Dr. D.J. Johnson

Dr. David E. A. Johnson is currently an Assistant Professor with Missouri State University's Political Science Department specializing in public policy and public safety. He has developed a specialization within the Master of Public Administration program focusing on public safety administration and disaster response. David earned his doctorate and MPA from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), University of Pittsburgh. His Bachelor of Science degree in Biopsychology is from Juniata College. He earned a Certificate of Specialization in Personnel/Labor Relations from GSPIA where he and received the David Oeler Award for Use of Information Technology in Public Policy. He has over 30 years of practitioner experience in the fire/rescue service, EMS, Hazardous materials and public safety communications. His most recent public safety position was as a as a planner in the Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services where he also served as the Training Officer and GIS Specialist. He was a counter terrorism instructor for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and member of the state Incident Management Team. He remains a Deputy Commander for the U.S. Disaster Medical Assistance Team Pennsylvania-1. As a part of that role he responded to several incidents including leading a strike team to New York in response to the terrorist attacks in September, 2001 and worked in FEMA's National Response Coordination Center for 5 weeks assisting in the development of the Operation Planning Unit. As a researcher he has been involved in IISIS for the past 9 years working on software development for the Dynamic Assessment Module and the Situational Awareness Module. These involve the development of computer models and simulations to generate decision support for emergency managers.