Ground truth
Practitioner-authored perspectives from Jim Featherstone on the structural challenges of crisis and emergency management. Five articles. One conversation the field needs to have.
A BLOG SERIES FROM JIM FEATHERSTONE & BENT EAR SOLUTIONS FOR THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY
James ‘Jim’ Featherstone
Former General Manager of the
Los Angeles Emergency Management Department
ABOUT THE SERIES
What is the Ground Truth series?
Ground Truth is a five-part practitioner-authored series examining the structural tensions, unresolved arguments, and practical frameworks that define crisis and emergency management today. Each entry draws on Jim Featherstone’s more than three decades of operational experience spanning fire service, emergency management, federal advisory roles, and active disaster recovery leadership.
The arguments are grounded in operational reality. The language is plain. The audience is working practitioners, planners, operations leaders, and the technology partners who support them.
“The problem is not a shortage of plans.
It is a shortage of adaptive thinking.”
TWO OF FIVE ENTRIES PUBLISHED
Read the series
THE AUTHOR
Jim Featherstone
James ‘Jim’ Featherstone has over thirty years in public safety and emergency management, beginning with the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1986 and including his service as Interim Fire Chief.
He was appointed General Manager of the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department in 2007, leading citywide preparedness and resilience efforts until 2016. He later served as the Founder & Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council. Recently, he returned to active service in 2025 to support Los Angeles wildfire response and recovery operations.
Today, Jim Featherstone is an Executive Consultant in Emergency Management for Bent Ear Solutions and Principal Consultant & Owner of Themata Strategic.
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