Director of Public Safety and Emergency Prepardeness

Employment Type:

Full time

Shift: Day Shift

Description:

POSITION PURPOSE This role serves as the strategic leader for public safety and emergency preparedness across the Mercy One Central Iowa Market, responsible for defining long-term security strategy, establishing systemwide governance framework, and ensuring enterprise-level readiness, resilience, and regulatory compliance. The Director influences regional safety policy, guides investment and technology decisions, and collaborates with Trinity Health system leaders and external agencies to protect the mission, people, and assets of Mercy One Central Iowa.

• Knows, understands, incorporates, and demonstrates the Trinity Health Mission, Vision, and Values in behaviors, practices, and decisions.
• Accountable for advancing a resilient, safety infrastructure that ensures strategic readiness, regulatory excellence, and coordinated emergency response across the Central Iowa Market.
• Develop, implement, and continually refine a comprehensive Regional Physical Security and Emergency Preparedness Strategy that aligns with Mercy One’s mission, regulatory requirements, and long-term system priorities.
• Establish and govern policies, procedures, and standards that unify security, safety, and emergency preparedness practices across Mercy One Central Iowa hospitals, Mercy College, and more than 40 affiliated clinics.
• Serve as the principal advisor to senior leadership on risk mitigation, emergency management, and organizational resilience.
• Lead the identification, assessment, and mitigation of physical, operational, environmental, and behavioral threats, ensuring an integrated risk-management posture across all facilities.
• Direct and maintain the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), Hospital Incident Command System (HICS), and Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) for the Central Iowa Market.
• Serve as a key leader within the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) during emergencies, coordinating Command Center activations, interdepartmental communication, and continuity-of-operations functions.
• Oversees and ensures effectiveness of drills including, emergency drills, tabletop exercises, full-scale simulations, and Mercy College academic preparedness activities.
• Oversee post-incident after-action reviews (AARs), ensuring corrective actions and policy updates strengthen future readiness.
• Oversee the development, evaluation, and improvement of policies governing access control, workplace violence prevention, behavioral threat assessment, investigations, emergency response, communications, and physical security technologies.
• Ensures operational performance through metrics and governance structures.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies, including emergency management, law enforcement, public health, and Homeland Security programs.
• Leverage intelligence networks to improve situational awareness and inform security policy, threat‑management strategies, and crisis‑response procedures.
• Partner with Communications to develop and maintain mass notification, crisis‑communication, and emergency messaging policies.
• Ensure internal and external communications during incidents are timely, coordinated, and aligned with regulatory and system expectations.
• Establish training standards for Public Safety and Emergency Management, including workplace violence prevention, de‑escalation, active threat response, and disaster preparedness.
• Lead development of readiness benchmarks, performance metrics, and competency expectations that reinforce policy adherence and operational excellence.
• Provide strategic oversight of physical security technology systems— including access control, surveillance, communications infrastructure, badge systems, and audiovisual services— ensuring governance, policy control, and reliability.
• Ensure continuous readiness with Joint Commission, CMS, OSHA, Homeland Security, and industry best‑practice standards through policy alignment, audits, and systemwide compliance programs.
• Other duties as needed and assigned by the manager.
• Maintains a working knowledge of applicable Federal, State, and local laws and regulations,…