Terry Lightheart-Sadler
Assessment Coordinator
Terry serves as the EMAP Assessment Coordinator. She is responsible for coordinating the accreditation application life cycle for EM programs including training customer coaching, records and application management, communications campaigns, program planning, and follow-up. She also helps to produce FEMA Grant reports for EMAP and assists in the development of the EMAP Annual Assessment Analysis Report. She became a Certified Emergency Manager in 2016 and has been the chair of the IAEM-USA Strategic Planning Committee and Faith-Based Organizations Caucus, and vice chair of the Bylaws Committee. Terry has been an EMAP assessor since 2013. Previously, Terry was the director of emergency disaster services, for the Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi Division of the Salvation Army. She also has worked for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency as the director of the Office of Preparedness and the hurricane program manager. Terry also has held positions with the Mississippi Department of Health (senior all-hazards planner), the Central Mississippi Chapter of the American Red Cross (emergency services manager), and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–Jackson, Mississippi (public relations director). Besides being a member of IAEM, Terry is a member of the Board of the Mississippi Crisis Response Network and vice president of the Mississippi Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters. She graduated cum laude in 2013 from Jacksonville State University with a B.S. degree in Emergency Management with a minor in Homeland Security. She was a member of the Epsilon Pi Phi National Emergency Management Honor Society. Terry joined ASMI in 2023.