The Office of Emergency Preparedness, Fire and Workplace Safety has changed its name to the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to reflect the accelerated growth and expanded technical specialties of the office.
OEM recently added two new divisions—Operational Continuity and Special Events—which join Fire and Life Safety, Emergency Preparedness and Occupational Safety and Health.
“These recent additions provide a tremendous opportunity for OEM to increase our level of service and synergize our preparedness and response efforts for the entire Vanderbilt community,” said Johnny W. Vanderpool, director of the Office of Emergency Management.
While Special Events is new to OEM, it is not new to the Vanderbilt community, having long provided security and safety services to a wide range of university stakeholders, such as at athletic, commencement and Greek life events.
Operational Continuity is new to the university. The Operational Continuity division will be led by Brittney Whatley, a certified business continuity professional. She will work with campus departments to bridge the gap between emergency response and recovery operations, thus providing a pathway for business units to return to normal operations after an operational disruption.
“This new division will assist stakeholders as they construct and build their departmental operational continuity plans. Operational Continuity has been long in the making, and I’m extremely excited to be launching this new initiative in 2022,” Vanderpool said.
Services provided by the Office of Emergency Management include:
Emergency Preparedness
- Led by Caitlyn French
- AlertVU and VandySafe program management
- Oversees the university’s Emergency Operations Center
- Meteorologist, emergency planning, training and education
Operational Continuity
- Led by Brittney Whatley
- University and departmental continuity planning
- Business impact analyses
- Emergency/incident recovery
- Liaison between Public Safety and Information Technology Disaster Recovery Team
Fire Safety
- Led by Jessamyn Davis
- Regulatory code inspections and consultations
- Fire and life safety training and education
- Fire safety reporting
Occupational Safety and Health
- Led by Tamara Cooley
- Occupational safety and health program oversight
- Accident and injury investigation
- Safety consultation, testing and reporting
Special Events
- Led by Capt. Mark Stannard
- Event and security management
- Event action planning
- Special event liaison between Vanderbilt University and Metro Nashville
Questions can be directed to Johnny Vanderpool at johnny.vanderpool@vanderbilt.edu.