In October 2010, Harvard Educational Review editor Raygine DiAquoi interviewed Maryse Desgrottes, the mother of a close friend and a visible presence in the relief efforts in Petit Goave, Haiti. Desgrottes, a former physician's assistant turned educator and school superintendent, shares the story of her involvement in Haiti's relief efforts since…

Academic technologists at Lynn University (Florida) learned the hard way just how important a disaster recovery plan can be. Back in 2005, when Hurricane Wilma walloped the region with driving rain and 120 mile-per-hour winds, the storm debilitated Lynn's IT department, causing damage and flooding that thwarted the campus network for nearly two…

On Friday, March 11, 2011, one of the worst disasters in the world hit the country of Japan. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, forever changing the lives of the people and the state of the country. Not only were lives lost and homes destroyed, the tsunami that followed caused numerous nuclear accidents around the Fukushima…

A week after Hurricane Gustav unleashed its fury on Gulf Coast colleges, students and faculty members are returning to campuses where the disruption was minimized not only by the weakening of the storm, but also by the meticulous planning that went into evacuations. Campuses were emptied with lock-step precision--students were bused to evacuation…

This guide offers best practices for disaster management at child welfare agencies. Its recommendations are firmly rooted in published disaster-related research and the advice of human service and preparedness experts. It is not a reinvention of disaster management--much quality work has been done in this field--but a synthesis of experts'…

As the reconstruction efforts continue in China in the wake of the Great Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008, the China Development Research Foundation, with the support of the OECD Centre for Effective Learning Environments, organised an International Training Programme on the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction of Public Facilities from 1 to 11 December…

Within an incredibly short period--perhaps less than twenty-four months--the need for emergency preparedness has risen to a higher level of urgency than at any other time in the history of academe. Large or small, public or private, higher education institutions are seriously considering the dual problems of notification and communications…

This article presents part 2 of the series on emergency preparedness. Here, the author offers suggestions that exceptional families can use to prepare for emergencies. While the circumstances--terrorist events, disease epidemics, natural disasters--may vary, emergency preparedness experts agree on one thing: It is important for families,…

Human systems have to adapt to climate change and the natural disasters predicted to increase in frequency as a result. These disasters have both direct and indirect health effects. Certain groups, the poor, the elderly, children and those with disabilities are set to be more seriously impacted by disasters because of their greater inherent…

This article presents the testimony by Dr. Melissa Reeves, a school psychologist and faculty member in the school psychology program at Winthrop University. Dr. Reeves shares her view of the critical role schools must play in crisis response and recovery. In addition to being a graduate educator and a consulting school psychologist, Dr. Reeves is…

For health educators to successfully meet the challenges of responding to public health emergencies, it is important to establish and understand the role of collaborations with local, state and federal partners in identifying potential public health issues and to develop theory-based models or strategies to address these issues before, during and…

Administrators are continually seeking university-community engagement. Continuing education departments are in a unique position to further these initiatives by connecting academic faculty, staff, and students with emerging community needs. This article provides a model to demonstrate the significant role continuing educators can play in…

In June the U.S Climate Change Science Program, which is sponsored by 13 government agencies, released a report saying that extreme weather like heat waves, heavy downpours, and superpowered hurricanes would be more common in the future. The timing of the report--coming just as officials in Iowa were surveying the damage from the swollen Iowa…

There, undoubtedly, will be a flurry of research activity in the "Superstorm" Sandy impact area on a myriad of disaster-related topics, across academic disciplines. The purpose of this study was to review the disaster research related specifically to hurricanes in the educational and social sciences that would best serve as a compendium…

In emergency management, scientific models are widely used for running hazard simulations and estimating losses often in support of planning and mitigation efforts. This work expands utility of the scientific model into the response phase of emergency management. The focus is on the common operating picture as it gives context to emergency…