Upcoming Webinar

Webinar Description

Tabletop exercises are a powerful way for cultural heritage organizations to test emergency plans, strengthen staff readiness, identify gaps, and build confidence before a disaster occurs. This introductory webinar will provide participants with a practical overview of how to conduct a tabletop exercise and explore how this type of activity can move beyond discussion-based planning to provide meaningful practice in emergency response and incident management at their individual institutions.

The discussion will begin with an introduction to the key components of an effective tabletop exercise as well as what is included in a scene size-up and tactical 360, including what information responders should gather when first assessing an incident. Participants will also learn the purpose and basic elements of a safety briefing, how to think about command assignments and roles, and the fundamentals of developing an Incident Action Plan (IAP). 

Participants will then work through a series of realistic disaster and emergency scenarios designed specifically for cultural heritage institutions. Using pre-designed maps to simulate space and place, participants will progressively build their response skills as scenarios increase in complexity and difficulty. The webinar will conclude with a brief introduction to After Action Reviews (AAR) and how observations and lessons learned from tabletop exercises can be translated into improvements to emergency plans, response procedures, and future training.

This introductory webinar is designed for museum, library, archive, historic site, and other cultural heritage professionals, including emergency preparedness coordinators, collections and facilities staff, administrators, educators, volunteers, and anyone interested in strengthening their organization’s emergency preparedness and response capabilities.

Dr. Kara Griffin

Dr. Kara Griffin is an emergency management professional and educator with more than fifteen years of experience in public safety, disaster response, and emergency preparedness. Their background includes work in law enforcement, hostage negotiation, search and rescue, federal emergency management, and cultural heritage disaster recovery.

As a historic preservation specialist, field manager, and Secretary of the Interior-qualified archaeologist, Kara has supported disaster recovery efforts and helped communities protect and recover cultural and historic resources following emergencies. They hold a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Southern Methodist University, a master's degree in Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management, and serve as an adjunct professor of anthropology.

Kara is a member of the Advisory Board of the Texas Collections Emergency Resource Alliance (TX-CERA) and is dedicated to advancing emergency preparedness and resilience within the cultural heritage community.

Jared Yax

Jared Yax is an Independent Consultant for Cultural Heritage Emergency Preparedness and Response and a Lieutenant Firefighter for the City of Walker, Michigan. Jared has over 20 years of experience in the museum field and is a community-minded historian. A graduate of Grand Valley State University, Jared earned a specialized bachelor's degree in history that focused on how individual perspectives, motivations, and biases of the past and present share our concept of history and influence our understanding of historical events. In 2003, he joined the Grand Rapids Public Museum, where he worked in a variety of departments, including collection, exhibits, and education. He joined the Tri-Cities Historical Museum in 2018 and has been a vocal advocate for increasing community access to the museum through digitization of the collection, new educational partnerships, and exhibit updates. 

As a 14-year veteran firefighter for the City of Walker, Michigan, Jared has earned Firefighter level I and II, Fire Instructor, NIMS/ICS 100-800, Fire Officer I and II, Hazmat Operations, Blue Card, and other certifications.

Bridging his background in museums and firefighting, Jared consults with the Heritage Emergency National Task Force (HENFT) and has gone through the Heritage Emergency and Response Training (HEART) through FEMA and the Smithsonian Institution. In May 2020, he led recovery operations at the Midland History Center following catastrophic local flooding. Coordinating over 400 volunteers over just a few days, he helped save over 12,000 artifacts. Jared has consulted with institutions in Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia.

“An Introduction to Tabletop Exercises for Cultural Heritage: Building Emergency Response Skills Through Scenario-Based Training" has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this webinar, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.”