PARTICIPANT PROFILE: FRAN KERNODLE, FKA
Frances Kernodle Associates (FKA) is a certified WBE consulting firm with offices in downtown Washington, D.C. and headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Established in 1991 by Fran Kernodle, the firm has more than a decade of experience working with domestic and international public and private agencies. FKA specializes in issues related to disaster management, homeland security, transportation and engineering issues, economic development, the environment, as well as business and governmental affairs.
Fran Kernodle will be a panelist representing private sector involvement in emergency management at the Higher Education Conference. Fran Kernodle and the FKA staff frequently represent the interests of clients at various conferences as panelists, speakers or as attendees in a research capacity.
FKA has a strong interest in opportunities to support all levels of government agencies and first responders by providing services ranging from communications initiatives and public awareness campaigns to qualitative and quantitative analysis, policy research initiatives and best practices. FKA research initiatives and reports related to emergency management have included a series of investigations on response and recovery efforts following major natural disasters as well as post-9/11 emergency management activities. In addition, FKA has conducted independent reports on the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks on key industries. FKA has led research delegations from Japan throughout the nation to meet with incident commanders, disaster managers and premier researchers in the field of disaster management.
Fran Kernodle is interested in discussing project opportunities with potential partners at the conference who have similar interests, complementary skills and services and/or representatives who may need FKA’s services. FKA is experienced in working with other organizations to achieve significant results. Most recently, the Federal Transit Administration contracted with FKA and a Miami-based advertising firm to develop a public outreach campaign focused on public and employee security awareness in public transportation. The FTA tasked FKA to conduct research and development activities for Transit Watch –– the public security awareness campaign. FKA conducted surveying, organized focus groups and prepared quantitative and qualitative analysis of safety and security issues in a representative sample of transit agencies nationwide. FKA created a report for FTA entitled Compendium of Community-based Safety & Security Information and presented overall findings during the campaign launch at the American Public Transportation Association conference in Fall 2003.