David Johnson

Missouri State University

David Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Dept of Missouri State University. In that role he is focusing on the development of a specialty in public safety within the MPA program and associated courses. In those courses he has developed partnerships with many of the public safety agencies within Springfield and Greene County. His research interests include decision support systems for emergency service managers. In that area he is a consultant to the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Disaster Management focusing on a situational awareness module of the Intelligent, Interactive, Spatial Information System. He is also pursuing a study on public preparedness and vulnerability. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs with a PhD in Public Policy and Emergency Services. He has a MPA from the same school and received the David Oeler Award for Use of Information Technology in Public Policy and a certificate of specialization in Personnel and Labor Relations. He earned his BS in Biopsychology from Juniata College. He has been a public safety practitioner for thirty years in fire/rescue, EMS, 9-1-1 and hazardous materials response on the local, county, state and federal levels. Positions held have included EMS Chief, Fire Marshal and Team Leader. His most recent full-time position was as the planner/GIS specialist/training officer in the Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continues to serve with the US Department of Health and Human Services as a member of the Incident Response Coordination Team- Heartland after spending 20 years serving as a Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deputy Commander. As a part of that team he has led medical strike teams in response to the World Trade Center attack and standby for the State of the Union Address in 2006. He was also deployed to FEMA headquarters to assist in the development of the Operational Planning Unit within the National Response Coordination Center.