UNF emergency management director graduates from National Emergency Management Advanced Academy

Amber Gazdick, University of North Florida emergency management director, graduated from the National Emergency Management Advanced Academy (NEMAA) last week.

Gazdick was among 28 Northeast Florida emergency management professionals in higher education, fire rescue, law enforcement, emergency management, meteorology and nonprofit response to earn the nationally recognized credentials. To date, only 1,200 professionals across the country have earned the credential, and this was the first time in the program's history that a local area assembled and funded an entire academy class.

NEMAA is a national-level certificate program offered through the National Disaster and Emergency Management University, part of FEMA's National Preparedness Directorate. To earn their certificates, participants completed four separate weeks of classroom instruction totaling about 160 hours, along with a capstone project. The coursework covered strategic and critical thinking, decision-making under pressure, real-world incident analysis, leadership style assessment, contemporary issues in emergency management, legal challenges and effective communication.

Gazdick received high praise from Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, at the graduation, who said the "Run, Hide, Fight" video training that UNF produced earlier this year was one of the best he has seen in 30 years.

Gazdick, who joined UNF in January, leads campus-wide preparedness, response and resilience initiatives. With nearly twenty years of experience across law enforcement, emergency management, instruction and leadership, she has a wealth of operational expertise and a proven record of strengthening safety across Duval County and the Northeast Florida region.

Before joining UNF, Gazdick served as a lieutenant with the Duval County School Police Department, where she oversaw districtwide emergency-management programs and advanced critical security initiatives. She is widely recognized as a subject matter expert in active assailant preparedness, training and exercise design.