Neil McDevitt

Program Director
Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network (CEPIN)

Neil McDevitt is the Program Director for the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network (CEPIN) and manages deliveries of its DHS-certified "Emergency Responders and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Community: Taking the First Steps to Disaster Preparedness" curriculum.
The class is the first of its kind nationwide to focus on the implications of a specific disability population in emergency management and also bring the two groups together in a structured setting.

He is also involved with DHS's Citizen Corps Subcommittee on Disabilities as well as the National Response Plan and National Incident Management System working groups for special needs populations.

As a volunteer firefighter in suburban Philadelphia, McDevitt is one of a handful of emergency responders in the country who are also profoundly deaf. In addition to hands-on fire and rescue experience with the Fire Department of Montgomery Township, he has provided fire safety presentations to deaf children and adults and given non-verbal communication classes to firefighters, police officers and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).