At an emergency-management agency, healthcare system, or services organization, you coordinate emergency-services programs — supporting program operations, working with partner agencies, and the operational work behind community emergency-services programs.
A typical day mixes program-operations support, partner coordination, and steady administrative work — supporting emergency-services program operations (community-emergency-response training, CERT, hazard-mitigation programs, exercise programs), coordinating with partner agencies, supporting community-outreach work, processing program reporting. Program participation, partner relationships, and program-outcome metrics tend to shape the visible measures.
The hardest part is often the grant-cycle dependency — many emergency-services programs run on federal grants (FEMA HMGP, EMPG, BRIC), and coordinators work program operations within grant-cycle requirements and timing. Variance across employers is wide: state and local emergency-management agencies run multiple grant-funded programs; nonprofit emergency-services organizations run with their own structures; healthcare-system emergency-services coordination runs under different frameworks.
Strong emergency-services program coordinators tend to carry emergency-management training, comfort with grant-administration work, and the patient cross-agency coordination instincts that the work requires. FEMA Professional Development Series, IAEM AEM, and growing emergency-management experience anchor advancement. The trade-off is the grant-cycle dimension of much emergency-services work and the modest pay typical of public-sector emergency-management.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Protective Services roles →At an emergency-management agency, healthcare system, or services organization, you coordinate emergency-services programs — supporting program operations, working with partner agencies, and the operational work behind community emergency-services programs.
Median pay for an Emergency Services Program Coordinator is about $86K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $51K to $160K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Service Orientation, Complex Problem Solving, Speaking, Writing, and Coordination.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 3% through 2034, with roughly 12,570 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Program Director, Emergency Services Director, and Special Security Operations Program Manager.
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