonstrated streaming video techniques, and the upcoming July 30th town hall broadcast on the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program will be made available via the World Wide Web.

BRUCE MARSHALL

Chief, Support Systems Branch
FEMA PT&E, Training Division

Bruce Marshall is Chief of the Support Systems Branch in the Training Division of FEMA's Preparedness Directorate. He is responsible for managing FEMA's distance learning activities including Independent Study and computer-assisted courses, field training programs, and EENET, the Emergency Education NETwork which provides training and educational programming via satellite to the emergency management community.

Prior to this position, Mr. Marshall served as the Division Chief for the Emergency Management Institute's Technical Programs Division, where he was responsible for the development and deployment of training activities which focused on specific FEMA programs (disaster relief, civil defense, flood insurance, etc.) or on specific disaster and emergency hazards (earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, hazardous materials, nuclear power plant accidents, etc.).

Mr. Marshall has served in the Dallas/Denton, Texas FEMA Regional Office for 10 years as the Senior Individual Assistance Officer. He is a veteran of over 50 Presidentially-declared major disaster recovery programs stretching from Maine to Guam, where his assignments included those of Disaster Recovery Management and Federal Coordinating Officer as well as various staff-level positions in disaster field offices.

Prior to his career in emergency management, he was a member of the Army 8th Special Forces Group, assigned to the Green Beret's School of the Americas in the Republic of Panama, which specialized in training for jungle warfare, jungle survival, and counter-insurgency techniques.

Mr. Marshall holds a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland, and is a published writer and poet.

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CAROLE EIBEN

Producer, EENET
FEMA PT&E, Emergency Management Institute

Carole Eiben is a producer for EENET, the Emergency Education NETwork, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) satellite television network. EENET provides training and educational programming for first responders and emergency managers on a variety of public safety topics. EENET resides with FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) in Emmitsburg, MD.

Ms. Eiben helps develop programming ideas and marketing strategies for EENET's broadcasts and video productions. She produced the new series, "Classroom Connection: Your Tie to EMI," and currently serves as co-host of EENET's monthly video journal, "National Alert."

Ms. Eiben has been with FEMA since 1987. Prior to joining EENET in 1997, Ms. Eiben served on the staff of the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board, a public/private partnership which allocates $100 million annually to organizations addressing hunger and homelessness. Prior to her work with the National Board, Ms. Eiben served on FEMA's procurement staff and worked on several disaster assignments.

Ms. Eiben holds a B.S. in Economics and Political Science.

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ABOUT EENET

Since its pilot broadcast in 1981, FEMA's award-winning Emergency Education NETwork (EENET) has enabled the Agency to provide up-to-date information and training to users in virtually every community throughout the country.

EENET broadcasts feature one-way video and two-way live audio interaction. A major feature of EENET is that it allows direct discussion between speakers and viewers using toll-free telephone numbers.

EENET broadcasts are open video broadcasts which allow anyone with a C-band and/or Ku-Band antenna or access to any of the several hundred cable-vision systems currently airing EENET, to participate. EENET programs have included studio audiences and classrooms, and live segments or entire broadcasts from remote locations. Most EENET broadcasts originate from FEMA's Television Studio at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, MD.

In a 1996 EENET user survey, the "core" EENET audience of fire and emergency management professionals was conservatively estimated at over 50,000. The cable industry gives EENET the potentially large "live" audience of 31 million viewers. Approximately 31% of the survey respondents were State and local government viewers, 26% were identified as fire/emergency medical service personnel, 13% were federal government representatives, 13% were affiliated with colleges or universities, and 5% were private industry viewers. Approximately 15,000 receive sites are on EENET's mailing list to receive information about upcoming broadcasts.

EENET has received several awards including those from The Communicator Awards 1996 Television Commercials/Programs and Video/Films competition. Two Crystal Awards were awarded for "The Department's Role in Community-Wide Injury Prevention" and "Managing Terrorism Events…the Oklahoma Experience." The Award of Distinction, was awarded to EENET for "Training Civilians for Disaster Response." Two Honorable Mentions were received for "Animals in Disaster" and "The Emergency Alert System…Making It Work."

Sample copies of broadcasts including the popular "National Alert" series are available upon request. Contact Sue Downin at (301) 447-1073 or Carole Eiben at (301) 447-1364 for more information.

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