This dual degree in Emergency and Disaster Management & Homeland Security is comprised of two separate master’s programs offered at this university. Taking these online graduate programs in tandem in a dual degree gives you the core courses of both programs along with a selection of electives culminating in an end-of-program assessment.

This online dual master’s degree offers a natural symbiosis between these two fields: emergency management professionals who save lives by responding to disasters such as floods, fires, earthquakes, etc., and homeland security personnel who provide a secure and collaborative information sharing environment for communication during critical incidents. This dual master's degree program will allow you to gain competency in these two fields simultaneously.

This program is taught by highly credentialed and experienced instructors, many who are board-certified emergency managers (CEM) or who hold key positions in government agencies or national safety and security organizations.

The mission of the Master’s in Emergency and Disaster Management/Homeland Security is to help prepare students to assume leadership roles in the protection of the US homeland in emergency circumstances by providing students with the theory, operations, and best practices across the entire field and challenging them to demonstrate how to effectively apply them.

Degree Program Objectives

In addition to the institutional and degree level learning objectives, graduates of this program are expected to achieve these learning outcomes:

  • Organize emergency management functions and activities using contemporary emergency and disaster management concepts and federal guidelines.
  • Design inter-disciplinary training to assure integration between all aspects of an Emergency Operations function including: planning and pre-event preparedness; threat and vulnerability assessments; capability and capacity evaluation; public policy issues; mitigation strategies; exercises and training; program evaluation.
  • Formulate policies procedures and protocols to allow seamless agency integration in both small and large Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) assuring compliance with the National Response Plan, National Incident Management System.
  • Perform economic and social analyses necessary to provide funding recommendations to appropriate fiscal authorities, develop and manage budgets.
  • Evaluate specific domestic security challenges for the 21st Century that face the United States and other industrialized nations.
  • Develop proposed changes at federal, state, and/or local levels, to reflect the evolving strategic policy issues associated with a statutory and presidential direction for homeland security.
  • Analyze the statutory, policy, strategy and legal differences between the different organizations involved in homeland security.
  • Synthesize existing policies, procedures and protocols by DHS and inter-agency community to allow seamless agency integration through prevention, protection, incident response and recovery scenarios.
  • Validate literal and procedural alignment / compliance with the National Response Framework, National Incident Management System, and Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPDs).

Degree at a Glance

Core Requirements45
Major Requirements6
Final Program Requirements3
Elective Requirements6
Total Semester Hours60

Degree Program Requirements

Core Requirements (45 semester hours)

EDMG502Emergency and Disaster Theory 13
SSGS500Research Design and Methods3
EDMG503Emergency and Disaster Planning and Management3
EDMG509Interagency Disaster Management3
EDMG530Economics of Disaster3
EDMG541Mass Casualty Incident Management3
EDMG560Crisis Action Planning3
EDMG611Case Analysis: Crisis and Disaster3
PADM530Public Policy3
HLSS502Homeland Security and Defense3
HLSS505Security Risk Management3
HLSS522Weapons of Mass Destruction and the New Terrorism3
HLSS523Domestic Terrorism and Extremist Groups3
HLSS603Resilience and Homeland Security3
INTL613Intelligence and Homeland Security3
Total Semester Hours45

Major Requirements (6 semester hours)

Select 2 courses from the following:6
Port Security
Security Architecture
Airport Security Design
National Transportation Management
Cargo Security Management
Total Semester Hours6

Final Program Requirements (3 semester hours)

EMHS699Emergency and Disaster Management & Homeland Security Capstone 13
Total Semester Hours3

Elective Requirements (6 semester hours) 

Select any graduate courses not already taken to fulfill the requirements listed above.6
Total Semester Hours6