Law and public service - Public safety, security and emergency management

This program emphasizes protecting people, animals and plants from natural and man-made biological hazards. By integrating public health, risk management and homeland security, you’ll become prepared to address critical challenges, such as pandemics, bioterrorism and other biosecurity risks.

Courses develop your expertise in evaluating safety programs, creating plans to mitigate biological threats, managing crises and minimizing societal harm. Additionally, you’ll build leadership skills essential for guiding response and recovery efforts, enabling you to navigate high-pressure situations confidently and effectively.

This program is a concentration of ASU’s online primary Master of Arts in emergency management and homeland security degree. You’ll take a number of the same courses as the general program, but with two courses focused on biosecurity and threat management.

How biodefense and biosecurity compare

Biodefense, a subset of biosecurity, focuses on protecting human health and the environment from biological agents used as weapons. It involves developing medical countermeasures, such as vaccines and treatments, and creating strategies for detecting and responding to biological threats.

Biosecurity, on the other hand, focuses on preventing the accidental or intentional release of harmful biological agents. This includes safeguarding dangerous materials from theft or loss and ensuring their safe handling and storage through strict policies and procedures.

With rising concerns about biological weapons and infectious disease outbreaks, biodefense is rapidly growing. Increased investments from governments, research institutions and private organizations have created a strong demand for professionals in this field.

This program equips you with the skills to strategically manage hazards and build community resilience in the face of disasters. You’ll develop the expertise to lead communities through complex challenges while promoting risk reduction and capacity building.

Upon graduation, you’ll be prepared for rewarding careers within the government, nonprofit and private sectors. Roles are available in diverse fields, including public health, sustainability and traditional emergency management paths. This program is also highly relevant to the private sector, where corporations increasingly rely on professionals to oversee security operations, ensure supply chain resilience and mitigate risks.

The skills you’ll develop in this program

This interdisciplinary master’s combines broad strategic insights with practical, applied knowledge, preparing you to address the complex challenges of the 21st century. You’ll develop key skills in GIS, quantitative and policy analysis, program evaluation, decision-support technologies and more. Coursework also emphasizes governance, inter-agency coordination and cross-sector collaboration, preparing you to navigate the complexities of managing emergencies across diverse organizations.

This program is a concentration of ASU’s online primary Master of Arts in emergency management and homeland security degree. You’ll take most of the same courses as the general program, but two will focus on emergency management.

Public safety administration involves managing public resources and people to anticipate and respond to events that threaten the health and welfare of the general public. In this program, you'll develop the strategic mindset and practical skills to guide public safety agencies through both daily operations and transformational change.

Courses emphasize the skills needed to manage and coordinate emergency response services. You’ll also become prepared to work behind the scenes to ensure fire, police and other crisis response teams have the resources and support to deliver lifesaving assistance to communities in need.

Tailor your studies to fit your career goals

This program offers flexibility, allowing you to explore the field broadly or specialize in your studies. If you're passionate about a specific area of public safety administration, you can customize your learning path by pursuing one of ASU’s online concentrations, such as:

• Emergency medical services – mobile integrated healthcare
  • Prepares professionals to lead emergency response teams, manage crisis situations and develop strategies for community resilience.
• Executive fire administration
  • Focuses on developing advanced leadership skills for experienced fire service professionals, including expanding management and decision-making abilities to enhance fire service operations and community safety.
• Executive police administration
  • Equips senior police officers for top leadership roles, emphasizing advanced strategies in police management and operational oversight.

During this emergency management and homeland security master’s program, you’ll address a set of challenges related to hazard risk reduction and resilience capacity promotion. You’ll also learn strategies that communities, nations and international systems can implement to prevent large-scale disasters. These strategies focus on responding to hazards such as natural disasters, cyber attacks or acts of terrorism. Upon completing this program, you’ll be equipped with the abilities to coordinate emergency response, reduce hazard risk, promote public safety and strengthen community resilience.

Tailor your skillset with one of five degree concentrations

This program places a central emphasis on interdisciplinary learning because emergency, disaster, public safety and homeland security challenges cut across multiple professional domains. Concepts from different fields, such as public policy, geography, social work and criminal justice, are blended to enhance critical thinking within emergency management and homeland security. In this program, you’ll gain a broad understanding of related issues from resilience and sustainability to risk and vulnerability.

You’ll complete a set of core courses and have the option to select one of the five program concentrations. Adding a concentration helps you develop specialized skills in a specific area within the field that directly relates to your career goals and professional development interests. The five available concentrations include:

• Biosecurity and threat management
• Community resilience
• Cybersecurity policy and management
• Emergency management
• Homeland security

Who’s a good candidate for this master’s program?

Ideal candidates for this master’s program include those with previous work or educational experience in emergency management and homeland security. By earning this degree, you’ll be prepared to work for government agencies at the local, state and federal levels. You may also apply for jobs with public safety, health or security groups in the nonprofit sector. Graduates can also pursue roles in private security and technology companies.