FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 8, 2010

Contact:  Robert Preston, Jr.,
              912.260.4276
              robert.preston@sgc.edu

SGC VP, emergency preparedness team wins national award

Wanda Lloyd, Vice President for Business Affairs, recently accepted the Community College Business Officers Exemplary Practices Award in Palm Springs, Calif., for the outstanding work she demonstrated when establishing and implementing a campus-wide emergency preparedness plan during the summer of 2008.

In May 2008, Dr. Virginia Carson, SGC President, charged Ms. Lloyd with formulating a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan for the South Georgia College community. Ms. Lloyd had to come up with a plan that ensured the safety of the students and employees, make it thorough enough to cover just about any kind of disaster — natural or otherwise — and do so in record time.

She assembled a task force made up of representatives from every department on campus. Then Ms. Lloyd set about the task of writing SGC’s first comprehensive emergency/disaster preparedness plan. Her team had but four short months to develop the plan. Not only did the team, under Ms. Lloyd’s direction, come up with a plan but they published a document that addressed almost every possible disaster, and did so clearly and concisely. Ms. Lloyd’s team held bi-weekly meetings and enjoyed input from a broad cross-section of the campus community. To truly be an effective plan, it had to address the needs and concerns of every area of the college. Representatives from the academic sector, public safety, information technology, human resources, food services, public relations, maintenance, plant operations, student life, and every other campus department joined the team and provided valuable input as the planning process moved forward.

Not long after the team drafted the plan, the SGC community saw the plan’s value in the early morning hours one Friday when a fire at a nearby pharmaceutical manufacturing facility threatened the safety of the students on campus. SGC officials followed the plan and began preparing to evacuate the college. Before the evacuation proceeded, local emergency personnel informed SGC that it would not be necessary. That was the first time the plan was tested in the wake of a real emergency, and the campus community saw first-hand that the plan was very effective in ensuring the safety of South Georgia College.

Another significant outcome of the planning process has been the recognition the plan received from the Department of Homeland Security. Representatives from the DHS saw SGC’s plan on the college’s Web site and were impressed with what they saw. They asked to post a link on their site to the SGC plan. DHS felt as though the college’s plan could be used as a model for other institutions, thereby saving them time, effort and money as they work out their own emergency plans. Also, during the spring of 2009, the University System of Georgia audited SGC in six major categories, one of which was emergency preparedness. The college received a rating of “Excellent” following the audit, further demonstrating how emergency planning contributes to the overall health and success of the institution.

“Ms. Lloyd’s ability to a create team and produce an efficient yet effective emergency preparedness plan, which will have an untold positive impact not only on South Georgia College but on many other institutions across the country, makes her very deserving of this award,” comments Dr. Carson.

“This was a very rewarding and challenging experience. I am very appreciative of this award, and I accepted it on behalf of each of our team members who contributed to the process. Without them, none of this would have been possible. They deserve all the credit,” says Ms. Lloyd.

Photo: Wanda Lloyd displays the award with the emergency preparedness team.

 

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About South Georgia College

South Georgia College (www.sgc.edu) was founded in 1906 and is a two-year institution in the University System of Georgia. Located in Douglas, Ga., the college's environment gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty.