The new emergency management coordinator at West Virginia University spent much of his childhood hanging out at the fire station in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, instead of participating in activities many typical kids his age were doing at the time.

A native of Uniontown, Jim Bittner always had a passion for emergency response, and after spending 26 years working in his hometown just across the state line from Morgantown, he joined the WVU Police Department this fall.

“I just felt at home at WVU,” Bittner, the father of twin 6-year-old boys, said. “I’ve always been a West Virginia football fan and it just clicked. Even after my first week, my wife told me I was a changed person. My whole outlook has changed since becoming a Mountaineer.”

Bittner has used his first couple of months at WVU to get acclimated with the University and understand the layout of all the buildings across the Morgantown Campus.

One of his biggest projects is to maintain emergency plans to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff.

In case of an incident on campus, Bittner wants to help the department maintain its working relationships with emergency personnel throughout Monongalia County, including the various police and fire departments as well as emergency medical services.

The Morgantown Campus — including the Downtown, Evansdale and Health Sciences areas — has 245 buildings, and Bittner is tasked with learning the emergency plans for all of them.

“It will definitely be a challenge, but this is a newer position within the department, so it will be up to me and the department to see how we want to go about creating these plans moving forward,” he said.

Emergency management planning responsibilities were held by an officer in the department prior to Bittner’s arrival. Now, with a position solely dedicated to this important area, Bittner looks forward to building up WVU emergency management plans and working with the University community and surrounding Morgantown area.

Prior to his time at WVU, Bittner served in many positions in Fayette County. He started his career as a 911 dispatcher, progressed to a supervisor, then to the position of a planner with duties assisting in emergency management, and eventually to the lead planner and training officer.

Bittner earned an associate’s degree from Westmoreland County Community College in Pennsylvania in fire science, which allowed him to enroll in an online program at West Texas A&M in emergency management.

His first day of classes was scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001, but that was delayed following the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“In Shanksville, I was on a dial-up internet connection logging in to tell my professor I didn’t know when I’d be able to get in to do what I had to do. We were deployed to Shanksville for the first 48 hours after the incident.

“That was a sign for me that emergency management might be my niche.”

That niche has helped him fulfill nearly three decades of service to emergency management and local government, and now Bittner is ready for the challenge ahead at WVU.

“This is just the right fit,” he said. “The people and the opportunity are why I’m here. It just felt like the right move.”