Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Senior Advisor to provide executive-level consultation, strategic guidance, quality oversight, and stakeholder engagement support to FEMA’s National Training and Education Division, or NTED, and its Training Partners Program.

The selected professional will serve as a trusted advisor to Ascension’s project leadership and FEMA stakeholders by helping ensure that federally funded training programs are strategically aligned, operationally sound, technically credible, and capable of producing consistently high-quality training for first responders, emergency managers, and public officials.

This role is suited for an experienced management consultant, emergency management executive, training-program advisor, government program leader, or former senior federal official who can evaluate complex information, identify strategic and programmatic risks, advise decision-makers, and help diverse stakeholders reach defensible conclusions.

The strongest candidate will combine executive judgment with a practical understanding of federal program operations, emergency management, adult learning, curriculum review, stakeholder facilitation, quality assurance, and performance improvement. The individual must be comfortable entering complex situations, rapidly understanding the underlying issue, and providing clear recommendations with limited direction.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Advisor will provide high-level consultative support across the FEMA NTED Training Partners Program. The broader engagement supports curriculum review, instructor audits, grant-application review consultation and logistics, and Section 508 testing and evaluation. Its objective is to ensure that Training Partners Program funds result in the development and delivery of consistently high-quality training.

The Senior Advisor will not manage routine administrative work. Instead, this individual will be engaged at critical decision points where senior judgment, independent analysis, quality review, stakeholder alignment, or issue resolution is required. The advisor may review proposed methodologies, advise on difficult curriculum or program questions, assess risks, support consensus-building, review executive deliverables, and help the project team respond to complex FEMA or training-partner concerns.

The role requires a self-directed professional who can work in an ambiguous federal environment, distinguish strategic issues from operational details, anticipate problems, and communicate recommendations in a concise and credible manner. The advisor must also be capable of challenging assumptions professionally while supporting constructive working relationships among FEMA, training partners, subject matter experts, instructional designers, consultants, auditors, and project leadership.

The Government evaluates contractor performance based on timeliness, quality, organization and coordination, and effective reporting. Accordingly, the Senior Advisor must provide advice and work products that are accurate, actionable, well supported, and suitable for senior Government review.

Anticipated Day-to-Day and Periodic Activities

The Senior Advisor is expected to:

• ADVISE Ascension and FEMA project leadership on strategic, programmatic, operational, training, and stakeholder matters affecting the Training Partners Program.
• REVIEW complex curriculum-review findings, instructor-audit results, grant-review materials, executive reports, and recommendations before submission to FEMA.
• ASSESS whether proposed approaches, tools, review methodologies, and decisions align with NTED objectives, FEMA requirements, accepted industry practices, and the needs of first-responder training audiences.
• EVALUATE program risks, unresolved stakeholder concerns, quality issues, schedule pressures, and recurring process challenges.
• RECOMMEND practical corrective actions, decision options, risk responses, and process improvements to project leadership.
• ALIGN project recommendations and work products with FEMA mission priorities, NTED program goals, applicable training standards, and established quality expectations.
• FACILITATE or support senior-level discussions, review boards, advisory sessions, and consensus-building activities involving Government officials, training partners, subject matter experts, and contractor personnel.
• GUIDE the application of structured consensus-building methods, including the Delphi Method or similar techniques, when used to gather expert input and reach defensible conclusions.
• RESOLVE or help mediate complex disagreements related to course development, instructional quality, audit findings, grant reviews, stakeholder expectations, or recommended corrective actions.
• PROVIDE independent quality assurance of briefing materials, decision memoranda, assessment reports, review findings, and other high-visibility deliverables.
• IDENTIFY strategic gaps, inconsistencies, unsupported conclusions, emerging risks, and issues requiring escalation.
• MENTOR project managers, consultants, management analysts, instructional personnel, and subject matter experts on advisory practices, stakeholder management, analysis, and executive communication.
• SYNTHESIZE technical, instructional, operational, and stakeholder information into concise findings and recommendations for senior decision-makers.
• SUPPORT curriculum and training-program reviews by interpreting findings in the context of emergency management doctrine, first-responder needs, adult learning, training quality, and program outcomes.
• ADVISE on review-board structure, decision criteria, governance, escalation procedures, and documentation requirements.
• CONTRIBUTE to lessons learned, annual reports, special studies, executive briefings, and recommendations for continuous improvement.
• PARTICIPATE in scheduled or ad hoc virtual meetings, teleconferences, in-person sessions, and occasional travel events when senior advisory support is needed.
• MAINTAIN independence, confidentiality, professional objectivity, and appropriate contractor identification in all communications.