Emergency Management Structure in Iowa
The structure of homeland security and emergency management in Iowa begins with the governor, who holds the responsibility for protecting Iowa’s citizens. The governor appoints the Iowa homeland security advisor and the administrator of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division. Currently, Mark Schouten has been appointed as both the homeland security advisor as well as the administrator for HSEMD. The HSEMD administrator serves as the state administrative agent for grants administered by the federal government.
Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management is the coordinating body for homeland security and emergency management activities across the state. In addition to HSEMD, the advisor relies on state and local-level advisory bodies, executive-level state policy makers, state and local agency points of contact, local first responders, regional representatives, and other community organizations and representative bodies for information to assist in the decision-making process.
Click on a tab to find out more about each committee.
The Homeland Security Executive Group provides counsel to the homeland security advisor on issues related to statewide homeland security. The Executive Group meets on a quarterly basis and is chaired by the Lieutenant Governor. The group is comprised of 13 executives from:
- Iowa Department of Public Health
- Iowa Department of Transportation
- Iowa Department of Natural Resources
- Iowa Department of Public Defense
- Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship
- Iowa Department of Administrative Services
- Iowa Department of Human Services
- Iowa Department of Public Safety
- Iowa Disaster Human Resource Council
- Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management
- Office of the Governor
- Iowa Communications Network
- Safeguard Iowa Partnership
The First Responder Advisory Committee (FRAC) is a group of delegates designated by first responder professional and other representative groups. The First Responder Advisory Committee meets regularly and provides the homeland security advisor with a local perspective on homeland security in Iowa.
Each state agency and each county has a designated homeland security point of contact that passes homeland security information between the homeland security advisor and their respective agencies and entities. State agency points of contact meet regularly to discuss homeland security issues; local points of contact do not have a regular meeting schedule, but are kept informed of issues.
