James Zerylnick

Clinical Operations Manager

Professional Website

Institute for Disaster Management

Jim is the Clinical Operations Manager and a Clinical Adjunct Instructor at the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Institute for Disaster Management. He is a Registered Nurse (RN) and a licensed paramedic.

Jim has experience in the prehospital, public safety, emergency management, and hospital emergency settings in Atlanta, GA and elsewhere. He is well-versed in emergency management, training and exercise development and delivery, curriculum development, and tactical medicine. He holds the designation of Emergency Management Healthcare Professional (EMHP) via the Georgia Department of Public Health as well as Certified Emergency Manager – Georgia (CEM-GA) from GEMA. He also holds multiple instructor certifications in different disciplines / courses. He considers himself to be a lifelong student of disasters and emergency response.

Jim has been a contributor to multiple nationally-standardized disaster-medicine courses such as Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS), Advanced Disaster Life Support (ADLS), Core Disaster Life Support (CDLS), and the National Disaster Life Support (NDLS) Instructor program. He has extensive experience in teaching, coordinating, and organizing course offerings within Georgia and in multiple locations throughout the United States. In addition to training, he has assisted in the creation of multiple NDLS Training Centers in various states following the 9/11 attacks. He has also contributed to the development and teaching of multiple Highly Infectious Disease / Special Pathogens Courses for prehospital personnel, such as the Biosafety Transport (BST) course (Operations-level and Technician-level) and the Infectious Disease Transportation Network (IDTN) courses (Operations-level, Technician-level, and Advanced Skills Course).

In his role at IDM, he assists with teaching, training, developing courses (academic and continuing education), plan writing, supervision, and various other preparedness and safety-related projects. Jim enjoys finding ever newer and lamer prizes to award to enthusiastic class participants.