CFE-DMHA Director visits partners in DC
09.18.2014
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Col. Joseph Martin, director of the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, emphasized collaborative partnerships during a trip to Washington, D.C. Sept. 8-12.
Included in a series of meetings were current partners of CFE-DMHA, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, as well as prospective partners such as the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine.
“The trip was very useful to plan future work,” said Martin. “It allowed me to come back and focus on what we should do in [fiscal year 20]15 and 16.”
The trip represented the first opportunity for the colonel to meet with many of CFE-DMHA’s partners and guidance providers in person. Located in Pearl Harbor, CFE-DMHA receives policy guidance from both U.S. Pacific Command and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy.
"(Humanitarian assistance and disaster response) is an issue we give a lot of primacy to," said Anne Witkowsky, deputy assistant secretary of defense for policy (stability and humanitarian assistance).
Developing new partnerships, and strengthening old, allows CFE-DMHA to increase collaborative civil-military coordination throughout the DMHA community, building preparedness and resiliency in partner nations. Future initiatives include an increase in public-private partnerships with academic institutions and Department of Defense organizations.
Additional meetings included the National Defense University, National Guard, RAND Corporation, and the Center for Civil-Military Relations.
Martin is the sixth director of CFE-DMHA and took command of the organization in May.