CDP alum recognized by partner training organization

A Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) grad was recognized this week for delivering more than 40 classes and training nearly 600 responders and others in bombing prevention awareness and preparedness in fiscal year 2023.

Diogenes Ayala, director of the Madison County, Iowa, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, was recognized in a brief ceremony by officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Office of Bombing Prevention (OBP), one of the CDP’s training partners.

He was attending OBP’s Bombing Prevention for Empowered Trainers Train-the-Trainer Course on the CDP campus. The course helps improve the nation’s Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) capabilities by teaching attendees how to deliver CISA’s C-IED curriculum to responders and others in their communities.

“Individuals and groups attending included those from churches and schools,” said Ayala of the training he delivered.

“It’s good to work in an area where so many people are interested in increasing their knowledge about such things,” he added.

Ayala is a big proponent of that philosophy himself.

After becoming Madison County’s EMA director in early 2021, Ayala looked to the CDP’s training catalog to broaden his disaster response capabilities. He subsequently completed seven web-based courses in 2021, three web-based courses in 2022, and attended the CDP’s resident Basic Emergency Response Training Course. He’s also a graduate of the CDP’s resident Hazardous Materials Operations and Hazardous Materials Technician courses.

Ayala has also attended several OBP courses, in addition to those he delivers for the organization and the one he’s attending.