Ithaca College

After serving for this past year as part of the Ithaca College team managing care for students in COVID isolation and quarantine, Samm Swarts is stepping into a new role as Assistant Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, in the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management.

Swarts will be responsible for planning for and implementing responses to major campus threats, ranging from pandemics, natural disasters, and fires to active attacker incidents. He will identify risks, prepare contingency and recovery plans, and manage resources during a crisis, enhancing and maintaining the college’s ability to recognize and respond to emergencies and effectively manage critical situations. He will also develop and maintain relationships with campus stakeholders and with external emergency response agencies at the local, state, and federal levels, to facilitate interagency operations during emergencies.

Reporting to Director of Public Safety and Emergency Management Bill Kerry, Swarts will also receive guidance and oversight from the college’s senior leadership team and the co-chairs of the Ithaca College Core Emergency Response Team (CERT). Plans for this new position have been in development for the past year as part of the college’s efforts to enhance the overall safety, support, continuity, and well-being of the campus community, which include the fall 2020 launch of the Rave Guardian mobile app.

For 2020-21, Swarts served as a Case Manager within the college’s COVID-19 pandemic infrastructure and was an instrumental member of the team that coordinated quarantine and isolation housing and related policies. He also shared responsibility for supervising the 15 Student Health Emergency Liaison (SHEL) interns. He worked closely with Director of Public Health Emergency Preparedness Christina Moylan and served on numerous committees responsible for implementing the college’s COVID-19 response. With Moylan transitioning back to her position as Associate Dean in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, Swarts will assume a COVID-19 response leadership role through the end of the 2021 calendar year.

Swarts brings expertise from the Offices of Residence Life and Student Conduct and Community Standards to this new position. He joined the college in 2018 as a Residence Director and oversaw the daily coordination of six residence halls, including a student population of 700, and supervised a staff of nine Resident Assistants/Apartment Assistants. He also acted as a Judicial Hearing Officer, hearing student conduct cases concerning improper use of alcohol, drug violations, Title IX incidents, and other policy violations.

Before his work at the college, Swarts served as the Residence Life Coordinator at Elmira College and a Residence Director for Lincoln Memorial University. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Lincoln Memorial and is currently working toward a doctorate in business administration from the same institution.