The Arkansas Tech University Department of Emergency Management presented former department head and faculty member Ed Leachman with a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his service to the department and the profession on Wednesday, April 12.
Leachman served as a full-time faculty member at ATU from 2004-11.
He was instrumental in the process that allowed the Arkansas Tech degree programs in emergency management to become the first in the world to earn accreditation from the Foundation on Higher Education in Disaster/Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Leachman also provided leadership in offering the ATU emergency management degrees online.
After his retirement as interim department head on Dec. 31, 2011, Leachman remained active in the ATU Department of Emergency Management as an adjunct professor.
“This man could take a problem, question or idea, and he’d listen and circle back around with a solution to an issue that had otherwise been determined impossible to solve,” said Beth Gray, associate professor of emergency management, during the presentation of the award. “If we stumbled, he would shore us up. He was always available for students, and he met them where they were in their education and development.”
Leachman received the award during day one of the fifth annual Arkansas Tech University Emergency Management and Homeland Security Conference at the W.O. Young Building Ballroom.
Learn more about the EMHS Conference.
Photographed (from left-to-right): Dr. Sandy Smith, head of the ATU Department of Emergency Management; Dr. Neal Barlow, dean of the ATU College of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Ed Leachman, lifetime achievement award recipient; Beth Gray, associate professor of emergency management; and Dr. Jamie Earls, assistant professor of emergency management.
