The rapid spread of COVID-19 has generated immediate challenges for policymakers across multiple areas including health, fiscal, environmental, and education policy. To contribute to ongoing policy discussions, recent academic work has sought to understand the impact of COVID-19 policy responses on outcomes ranging from job losses to mortality to pollution. In a recent paper, we…
Category: Emergency Management and Homeland Security
Hindsight 2020: Hurricane Season & Climate Change
The 2020 hurricane season is here and is expected to be a busy one. We’ve already had three tropical cyclones and it’s still June! Forecasts are unanimous in calling for an active season: seven to ten hurricanes, with most of them likely to occur after August 10th. Cold waters across the eastern tropical Pacific ocean…
The Covid-19 Pandemic Shows the Power and Limits of American Federalism.
This post first appeared on The LSE US Centre’s daily blog on American Politics and Policy American federalism allows different responses to policy challenges, and the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic is no exception. When looking at any sort of crisis, the chief executive of a state or municipality is often the leader in…
COSSPP Faculty Impact on Scholarship: Influence at a Glance
As the spring semester comes to an end, we want to take a moment to celebrate the accomplishments and influence of faculty in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. This series of graphs produced by Dr. Jim Elsner offers a glimpse of the amazing work taking place in the College of Social Science…
Policy Pub: Generosity in Hurricane Michael’s Wake
Hurricane Michael hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in October of 2018 as a category five hurricane. The storm leveled communities to the West of Tallahassee, damaging homes, displacing residents, crippling some industries, and leaving piles of debris behind. In its wake, I set off to study how civil society – nonprofits, religious organizations, and less organized…
Hurricane Michael recovery efforts point to the power of local generosity after overlooked disasters
Throughout my research in a string of beach towns and rural inland communities along a stretch west and south of Tallahassee known as the Forgotten Coast, I directly observed nonprofits relying upon donated funds, supplies and labor to meet housing and other needs not being met by flood insurance or government funding.
Emergency Management and Homeland Security Monitor Lava Flows in Hawaii
EMHS Director David Merrick and Program Coordinator Laura Hart recently returned from Kilauea Volcano Lower East Rift Zone in Hawaii County, Hawaii. Through NSF funding and in partnership with Texas A&M University and private citizens, they were part of a five-person volunteer team from the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) to supplement existing…
A Core COSSPP Value: Evidence-Based Decision Making
Disciplines in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy promote critical thinking, analytical methods, and empirical skills as the path to understanding the key political, social, and economic issues that dominate our public discussions.
A Core COSSPP Value: Diversity
This brings me around to describing the two major thrusts of what I consider the college’s commitment to Diversity – People and Ideas. A college with a diverse population that holds a shared worldview is a failure. Similarly, a college with a diversity of ideas, but little demographic diversity is also a failure. Society is complex, messy, and contested; a lack of diversity of people or ideas will leave our students unprepared for the real world.
Undergrad Experience: Attending the National Emergency Management Association Annual Forum
This experience was more than I could ever have hoped for. I was able to expand my professional network and learn more about the field of emergency management, as well as current issues they are facing today.
