KU News Release

KU hires law enforcement veteran as emergency management coordinator

John Marmon

LAWRENCE — To help keep the University of Kansas prepared for any natural or manmade disaster, KU officials have named a law enforcement veteran with experience in Homeland Security Operations as its emergency management coordinator.

John Marmon, who spent 27 years with the Kansas Highway Patrol, began his new role with KU’s Public Safety Office in January.

“Safety is a priority for the university,” said KU Police Chief Ralph Oliver. “John’s position represents part of our continual efforts to ensure a safe, responsive environment.”

Marmon’s responsibilities will include helping the university meet National Incident Management System standards developed by the Department of Homeland Security. NIMS establishes a uniform set of procedures that emergency responders at all levels of government will use to conduct response operations. Marmon has been an instructor in NIMS-related courses for law enforcement personnel.

Such standardization is key in a major event that brings together more than one agency, said Marmon, noting he used his NIMS expertise while assisting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“If we’re standardized, I can walk into an incident in Mississippi, and I know what to do,” he said.

Such consistency will lead to a safer campus and quicker response time in emergencies, Marmon and Oliver emphasized. Marmon will work with officials campuswide to better prepare the university. He also will work to update and streamline KU’s plans for emergencies.

“An emergency plan is a living, breathing document,” he said. “Revisions will be ongoing.”

In the highway patrol, Marmon was an instructor on critical incident command and response to domestic terrorism. He also has taught classes on weapons of mass destruction and the incident command system. In addition to aiding Hurricane Katrina recovery, he was deployed to Greensburg after a tornado devastated the community. He also responded to major flooding and an oil spill in Montgomery County in July 2007.

Before joining the patrol in 1980, Marmon was a patrolman in his hometown of Garnett. He joined the Kansas Highway Patrol in 1980 and was assigned to road patrol duties in the Emporia area. In 2000, Marmon transferred to the patrol’s Emergency Operations division. He joined Homeland Security Operations in 2004, the year the division was formed.

Marmon earned an associate’s degree in police science from Allen County Community College and a bachelor’s in business administration from Baker University.

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