Deborah Higgins

Head of the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College

Deborah was appointed Head of EPC in March 2018 in a new role designed to lead and grow the EPC as the UK centre for resilience learning and development in the UK. Deborah’s previous role was as Head of Professional Development for the BCI, a global membership organisation with a focus on research, thought leadership, and learning and development. She was awarded her Fellowship of the Institute in 2018.

Deborah has a background in Emergency Planning, response and recovery in local government and the Police both in Canada and in the UK. She was a member of the first multi-agency provincial wide exercise team in preparation for a pandemic. In the UK she was an active member of a Local Resilience Forum representing the Police.

Deborah has played a proactive part in UK resilience and internationally as a UK Principal Expert to the International Standards Organisation. As a practitioner Deborah has contributed to the work on developing many British and International standards and industry guidelines, including crisis management, organisational resilience and as editor-in-chief of the 2018 good practice guidelines for business continuity.