RCAP Staff Boast Recent Certifications

In mid-November, Senior Rural Community Development Specialist Trina Woodland and Community Grants Specialist Ben Martens attended the Ohio Conference of Community Development’s Training and Networking Conference in Lewis Center, Ohio, as the culmination of their Community Development Certification program. The certification is a curriculum of training topics for Community Development professionals to understand CDBG program regulations along with the overlay of Federal Crosscutting requirements they manage on a daily basis.

Trina and Ben completed training courses focused on CDBG requirements, environmental review, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage, and income determination for CDBG eligibility as part of this program over the past year. The two have now earned their Community Development Certification, which is initially valid for two years, and will take continuing education courses annually to maintain active status.

The certification and continuing education opportunities are vital to serving GLCAP’s client communities, as the regulations and requirements for CDBG are constantly changing. OCCD’s program helps to ensure that staff like Trina and Ben stay on top of CDBG so they can provide expert technical assistance.

Illinois RCAP Operator Tony Brown and Senior Rural Development Specialist Justin Root recently completed the US Department of Homeland Security training for Cyber Security Auditing of Critical Infrastructure (Water & Wastewater Facilities) certification. The training entailed about 3-4 hours of interactive web-based classes and activities to teach the future "Auditor" of understanding current threats in the Cyber World, how to stay on top of those and to use the CPG Software to perform audits for Cyber Security in Critical Infrastructure environments. 

Morgan Hershey, Kentucky Senior Rural Development Specialist, earned her Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Infrastructure Protection Certificate, where she enriched her knowledge of and skills in critical infrastructure security and resilience. She gained a broad understanding of homeland security infrastructure protection doctrine through an in-depth examination of key concepts and practices in capabilities-based and community-focused planning, integrated risk management, private-public partnerships, and whole community resilience strategies. She has also completed her Infrastructure Disaster Management Certificate with TEEX.