Fall 2010
Lawyers and Emergency Management: An Opportunity for Collaboration
Speaker: Anthony (Tony) Barash, Advanced Leadership Fellow, Harvard University, and Former Director, American Bar Association's Center for Pro Bono
Date & Time: Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 5:30 PM
Location: Taubman 301
The Program on Crisis Leadership and the HKS Crisis Management Student Group welcomed Tony Barash, a fellow with Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and past director of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center for Pro Bono. In this seminar, Mr. Barash presented on the ongoing integration of the legal profession into the broader emergency management community, focusing on ABA's involvement in post-Katrina relief and recovery and his experience as an advisor to the federal government during the BP oil spill. Barash concluded with comments on remaining challenges and possible paths forward for the improved provision of legal services and aid during disaster response and recovery efforts.
Mr. Barash is an attorney with extensive experience in private and corporate practice. While at the Center for Pro Bono, he became particularly interested in national initiatives to provide legal assistance to victims of major disasters and in international initiatives to enhance the rule of law and equal access to justice abroad.
Breaking through Bureaucracy for Speedy Recovery: Lessons Learned from Post-Tsunami Indonesia
A Harvard Disaster Management in Asia Seminar
Speakers: Margareth (Maggy) Horhoruw, former member of Director’s Office, Indonesian Tsunami Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR), and Doug Ahlers, Adjunct Lecturer (HKS)
Date & Time: Thursday, November 18, 2010, 5:00 PM
Location: Taubman 301
The massive December 26, 2004 tsunami that devastated coastal areas along the Indian Ocean caused particularly extensive damage in northern Sumatra, where destructive waves traveled more than five kilometers inland and tragically killed well over 100,000 area residents. In this session of PCL's “Disaster Management in Asia” seminar series, Maggy Horhoruw, formerly with the Director’s Office of the Indonesian Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR), highlighted lessons learned from the massive recovery effort that followed the tsunami, which involved not only scores of Indonesian governmental agencies, but hundreds of international donors and aid organizations as well.
Doug Ahlers, a PCL faculty affiliate and adjunct lecturer in public policy, who teaches the course “Disaster Recovery Management and Urban Development: Rebuilding New Orleans,” served as discussant, linking Ms. Horhoruw’s observations to other major recovery efforts.
Sponsored by the Program on Crisis Leadership and the Harvard University Asia Center.
Crisis Management with US and Chinese Characteristics
Speaker: Arnold M. Howitt, Executive Director, Ash Center, and Faculty Co-Director, Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
Date & Time: Friday, November 5, 2010, 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Location: 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Room 226
Arnold M. Howitt is Executive Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Faculty Co-Director of the Program on Crisis Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. He has worked extensively on emergency preparedness issues in the US and other countries. Dr. Howitt has conducted research on emergency evacuation from major disasters in the US; served as an adviser and trainer-of-trainers for the Chinese Academy of Governance’s new National Institute of Emergency Management; and worked with the government of Indonesia to develop training programs for central and provincial government officials. In this 5th session of the HKS China Scholar Council's Academic Lecture Series, Dr. Howitt compared how governments in the US and China prepare for, respond to, and recover from major emergency events. He used several recent disasters as case studies, including Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the 2008 China blizzards and ice storms, and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
The Floods in Pakistan: Acute Catastrophe, Long-Term Disruption
Speakers: Moderated by Professor Sugata Bose, and with Professors Asad Ahmed (FAS), John Briscoe (SEAS and HSPH), Ali Cheema (Visiting Scholar), Asim Khwaja (HKS), and Dutch Leonard (HKS and HBS)
Date & Time: Thursday, October 14, 2010, 4:00 PM
Location: CGIS South Building, Seminar Room S250, 1730 Cambridge Street
Throughout the summer of 2010, severe flooding ravaged large parts of Pakistan, affecting millions of lives. In this panel discussion, Harvard faculty members from across the university explored both the immediate and long-term consequences of this far-reaching disaster, along with strategies for moving forward. Moderated by Professor Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Harvard University, and with Professors Asad Ahmed, Department of Anthropology, FAS; John Briscoe, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering, SEAS, and Professor of the Practice of Environmental Health, HSPH; Ali Cheema, Visiting Scholar, Lahore University of Management Sciences; Asim Khwaja, Professor of Public Policy, HKS; and PCL Faculty Co-Director Herman B. “Dutch” Leonard, George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Management, HKS, and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration, HBS.
Part of the Modern Asia Seminar Series (Harvard University Asia Center) and the Disaster Management in Asia Seminar Series (Harvard Kennedy School).
Sponsors: Harvard University Asia Center, Program on Crisis Leadership, and the South Asia Initiative.
For more on this event please read the Harvard Gazette article.
