In 2014, the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD), founded the Emergency Preparedness Interagency Collaborative (EPIC), a joint partnership between public safety agencies and public and private education institutions in the Greater Irvine area. IUSD recognized early on while evaluating their emergency management program that effective planning and development were not done in isolation and it was critical for IUSD to participate regularly in high-level discussions with our community partners regarding emergency planning.