In this presentation, students will first participate in an interactive session to become familiar with the process for designing and evaluating both discussion and operations-based exercises. Discussion begins with an analysis of learning objectives and the tasks to be evaluated. Using the results of the analysis, participants will identify the various core capabilities needed by personnel to respond effectively to an incident. Students will review excerpts from actual emergency operations plans and determine the type of training needed to perform according to those plans. Exercise objectives will be developed to create an exercise scenario. Students will then write exercise evaluation guides.

Students will then design a discussion- or operations-based exercise. Working in groups as exercise planning teams, participants will develop situation manuals or exercise plans that include targeted core capabilities and exercise objectives as well as the scenario for their exercise.

Finally, students will learn the process for translating exercise evaluation content into an after-action review document that includes an improvement plan matrix which will serve as the basis for revising plans, policies and procedures as well as for developing future training and exercise efforts.

Gene Komondor has served as the Emergency Management Coordinator for North Huntingdon Township, PA since 2007. In this role he is responsible for leading the township's planning, preparedness, response and recovery efforts related to the coronavirus pandemic. His background in planning includes the review and revision of the Mass Prophylaxis Plan of the Allegheny County (PA) Health Department which outlines use of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) in response to a biological incident, and the review and revision of the emergency plan for a municipal water utility with a five-county service area. He has co-authored a user's guide for a secure, web-based incident management software system and instructed staff from FEMA's National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) and ten Regional Response Coordination Centers at FEMA Headquarters in Washington, DC on the use of the system. A FEMA-certified Master Exercise Practitioner, he has designed, conducted and evaluated exercises throughout the country, including Active Shooter exercises for K-12 schools, colleges and hospitals. He has worked on projects involving Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attack scenarios and bio-terror attacks in major metropolitan areas. As a consultant to FEMA he has worked on developing content for the Operations and Coordination of Emergency Operations Centers for inclusion in the National Incident Management System doctrine update, and the development of an EOC Operations and Coordination System for all levels of government and other operations and coordination centers. As a project manager he has led the Training and Exercise program for a 15-county Healthcare Coalition with over 700 healthcare providers. Gene earned the Certified Emergency Manager (CEM©) credential from the International Association of Emergency Managers and Professional Certification as a Municipal Emergency Management Coordinator from PEMA. He has been a PA-certified Emergency Medical Technician for over 30 years and an EMT Instructor at The Center for Emergency Medicine of Western PA in Pittsburgh. He is an Adjunct Instructor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh where he teaches Management courses in the Emergency Medicine program; an Adjunct Instructor in the Emergency Services program at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, PA; and has served as an Instructor at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, MD. Gene holds a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and Bachelor Degrees in Public Administration and Human Resource Management. He has also completed Executive Education training at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.