We founded Pracademic Affairs in 2020 to address a critical need we saw in homeland security and emergency management. Since its inception as an educational discipline a quarter century ago, a perceived gap has existed between the academic and practitioner roles within emergency management and homeland security (EM/HS) areas. These fields uniquely draw from operational experience and scholarship to promote research, enrich academic programs, and remain relevant to EM/HS practitioners. The convergence of practice and academics ironically identifies a gap in the literature that reflects this blended evolution.
The “practitioner-scholar,” or Pracademic, relies upon a combination of art and science in our fields. This is reflected in both rigorous research and the peer-to-peer sharing of lessons learned and best practices.
Practitioners with extensive and valuable knowledge have struggled to find a supportive platform to exchange ideas employing a published journal format. Academic publication stipulations often discourage professionals in the field from submitting articles. Constructed barriers impede practitioners' opportunities to write, analyze, and share critical lessons learned with the larger resilience community.
The Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Security and Defense published our first through fourth editions. Due to recent executive orders, PA was looking for a new home. Our exciting new partnership with Homeland Security Today will help us meet new challenges and promote pracademic content to an even broader audience. Important work performed daily in our communities will find a new audience and platform to foster collaboration and success.
Our mission remains the same since our founding: to provide emergency management and homeland security practitioners with a welcoming platform to write, explore, analyze, and examine real-world critical lessons learned to improve the resilience of our communities.
Please join us in providing a voice to operators and elevating the pracademic’s role in making our communities safer.
Co-Founders, Pracademic Affairs