Cultural Competence in Emergency Preparedness:

Meet Stacia Evans and Keona Gwinn, two graduates from this year's Partners in Policymaking® class. Stacia is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst in Memphis and the parent of a child with autism. Keona recently completed her master's degree in public health, with a focus on maternal and child health, from Meharry Medical College. She was born with spina bifida.

For their final Partners project, Stacia and Keona worked together on an advocacy action plan. Their topic was "Cultural Competence is Critical to Emergency Preparedness."

Their project focused on a key question: How can emergency alert systems reach everyone, including people with disabilities and people from underserved communities?

Below are highlights from the information they presented at Partners graduation, republished with their permission.

The same emergency hits people differently. Those in underserved groups may experience barriers of access, meaning, and trust.

• Access: Can a person receive and physically use an emergency alert?
• Meaning: Will the message make sense quickly under stress?
• Trust: Will the student believe it and act without delay?

What culturally responsive emergency systems do differently:

• Access: Alerts and information go out through multiple accessible channels, such as captioned video, text, audio, visual cues, plain language, and assistive technology.
• Language: Translation is timely, accurate, and meaning-based – not a delayed afterthought.
• Trusted Messengers: Peer leaders, disability resources, and community liaison amplify credibility.
• Co-designed Plans: People with lived experience should shape drills, templates, and after-action review.

Cultural responsiveness should be built into the full emergency cycle.

• Before:
  • Map high risk communication gaps by people group.
  • Include disability and cultural organizations in drills.
  • Pre-script multilingual and accessible templates.
• During:
  • Push alerts across redundant channels at once.
  • Use plain language instructions and accessible formats.
  • Activate trusted offices and peer messengers.
• After:
  • Collect feedback on what failed.
  • Review how people experience trust and access.
  • Revise plans with people from different underserved groups, not just for them.

Inclusive preparedness = fewer blind spots, faster comprehension, strong compliance, safer outcomes.

For more information, contact:

Keona Gwinn: keonagwinn@gmail.com
Stacia Evans: sevansbcba@gmail.com