Safety, Security and Emergency Degree Overview

Advance Your Education in SSEM
The online Master of Science in Safety, Security and Emergency Management from Eastern Kentucky University prepares currently employed safety, fire, public service, security, business and military professionals with an advanced graduate level education. The program is designed to provide you with the knowledge and skills you’ll need to evolve your career, create new opportunities, and become a respected leader in safety, security and emergency management.

Stay competitive as a working professional, while building your professional network through interactions with other students in various roles and stages in their careers. Learn from and interact with our industry experienced faculty or professional fire science, safety, and security educators, who remain involved in the safety, security and emergency management field.

Throughout the core of the program you’ll examine the roles and responsibilities of becoming a leadership professional in the fields of fire, safety and security. Discover the administrative principles of organizing and managing a successful team. Learn to develop policy, establish objectives, and understand the impact of your decisions. The program also covers the legal and regulatory side of working in the safety and security industry, as well as labor laws and how to conduct a safety audit.

In addition each student will elect a concentration in one of five fields of study. Electing a concentration allows you to focus your education on the exact topics that are relevant to your career path, and develop a specialization that can propel your career opportunities. Students with varied interests also have the ability to take various courses across each of the disciplines, without choosing one specific concentration.

• Occupational Health & Safety – Research, investigate and learn how to prevent hazards and accidents in the workplace. From the construction site to the field and into the office, learn about the personal and environmental risks, regulations, emergency practices and safety issues associated with different environments.
• Homeland Security – The growing field of homeland security is geared for safety professionals interested in helping to reduce and eliminate threats to our national and domestic security. Learn to recognize significant hazards, analyze intelligence, respond to disasters and emergency situations as well as the administrative responsibilities and regulations involved with homeland security professionals.
• Fire & Emergency Services – In the fire and emergency services industry, the importance of knowledgeable and experienced leadership is paramount. Learn the strategic planning and skills you’ll need to complement your experience and become a leader. Discover what it takes to manage and direct fire departments, fire prevention teams, EMT, search and rescue, investigation, and fire inspection teams.
• School Safety – A concentration in School Safety will teach you to approach safety from the aspect of managing loss potentials for educational service employees, students and school visitors. The curriculum focuses on defining school safety and exploring the concept of safety as a leadership principle.
• Emergency Management – Despite our best safety practices, emergencies and disasters can happen. Analyze, understand and take control of the situation by learning how to plan for emergencies of different scales. Prepare an approach, implement your ideas and become a leader in the response efforts, work with other agencies, and learn what it takes to rise to the challenge of an emergency situation – whether natural or man-made.
• Labor and Employment – A career specializing in labor and employment focuses on the labor laws and employment regulations from the perspective of a safety professional. Discover the unique factors that influence workers compensation, collective bargaining, labor law, and employment policy in the field of safety, security and emergency management. Explore the professional role of an administrator tasked with keeping employees safe, and fairly treated while making sure professional safety standards and regulations are adhered to.