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Guidelines for contract instructors on resumes, biographies, pamphlets and flyers, websites, emails, and business cards
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) conducts training with instructors drawn from many backgrounds. Instructors may be FEMA employees, FEMA reservists, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees, or other federal/state/local/tribal employees and contractors. FEMA does not have a standing or adjunct faculty or corps of instructors.
The representation of an instructor’s credentials, experiences, awards, degrees and honors are critical to the academic integrity of that instructor and the organizations where they instruct. FEMA and its individual educational institutions put great importance on both academic integrity and professionalism.
The following guidelines will help you to avoid conflicts when you market/present your FEMA contract experience.
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Identify your work as a “Contract Instructor” and provide specific and accurate information about when and what courses you served as an instructor. You may provide the additional information for those specific courses that were delivered at the “FEMA, National Emergency Training Center (NETC), Emergency Management Institute” or “FEMA, National Emergency Training Center, National Fire Academy.”
Because there are few limitations on space, you are encouraged to provide detailed information about the courses you have taught and are qualified to instruct. Be specific about time, place, titles and course number when you taught the course and what other instructors you have worked with.
If the content you delivered was FEMA content but another party — such as state, local or tribal — hired you, you should list the:
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Avoid using the names of federal entities (DHS, FEMA, USFA, NFA or EMI) in the name of your website or email address.
Business cards offer a limited amount of space and are assumed to provide information specifically identifying the person’s employer. It is important to avoid creating the impression that you represent or are employed by a federal entity such as DHS, FEMA, USFA, NFA or EMI. Take care to avoid using graphic elements that suggest you are employed directly by the federal government.
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Clearly identify yourself and your business entity. Provide your contact information as well as your website information. Provide geographic information about your business entity and/or geographic limitations of your services.
The U.S. Fire Administration, the National Fire Academy, and the Emergency Management Institute do not provide letters of recommendation for contract instructors. Individual employees may provide personal remarks directly to potential employers, but they may not sign those remarks with their official titles or use official letterhead or stationary.
FEMA employees are entitled to ethics advice from a FEMA ethics attorney when they have received a reference request. FEMA employees may not provide a “to whom it may concern” general recommendation endorsement using their official titles, positions or official letterhead.
Communications from the U.S. Fire Administration, the National Fire Academy, and the Emergency Management Institute addressed to a contractor are not considered letters of recommendation or endorsement.
