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Education and Outreach Systems

Graduate programs, early responder training and stakeholder workshops to provide the next level of science power for homeland security

Overview

Edu and NoriadEducation and Outreach projects include short-, mid- and long-term actions designed to reduce the nation’s extreme vulnerability to a terrorist attack using a foreign animal or zoonotic disease.  All projects include goals for nationalization of the products once they have demonstrated effectiveness at the model stage.  Long-term projects focus on improving the food system sector’s science literacy and developing a future work force prepared to address foreign animal and zoonotic disease issues with the core competencies defined by DHS.  Immediate awareness, expanded attitudes, personal and organizational commitment, and a new alertness with dedication to protecting the food supply are short-term objectives.  The FAZD Center’s approach includes identifying economical investments contributing to the control of endemic disease which deliver cross-over benefits by lowering the impacts of a foreign animal and zoonotic diseases attack or those associated with natural disasters.  The Center contributes to protecting the food system through its focus on pre-harvest foreign animal and zoonotic diseases threats to the nation’s economy, human and animal health, and confidence in government.

This theme’s projects include: the development of a core resource library; several projects to provide science-based insights to inform government and private sector policy; information and outreach presentations and materials to heighten foreign animal and zoonotic disease awareness and promote adequate biosecurity, surveillance and reporting while building the industry support for necessary response and recovery efforts; and undergraduate, professional, graduate and post-graduate education programs to prepare the future foreign animal and zoonotic disease work force.

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Leading products

  • Avian influenza training for early responders: In the event of an outbreak of Avian Influenza H5N1, a lack of training among early responders will lead to delayed detection and ineffective reactions. The FAZD Center’s Avian Influenza School trains the trainers and provides training modules for use by extension agents, veterinarians, researchers and farmers – for prevention, intervention and recovery from outbreaks. Sessions have been held in Texas, California and Minnesota, and in Africa, and are in demand in the developing world.
  • Stakeholder workshops on mass animal mortality: If a pandemic or a catastrophe resulted in the death of U.S. livestock in large numbers, current environmental policy and regulations would severely hamper carcass disposal. FAZD Center workshops in California and Texas brought together major stakeholders from the livestock industry: industry representatives, policymakers, scientists and regulators. The workshops brought together players with diverse and divergent involvement, often for the first time. They examined policy and suggested changes to improve response and recovery, and established working relationships.
  • Risk communications training on FAZD issues: The FAZD Center sponsored a two-day “train the trainer” workshop focused on how to handle risk communications during an outbreak of an animal disease that threatens the public health or the economy. Twenty-eight communicators participated in the workshop, representing Texas A&M University, Texas TechUniversity, Ohio State University, Iowa State University, Purdue University, Kansas State University, the University of Arizona and the Univeristy of Georgia. The program is designed to give communicators the tools and training they need to provide instruction to communicators in their regions.
  • VBAwards and recognition for FAZD Center DHS scholars and fellows:  Noried M. DeJesus-Velazquez, a FAZD  Center student participating in the 2007 DHS Minority Serving Institutions Summer Research Team Program, was chosen to make a presentation to S&T Under Secretary Jay M. Cohen. She also received honors for a poster presentation at the 2007 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. Texas A&M  University graduate student Vinayak Brahmakshatriya won first place in the student poster contest held during the first DHS University Network Summit on Research and Education. He was among seven FAZD Center students who presented posters.  Two other Texas A&M graduate students received internships in the homeland security sector. Amy Pohl interned at NORTHCOM in Colorado Springs to study education and research topics that are important to the Surgeon General and NORTHCOM. Lindsay Holmstrom interned with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California where she participated in the development of a model for animal disease impact assessment. Across the FAZD  Center, approximately 100 students and post doctoral fellows are involved in research, education, and outreach activities.

 

 

Project reports (most recent)