URBANA – Another member of the University of Illinois Police Department’s emergency planning team earned her professional accreditation this month while two others were recertified.

Emergency Planning Training Coordinator Stephanie Vogelsang was has been accredited as an Illinois Professional Emergency Manager (IPEM). She received her certificate in Springfield, Illinois, on Sept. 6, and the status puts her in an elite group of emergency planning experts in the state.

The university’s Office of Campus Emergency Planning coordinates emergency preparedness and ongoing training to ensure that the campus is ready for natural or man-made disasters it may face – including things like severe weather, hazardous material situations, active shooters and a host of other scenarios.

Emergency planners ensure that loss of life and property in those situations will be minimized and that the core functions of the university can continue.

To receive the status, planners must spend a lot of time in the classroom and complete a number of reports. The achievement takes several years to complete and puts Vogelsang in a group of experts throughout the state.

“It’s basically proving through your work effort all of the many things that you’ve done to help promote safety on our campus,” said Lt. Todd Short, who oversees the Office of Campus Emergency Planning.

Short and Emergency Planning Coordinator Sherry Wooten had previously received their IPEM certificates and were recertified this year. The IPEM program requires recertification every three years.

“It professionalizes what we do, it standardizes what we do,” Short said. “By achieving this certification, it adds a high level of credibility to what we do.”

To learn more about emergency planning and preparedness at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, visit police.illinois.edu/em.