LEONARDTOWN, Md. – February 22, 2019: On February 7, 2019, the Leadership Southern Maryland (LSM) Class of 2019 participated in the sixth of nine educational sessions – Public Safety. The day began with an introduction by St. Mary’s County Emergency Management Manager Gerald Gardiner Jr. LSM’15 at the St. Mary’s Count Emergency Communications Center. He proceeded to set the tone for the day with a team exercise followed by an overview of public safety in the region. Next, the class received a brief from Chris Strong, meteorologist from the National Weather Service (NWS), on how NWS shares information to help the counties prepare for weather events. Class members rounded out the morning with a presentation and tour of the St. Mary’s County Detention Center.
The afternoon portion of the day included a question and answer session with Sheriff Mike Evans, Sheriff Troy Berry, and Sheriff Tim Cameron hosted at the Paul Hall Center. The class spent the remainder of the day at the Sacco Firefighting School where they had the opportunity to interact with volunteers from the Fire/EMS departments, get up close and personal with emergency vehicles including the Trooper 7 helicopter, and watch demonstrations by local K9 and SWAT units. The class held a post-session debrief at Olde Town Pub in Leonardtown to discuss the day’s events.
Leadership Southern Maryland is a nine-month tuition-based program and is designed and dedicated to educate and inspire a diverse group of current and emerging leaders to create collaborations and partnerships to impact the community needs of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties and incorporates a cross-section of the region to include diversity of geographic location, profession, ethnicity and gender.
Leadership Southern Maryland is now accepting applications for the Class of 2020 Executive Program. Interested emerging and senior leaders should visit devaney.adminprotools.com to learn more about the program and apply by April 1, 2019.
Photo Credit: Harry Gieske, Paul Hall Maritime Center
