Tom Carney

Mr. Tom Carney is a master instructor with Iowa Central Community College, an academic partner of the RDPC.

Mr. Carney is a media consultant and trainer who developed the course, Dealing with the Media: A Short Course for Rural First Responders. He has taught the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Basic Public Information Officer Course (IG-290) for several years and has provided extensive media training to state government, businesses and organizations.

Mr. Carney is also certified as a mediator, frequently doing offender-victim mediations for the Polk County, Iowa, attorney’s office, and is a certified Family Team Meeting facilitator for the Iowa Department of Human Services. His company, Carney Consulting, LLC, provides courses on customer Spanish and business writing, as well as courses to government, business and organizations.

In 2004, Carney took early retirement from the Iowa Department of Public Health where he held several positions, including director of the Division of Communications, Planning and Personnel, which included public information. Before that, he was an editor and writer at The Des Moines Register for 22 years. Previously, he worked briefly for two weekly Iowa newspapers after working for six years as a Catholic priest in Kansas City, Missouri and Bolivia, South America.

Mr. Carney completed the science writers’ program at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and was a fellow at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. He has a master of science degree in journalism/mass communication from Iowa State University, and a master of arts degree in religion from Immaculate Conception Seminary in Conception, Missouri. He is also bilingual in Spanish and English.