Credentialing Program

Emergency Operations Centers

Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) across the state play a critical role in managing emergencies, disasters and planned events at every level. By bringing together representatives from diverse organizations, Emergency Operations Centers facilitate the flow of resources and information across organizational lines. Emergency Operations Centers vary widely — some support multiple disciplines in a single jurisdiction and some support a single discipline across multiple jurisdictions. All operate under varying authorities with diverse resources and missions.

The Emergency Operations Center Personnel Credentialing Framework (EOC PCF) provides a framework to support the creation of Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) EOC credentialing plans in Washington state.

The goal of the EOC PCF is to provide a framework, based on which, EOCs throughout the state can develop and implement their own credentialing plans based on their organizational structure, and personnel assignments. The EOC PCF is intended to promote uniformity in approach to credentialing EOC personnel across jurisdictions while also supporting diversity in specific credentials and practices to best meet the needs of each jurisdiction and agency.

Emergency Operations Center Documents

Washington Emergency Operations Center Personnel Credentialing Framework (2023)

Incident Management Teams

Qualification standards are essential to Washington’s emergency management community to ensure that individuals or members of an All-Hazards Incident Management Team (AHIMT) follow unified attributes and conformed standards. These standards allow any community to plan for, request and utilize these resources with high confidence in their technical and professional abilities. Qualification standards ensure unity of effort for response personnel to be matched by a community's request and bolsters effective resource management of deployed responders.

Implementation of Washington AHIMT position qualification standards ensures that both the requesting community and providing entity in Washington, or from another state, receive qualified incident management personnel (skills, experience and technical abilities) using the equivalent certification criteria. The Washington Emergency Management Division is committed to improving emergency management and response capabilities for members of any AHIMT throughout Washington.

The state of Washington adopted the All-Hazards Incident Management Team Association (AHIMTA) Interstate Incident Management Qualifications System Guide (IIMQS) in 2022. The IIMQS provides a framework of best practices to develop, assess, apply and sustain a qualification program for All-Hazards incident management personnel. It promotes a common understanding of the fundamental standards to be used by the certification body for individuals to develop and certify toward the National Incident System (NIMS) Incident Command System (ICS) credentialing structure.

Incident Management Qualification Documents

Washington Incident Management Qualification Program (PDF)

All-Hazards Incident Management Team Position Task Books

All documents below are PDFs. 

AH Incident Commander
AH Liaison Officer
AH Safety Officer
AH Public Information Officer
AH Operations Section Chief
AH Planning Section Chief
AH Logistics Section Chief
AH Finance Admin Section Chief