Kay C. Goss Elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration

Union Institute & University Board of Trustees member and 2013 Sacramento commencement keynote speaker, Kay C. Goss, has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Goss is an internationally recognized lecturer, author, public servant, and highly respected authority in the fields of emergency management, risk communication and general resiliency.

The National Academy of Public Administration is an independent, non-profit and non-partisan organization established to assist government leaders in building more effective, efficient, accountable and transparent organizations. Academy fellows include more than 750 individuals who have served as cabinet officers, members of congress and governors, as well as prominent scholars, business executives and public administrators.

Goss is the founding president and CEO for World Disaster Management, president of the Foundation for Higher Education Accreditation of Emergency Management Degree Programs, a founder of the FEMA Higher Education Program, vice president and director of School Emergency Preparedness Programs, and chair of the Education and Training Committee of the International Association of Emergency Managers. She also serves as first vice president of the International Network of Women in Emergency Management and vice president of Every Child Is Ours Foundation, which is launching the World Disaster Management Community College in Kanana, South Africa. Currently, Goss is an executive in residence in political science at the University of Arkansas.

Previously, Goss served as director of Emergency Management and Crisis Communications for Systems and Research Applications International (SRA) in Arlington, Virginia. At SRA, she developed and enhanced the quality of emergency management services for government, nonprofit and private sector clients. Before joining SRA in 2007, Goss was the senior advisor for Homeland Security, Emergency Management, and Business Continuity at Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) in Herndon, Virginia.

Goss is the former associate Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director in charge of national preparedness, training, and exercises from 1994 to 2001. She was responsible for the nation’s readiness for natural and manmade disasters, increasing state and local emergency preparedness capacity, and for growing the emergency management profession.

Before her FEMA position, she served as an Arkansas State official for 15 years, including 11 years (1982–1993) as senior assistant for intergovernmental relations for Governor Bill Clinton.  She coordinated policy and outreach for cabinet agencies handling emergency management, fire service, law enforcement, public safety, and criminal justice. Goss later served as a member of the Virginia Governor’s Commonwealth Preparedness Panel and as chair of the International Association of Emergency Managers Committee on Training and Education.

As a founder of the FEMA Higher Education Program, Goss is active in the academics of emergency management. She has served as adjunct faculty for both the Istanbul Technical University’s Disaster Management Graduate Program and for the Executive Master’s in Crisis and Emergency Management, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Goss has written five books: The City Manager Plan in Arkansas, The Politics of Constitutional Revision in Arkansas, The Arkansas Constitution: a Reference Guide, The Emergency Management Handboo, and Mr. Chairman: the Life and Legacy of Wilbur D. Mills. She has published hundreds of articles and presented public addresses on state and local government, emergency management, and homeland security.

She has also earned several awards throughout her career, including a lifetime achievement award celebrating 20 years of service on the Wilbur D. Mills Treatment Center board, Kay Goss Women’s Health Center on the treatment center campus, J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences University of Arkansas Distinguished Alumni of 2006, and Arkansan of the Year.

Goss holds a B.A. and an M.A. in public administration from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She has participated in doctoral studies in public administration at West Virginia University, Morgantown and American history at American University, Washington, DC. She has also participated in the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.