Clay Pacheco – Emergency Preparedness Planning & Training

As CEO of Emergency Preparedness Group, Clay Pacheco is of counsel to Hennes Communications, partnering with the firm to offer state-of-the-art crisis management training exercises and related consultations.

Mr. Pacheco has more than 20 years of experience in emergency preparedness planning, training, and exercise programs. He has extensive experience in developing customized training and complex exercises for all hazards and is extremely knowledgeable in EOC operations and AHIMT development and implementation for special events, incidents and disasters. Mr. Pacheco is a FEMA/DHS grants, emergency management and Homeland Security subject matter expert due to his previous roles as the Deputy Director/Grants Administrator for Duval County Emergency Management/Jacksonville, Florida Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and as an Operations Section Chief for the Miami-Dade County Emergency Operations Center, Mr. Pacheco provided executive level leadership and administration for a wide range of senior management functions for Duval County Emergency Management. Mr. Pacheco was responsible for the day to day operations of the division as well as the EOC during activations, to include all aspects of departmental COOP planning, training, exercises, response, recovery and emergency operations. Mr. Pacheco managed all planning, training and exercise programs for the division including: ICS & EOC Position Specific Training and Incident Management Team (IMT) Training and development, HSEEP compliant full-scale exercises, Pandemic Influenza Continuity Planning and Training. Mr. Pacheco also served as the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Coordinator and Grant Administrator for the Jacksonville UASI and was responsible for the reaccreditation of Jacksonville (first in the U.S.) by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP).

In addition, Mr. Pacheco was part of the original four person working group that developed Duval County EOC/Area Command’s ICS based EOC organizational structure for incident management that was identified by FEMA as a national best practice and is utilized in FEMA’s ICS 400 course video.

Mr. Pacheco is a veteran emergency manager who has the following experience:

• Developed customized curriculum and delivered EOC Command and General staff position specific training for multiple jurisdictions
• Developed multiple capability assessments and FEMA awarded gap analysis
• Authored Credentialing Guide for DC IMTs
• Developed the Jacksonville UASI Homeland Security Strategy
• Developed and wrote plans for health departments in Duval County, Clay County and Baker County Florida
• Managed over 80 Million in FEMA/DHS grants
• Developed and wrote over 100 “all hazards” emergency management plans
• Instructed multiple FEMA Advanced Professional Series, Incident Command System (G300, G400, L-449), and EOC Position Specific courses
• Developed the Jacksonville Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan
• Planned and conducted over 30 full scale, functional and tabletop exercises
• A Certified Emergency Manager (CEM®)
• ICS Instructor
• HSEEP Instructor
• EOC/ICS Interface Instructor
• U.S. Navy Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense & Security – Mobile Executive Training Instructor