About Us

About Prepared Campus Consulting

At Prepared Campus Consulting, we specialize in helping campuses:

·    Identify and mitigate risks to prevent campus crises 

·    Prepare for crises with well-developed plans and training 

·    Take appropriate actions when a campus crisis occurs

·    Develop resiliency to continue operations with minimum interruption to services and lives.

Our Story

Our Founder and President, Brent Paterson, did not intend to be engaged in crisis management in his career.  It just happened and he could not walk away.

His introduction to crisis management in higher education occurred in 1994 when the university where he was employed suffered a student death at an orientation program.  The vice president approached him and said we did not handle the situation well and I want you to find a better way to handle such situations in the future.  At that time emergency plans and crisis teams were not common on college campuses.  What plans and processes that did exist focused solely on the emergency responders’ role in a crisis.  There had to be a better way.

Brent and his staff which included Gene Zdziarski, now Senior Vice President of Prepared Campus Consulting, created the Critical Incident Response Team to coordinate the university's response to critical incidents involving students, paying special attention to the safety and security needs of members of the university community. Over the next five years, the team would respond to numerous crises involving students to include traffic accidents, apartment fires, lab explosions, plane crashes, and a campus tragedy involving 12 student deaths, and more than 25 students admitted to hospitals with injuries.   Bill Kibler, Kevin Jackson, and Terry Pankratz, also partners in Prepared Campus Consulting, were engaged in response to the campus tragedy as well before moving on to other institutions.

We learned much during that time, adapted our crisis plans and teams to other campuses where we worked, and shared what we continued to learn with others through publications and presentations.  When we moved on to other institutions, we remained enaged in crisis preparedness and response at those institutions.  Other members of our team share similar experiences in finding themselves engaged in crisis management at instiutions where they work(ed) and being thrust into leadership roles.

Upon his retirement, Brent sought a way to give back to his profession and higher education.  He contacted valued colleagues with experience in crisis management in higher education, shared his vision for a crisis consulting group that took a comprehensive approach to emergency management and that emphasized responding with compassion, understanding that crises create hardships for those directly impacted, those who experience secondary effects, and those responding to a crisis.  He found that his colleagues shared in his vision and were willing to devote their time and resources to founding the crisis consulting group now known as Prepared Campus Consulting.

We have been deliberate in ensuring that we developed a quality product that will benefit colleges and universities looking to improve their preparations for a crisis on their campuses.  We do not offer cookie cutter solutions.  We work with each institution to craft plans, training, and solutions to meet the special needs of that institution. 

We sought other experts in emergency and crisis management to join our group and were met with sincere interest and commitment to the group and to helping colleges and universities be successful in crisis preparations and response.

Let us help you be prepared for the next crisis to strike your campus.