In 2002, the State University of West Georgia initiated a Center for Traumatology to provide training for first responders, i.e., police, firefighters, nurses. This program was to be a certification training program that would offer qualified individuals the opportunity to become behavioral trauma specialists. The program was to explore the physical and emotional aspects of trauma, on-site crisis intervention strategies, and cultural issues in diverse populations using both individual and group intervention techniques.

The training center was to be headed by Dr. Bruce Brewer, Director of UWG’s Career Services and executive director of the Institute for Organizational Change with assistance from Pamela Howard and Michelle Fambro, the Center’s director and associate director, who had assisted with crises including 9/11 and the bombing of Centennial Park, and also Dr. Larry Schor of the SUWG Psychology Department. The program had state-wide backing from people such as Ralph Stone of the GBI; Gary McConnell, director of the Georgia Emergency Management Association; and Buster Meadows, Chief of Police for the City of Newnan. A 15,000 grant was secured with the help of Tracy Stallings, Jack West, Senator Nathan Dean, and Governor Roy Barnes. In the end, the program was not implemented due to differences of opinion over how the program should be handled between the Psychology Department and the Center for Traumatology.