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Event Information
NSPRA Academy 2024: Crisis Communications
February 22, 2024 - April 25, 2024
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Become a MemberSharpen Your Crisis Communications When the Unexpected Hits
A program of the NSPRA Academy
Crisis communication is one of the most consequential disciplines in school public relations. The best time to let students, staff and families know what to do in an emergency is before it happens. And when a crisis occurs, these stakeholders and others expect transparency and timely information. Districts that respond effectively in a crisis create a powerful connection. But districts that mishandle crises can severely damage trust and social capital in their community.
Academy Facilitator: Rick Kaufman, APR
At the end of the three-session NSPRA Crisis Communications Academy, participants will be able to:
- Establish effective crisis response structures and teams while developing processes to more effectively communicate with internal and external stakeholders during and after a crisis.
- Identify the elements critical to managing an incident, from providing expert counsel to leaders to tailoring communication strategies and taming the social media beast.
- Understand the pattern of a crisis to help communicators anticipate issues to effectively respond.
- Create a crisis communications plan for your school district.
- Apply practical crisis communication principles to a relevant crisis.
REGISTRATION IS LIMITED TO 30 PARTICIPANTS
Module 1: Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 (12 - 1:30 p.m. ET, Virtual): Laying the Foundation for Solid Crisis Communications
The module will focus on pre-crisis planning elements, the importance and purpose of crisis communications and the first three of six fundamentals of an effective crisis communication plan, including the team and its roles, activation criteria and protocols and communication platforms.
Module 2: Thursday, March 21, 2024 (12 - 1:30 p.m. ET, Virtual): Crafting the Right Responses
The module covers the last three fundamentals of an effective crisis communication plan, including communicating during a crisis, response statements and key messages and why communication after a crisis is critical to the recovery process.
Module 3: Thursday, April 25, 2024 (12 - 1:30 p.m. ET, Virtual): Transforming Your Learning into Action
Participants will engage in a table-top scenario requiring decision-making and deploying crisis response strategies and messages. We’ll wrap with a “hotwash,” an important step in analyzing the team’s crisis response as a critical learning exercise.
Agenda
Speakers
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Rick Kaufman
<p>Rick is the Executive Director of Community Relations and Emergency Management for Bloomington (MN) Public Schools, responsible for directing communications, community relations, emergency management and volunteer programs. Rick formerly served as Executive Director of Public Engagement and Communications for Jefferson County Public Schools, Colorado’s largest school system (1998-2006).</p>
<p>Rick is a nationally respected consultant and authority on crisis management and communications, having worked in public schools and emergency management for more than 30 years.</p>
<p>In 1996, Rick developed what is believed to be the first full-scale crisis drill involving an active shooter in a school. Three years later, the unthinkable happened when on April 20, 1999, two students attacked Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 13 and wounding 26 others. Among the first to arrive on scene, Rick provided emergency triage and rescue operations before assuming co-leadership of the Columbine Crisis Response Team. He led a team focused on communications, media relations and crisis response/recovery efforts. Rick was the on-site coordinator for former President Bill Clinton’s visit to Littleton in the wake of the tragedy, and the annual anniversary events (Years 1-5).</p>
<p>For the past 26 years, Rick has worked with hundreds of school districts, law enforcement and emergency management agencies throughout the U.S. to improve school safety, security and emergency response. He’s provided counsel to Uvalde Public Schools (Robb Elementary School), Broward County Public Schools (Stoneman Douglas High School), Newtown Public Schools (Sandy Hook Elementary), San Bernardino City Unified School District (North Park Elementary), the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for the Timothy McVeigh execution; New York Education Commission and New York City Schools (9/11); U.S. Department of Education, LA Office of the FBI, Association of State Colleges & Universities, National School Boards Association, WI Health and Hospital Association, NC and ND Division of Emergency Management agencies, and the MN Office of Emergency Preparedness, and School Safety Center. Rick also served a 35-day assignment as a FEMA Field Coordinator for public information officers as part of the national response to Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita (2005) in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA.</p>
<p>Rick is the author of The Complete Crisis Communication Management Manual for Schools (4th edition, 2016), and served as a panelist at the We Are Columbine: 20 Years Later symposium (2019), content expert at the Wisconsin School Safety Summit (2015) and former U.S. Senator Al Franken’s School Safety Summit (2014). He keynoted the MN School Boards Association Summer Institute and MN Association of School Personnel Administrators (2018); Campus Safety Conferences (Dallas, TX and Long Beach, CA, 2017); NSBA’s Planning for and Managing the School Crisis You Hope Never Comes following the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy; MN Metropolitan Hospital Compact’s Footprint of Disasters symposium; MN School Safety Conference; Midwest Summit on Violence in the Workplace and Schools; Wisconsin Bioterrorism Summit; National Transportation Public Affairs Conference; and Airports Council International – North America.</p>
<p>Rick’s directed public school communications programs in Wisconsin, Colorado and Minnesota, and served as a special consultant with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction under State Superintendent John Benson. He is past president of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), Wisconsin School Public Relations Association (WSPRA), and a director with WSPRA, COSPRA and MinnSPRA chapters.</p>
<p>Rick received the National School Public Relations Association’s President’s Award in 2023 and the Public Relations Society of America’s inaugural Public Relations Professional of the Year honor in 2000. He has earned PRSA’s Silver Anvil Award of Excellence, NSPRA’s Gold Medallion five times for excellence in communications programs, and Minnesota School PR Association’s Dawn K. McDowell Award, Colorado PRSA’s Gold Pick Award, and is a two-time recipient of Wisconsin School Public Relations Association’s President's Award for Outstanding Achievement, and its Honorary Lifetime Membership Award (2024). He was inducted into the Wisconsin Dells Distinguished Achievement Hall of Fame for notable success from extraordinary accomplishment and a career of exceptional professional and humanitarian achievement.</p>
<p>Rick holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and is accredited (APR) by the Public Relations Society of America.</p>
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Bloomington Public Schools | - |