David Alexander

Mission College To Offer Bachelor’s Degree in Emergency Services

With wildfires raging in Los Angeles County, the need for disaster response is more prescient than ever. Toward that end, Mission College will begin offering a Bachelor of Science in emergency services administration next year.

“You see the price we can pay when fires break out in areas that don’t have adequate fire protection,” said Brad Davis, chancellor at Mission College.

In recent years, increased emphasis on disaster preparedness, crisis management and emergency medical services has caused the demand for qualified police, emergency medical technicians and firefighters to surge. State laws have empowered Mission College to address these needs by providing aspiring professionals a path to enter into high-demand emergency services roles.

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That need looms large, with an annual gap of 25 skilled professionals in the broader Bay Area and 14 in Silicon Valley, according to Santa Clara County workplace data. Santa Clara County ranks in the 99th percentile for disaster risk, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Risk Index.

“We have gaps in the labor force [and] it is extremely expensive for young people to live here,” Davis said. “Rather than try to import … we wanted to create a system where we can cultivate them.”

Community colleges offering bachelor’s degrees are atypical.

Lorrie Ranck, vice president of instruction at Mission College, said she was “stunned” at how much bureaucracy was involved in getting the program approved. Essentially, the college needs to prove that it is not stepping on the toes of area universities. But after much hard work, she said the government and accrediting body approved the program. However, now, a new challenge is before educators.

“The real work to develop the curriculum is to identify staff that can handle it, that we have the resources available,” she said.

Although the specifics of the program have yet to be ironed out, Ranck said the degree is the first of its kind in the area.

Aligning with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “Prepare California” initiative, the new program’s curriculum aims to equip students with essential certifications and practical skills tailored to today’s public safety demands. Mission College developed the program in collaboration with local public safety partners and its fire protection technology department.

The program’s curriculum focuses on several key skills. It emphasizes integrating academic knowledge into emergency services administrative roles as well as applying emergency management, incident command systems, and public service administration skills. Further, solving public safety challenges and managing critical situations through collaboration is a linchpin of the course. Finally, the program will teach best practices through professional networking.

Guy Hall, fire protection department chair, and David Rose, fire department faculty and the department’s previous chair, are working to help develop the curriculum. As long-time firefighters, the duo said they wanted the program to accommodate first responders’ unique daily life.

“There has never really been a formal embracing of our schedules,” Rose said. “It is just a square peg in a round hole.”

The program being online allows them to tailor it to be flexible enough to meet student needs, allowing them to take classes wherever they are located.

Independent of serving a public good, the program also empowers students to achieve upward economic mobility, giving them a chartered course to increase their skills and earn more money.

Mission College offers classes without tuition.

Leaning heavily on its advisory board will allow Rose and Hall to incorporate the most cutting-edge thinking on emergency service management. Being in a dynamic line of work, Rose said having a deep stable of professionals to draw experience from will allow the program to “stay ahead of the curve,” teaching fresh ideas and troubleshooting problems.

“Our goal is to keep things as practical as we can. We are working in the real world,” Hall said.

Mission College plans to begin offering the program in fall 2026.

Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com

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