Project Overview

Full-scale exercises provide organizations with the opportunity to validate emergency plans under realistic operating conditions.

I led the planning and coordination of a multidisciplinary full-scale exercise at Miami University involving healthcare organizations, EMS, fire departments, law enforcement, emergency management, university leadership, volunteer victims, evaluators, and controllers.

The exercise simulated a complex campus emergency requiring coordinated field operations, incident command, healthcare response, and emergency communications.

The Challenge

Unlike tabletop exercises, full-scale exercises require extensive logistical coordination.

Planning included:
-Volunteer victim recruitment.
-Moulage coordination.
-Evaluator assignments.
-Controller coordination.
-Operational safety.
-Agency coordination.
-Exercise realism.

The objective was to create a safe but challenging environment that accurately reflected real-world emergency response.

My Approach

Responsibilities included:
-Designing the exercise scenario.
-Coordinating multidisciplinary planning meetings.
-Managing logistics for participants, evaluators, controllers, and volunteers.
-Developing exercise documentation.
-Facilitating exercise operations.
-Leading hot washes.
-Preparing After-Action Reports and Improvement Plans.

Results & Impact

The exercise validated emergency response capabilities while strengthening interoperability among healthcare organizations, first responders, emergency management, and university leadership.

The project also generated actionable recommendations that informed future planning and preparedness initiatives.

Skills Demonstrated:
-Full-Scale Exercise Planning
-Logistics Coordination
-Multi-Agency Leadership
-Emergency Management
-Exercise Evaluation
-Incident Command
-Project Management
-Continuous Improvement

Key Takeaways

Full-scale exercises provide one of the most valuable opportunities to test plans under realistic conditions. This project reinforced the importance of detailed planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and structured evaluation in strengthening organizational and regional preparedness.