A Conversation With FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino
Speaker: Richard Serino, Deputy Administrator, FEMA
Date & Time: Friday, October 8, 2010, 10:00 AM
Location: Fainsod Room, Littauer 324, Harvard Kennedy School
Richard Serino began serving as FEMA Deputy Administrator in October 2009. In this role, he works directly with Administrator Craig Fugate to build, sustain, and improve the Department's capacity to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.
Mr. Serino brings 35 years of state and local emergency management and emergency medical services (EMS) experience to his position at FEMA. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Administrator, he served as Chief of Boston EMS and Assistant Director of the Boston Public Health Commission. In that role, he bolstered the city's response plans for major emergencies, including chemical, biological, and radiological attacks. He also led citywide planning for H1N1 influenza. Mr. Serino has served as an Incident Commander for over 35 mass casualty incidents and for all of Boston's major planned events, including the Boston Marathon, Boston's Fourth of July celebration, First Night, and the 2004 Democratic National Convention, a National Special Security Event.
Sponsored by the Crisis Management Student Group
Open House: Crisis Management Student Group and Program on Crisis Leadership
Speakers: Student Group Co-Chairs and PCL Faculty and Staff
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 5:30 PM
Location: Nye B, Taubman 5th Floor
Leaders of the HKS Crisis Management Student Group, along with faculty and staff affiliated with the Program on Crisis Leadership, welcomed HKS students back to campus at their fall 2010 open house and informational session. Student leaders overviewed their group's mission and activities, and PCL faculty discussed their research and academic interests. Afterwards, attendees mingled with other students interested in issues concerning disaster risk management and crisis leadership.
Spring 2010
Commanding in Time: Crisis Management when Life and Leadership are on the Line
Speaker: Joseph Pfeifer, Chief of Counterterrorism and Emergency Preparedness, New York City Fire Department
Date & Time: Monday, April 12, 2010, 4:30 PM
Location: Ash Center Conference Room, 2nd Floor North, 124 Mt. Auburn Street
Focusing on 9/11 and the emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549, Chief Pfeifer explored whether emergency responders would be able to command and respond in time to the next extreme event. Chief Pfeifer argued that Commanding in Time is the ability to recognize that the threat environment has changed and quickly move to a network system of command and control that can connect, collaborate and coordinate emergency response.
Chief Pfeifer is New York City Fire Department’s Chief of Counterterrorism and Emergency Preparedness. He is also a Citywide Command Chief, responsible for commanding major incidents. Pfeifer was the first Chief at the World Trade Center attack and survived the collapse of the towers. In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center, he assessed the Department’s 9/11/01 response, identified new budget and policy priorities, helped overhaul management practices, created partnerships to supplement the Department’s existing competencies with new expertise, shaped new technologies for emergency response and developed the FDNY’s first Strategic Plan and Terrorism Preparedness Strategy. With the support of the Fire Commissioner and Chief of Department, Chief Pfeifer founded and directs FDNY’s Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness.
On the Ground in Haiti: Observations about Rebuilding and Community Resilience
Speaker: Professor Reginald DesRoches, Associate Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Date & Time: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 5:00 PM
Location: Weil Town Hall, Belfer Building
The January 12, 2010 Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake resulted in one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern times. It is estimated that over 250,000 fatalities and over 300,000 injuries resulted from the earthquake, and, at the time of this event, over one million people remained homeless. The rebuilding community was challenged not only by the scale of the devastation, but also by the very real possibility that Port-au-Prince could face another devastating earthquake within the next one or two decades. In this talk, Dr. DesRoches highlighted the vulnerabilities that existed in Haiti and the opportunities for rebuilding for resilience and sustainability.
A native of Haiti, Reginald DesRoches's primary research interests include structural design and analysis; design of bridges and buildings; and the use of smart materials in earthquake engineering. In the month following the earthquake he led two technical reconnaissance teams to Haiti on behalf of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG).
What to Do in Haiti and How to Prevent the Next Haiti
Speaker: Dr. Edward Blakely
Date & Time: Friday, February 5, 2010, 10:30 AM
Location: Ash Center Conference Room, Room 226, Suite 200 North, 124 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge, MA
Dr. Blakely, the former disaster recovery czar in New Orleans is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has extensive experience in disaster recovery and urban risk policy.
Long-Term Life Recovery from a Mega-Disaster: Findings from 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005 Cross-Sectional and Panel Surveys of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake Survivors
Speaker: Dr. Shigeo Tatsuki, Professor, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan
Date & Time: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 4:00 PM
Location: Weil Town Hall, Belfer Building
Long-Term Disaster Recovery Processes: Lessons Learned from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake
Speaker: Dr. Haruo Hayashi, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan
Date & Time: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 4:00 PM
Location: Weil Town Hall, Belfer Building