BUILDINGRESILIENCE

WORKSHOP IIImplementing Innovative, Sustainable Flood

Mitigation Solutions for the Gulf Coast

The Old U.S. MintLouisiana State Museum

New Orleans, LAFebruary 26 & 27, 2010

March 17-19, 2011 First Grace United Methodist Church 3401 Canal Street

New Orleans, Louisiana

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WELCOME

Welcome to the Building Resilience Workshop II

The challenge of living with water is one shared by deltaic communities around the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in post-Katrina New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, where people live with a daily awareness of the threat, and opportunities, of water. New Orleans and the coastal parishes of Louisiana have survived the catastrophic consequences of Hurricane Katrina caused by both natural and human activities. But the costs have been enormous in terms of human life, the deep and continuing hardships for many survivors, and the loss of traditional ways of life richly grounded in a distinctive cultural milieu.

The Building Resilience Workshop II focuses on the role of sustainability and resilience in mitigating catastrophic disaster. The emphasis will be on improving the region’s resilience by implementing strategies aimed at both avoiding harmful consequences and facilitating rapid recovery from extreme hurricane events. It will be a special focus of this year’s Building Resilience Workshop to capitalize on advances in research in the global arena.

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Participants from around the world will join us to share their work on innovative disaster mitigation approaches and transition methodologies. These approaches and methodologies address not just WHAT are the innovative infrastructural and non-structural solutions we can implement, but also HOW, in an election-driven political climate, we can design coordinated, long-term strategies to manage transition and facilitate implementation.

Together we will learn about innovative strategies from around the world, discuss possible solutions appropriate for our unique local ways of life, and create the networks necessary to face the challenges ahead and support the changes we must make to build an authentic culture of sustainability and resilience in south Louisiana.

Thank you for participation and engaging in this critical discussion about creating a more resilient future for south Louisiana.

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Workshop participants will address such questions as:

• What are the advantages of incorporating redundancy and adaptability into the design of resilient systems, and what are the obstacles to implementation?

• How can mitigation strategies that diffuse rather than concentrate risk reduce a community’s overall vulnerability and increase its resilience?

• How can we learn from international experience and innovations to develop solutions appropriate for the Gulf Coast context and culture? In what ways can new technologies be adapted to better serve social and cultural needs and traditional ways of life?

• What alternatives are there to the unsustainable policies and practices in widespread use today on which we have grown to depend for safety, such as evacuation by automobile, or the construction of ever larger barriers?

• What are some examples of multi-functional flood defense systems and how do they promote resilience? How can they increase the robustness of infrastructure?

DISCUSSION

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• What can we learn from studying the resilient practices that were common in Louisiana’s history, and what can we do to rebuild Louisiana’s culture of resilience? How were past attitudes and approaches different? Could restoring some of the traditional, yet effective practices be useful to us today?

• What are the decisions we must make now to increase our future resilience, robustness, stability and adaptability? What strategies are needed to overcome the resistance to change that inhibits the implementation of new ideas?

• How can we support politicians with short terms in office to take a long-term perspective and encourage initiatives that may be unpopular in the short-term but will reduce our long-term vulnerability?

• What can the world learn from Louisiana’s successful recovery from catastrophic disaster? Can Louisiana lead by example and move into the vanguard of disaster resilience research and expertise? Can New Orleans capitalize on its experience and success, and brand itself at the forefront of the new industry of disaster resilience leadership training and management?

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WORKSHOP SCHEDULEFRIDAY 18 MARCH 2011

ON-SITE REGISTRATION

INFRASTRUCTURE I - Introduction

Moderator: Shirley Laska

Speakers: Elizabeth English Ky Luu Larry Buss

COFFEE BREAK

INFRASTRUCTURE II - Regional Recovery through Economic, Environmental and Social Innovation Panel organized by Oxfam America

Moderator: Irit Tamir

Speakers: Mitch Andrus Patrick Barnes David Gauthe Elizabeth ‘Boo’ Thomas

LUNCH

INFRASTRUCTURE III - Living with Water

Moderator: David Waggonner

Speakers: Lee Stickles Anne Loes Nillesen

8:30 - 9:00 AM

9:00 - 10:00 AM

10:00 - 10:15 AM

10:15 - 12:00 PM

12:00 - 1:30 PM

12:15 - 1:15 PM

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INFRASTRUCTURE IV - Regional Scale Infrastructure

Moderator: John Lopez

Speakers: Mike Park Gehad Ujeyl (via video conference) Frauke Hoss

Panelist: Philippe Gourbesville COFFEE BREAK

INFRASTRUCTURE V - Neighborhood Scale Infrastructure

Moderator: Ray Manning

Speakers: Dave Tilotta Nik Naudts Jean-Luc Salagnac

Panelists: Brad Case Richard Coutts Bhola Dhume

RECEPTION

KEYNOTE PANEL - Strengthening communities and building resilience to natural disasters in Queensland, Australia

Moderator: Elizabeth English

Speakers: Jennifer Leis Greg Claydon (via video conference) Clive Cook (via video conference) Graeme Milligan (via video conference)

Panelists: Richard Ashley Kim Anema

1:30 - 3:15 PM

3:15 - 3:30

3:30 - 5:15 PM

5:15 - 6:15 PM

6:15 - 8:00 PM

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WORKSHOP SCHEDULESATURDAY 19 MARCH 2011

ON-SITE REGISTRATION

IMPLEMENTATION I - Introduction

Moderator: Mark Davis

Speakers: Rob Verchick Ed Thomas

Panelists: Gen. Russel Honoré Eric Shaw

COFFEE BREAK

IMPLEMENTATION II - Implementation at Federal and Regional Level

Moderator: Craig Colten

Speakers: Richard Ashley Philippe Gourbesville Angela DeSoto Duncan Bob Turner

Panelists: K.C. King Anne Loes Nillesen

LUNCH

IMPLEMENTATION III - Politics and Innovation

Moderator: Cynthia Sarthou

Speakers: Cedric Grant Susan Guidry Billy Nungesser

8:30 - 9:00 AM

9:00 - 10:00 AM

10:00 - 10:15 AM

10:15 - 12:00 PM

12:00 - 1:30 PM

12:15 - 1:15 PM

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IMPLEMENTATION IV - Implementation at the Community Level

Moderator: Brian Jackson

Speakers: Germaine Sanders Jean-Luc Salagnac Natasa Manojlovic (via videoconference) Kim Anema

Panelist: Chris Pulaski

COFFEE BREAK

IMPLEMENTATION V - Exporting NOLA Disaster Resilience Expertise

Moderator: Nancy Mock

Speakers: Rudy Schuster Belinda Little-Wood Richard Coutts Pat Santos

Panelist: Charles Allen

WORKSHOP CONCLUSIONS & ADJOURNMENT

1:30 - 3:15 PM

3:15 - 3:30 PM

3:30 - 5:15 PM

5:15 - 5:30 PM

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BIOGRAPHIES

Charles E. Allen III Coastal and Environmental Affairs, City of New Orleans

Charles E. Allen is director of the New Orleans Office of Coastal and Environmental Affairs and serves as advisor to the Mayor on such affairs. He is also Vice-Chair of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association and until recently was acting director of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. Allen also serves as a board member of a project known as REACH-NOLA, which works to improve access to quality health care for New Orleans residents. He also serves as a board member and secretary of the New Orleans Hospital Services District A Board. This board is working to rebuild a hospital for the Eastern New Orleans community. Allen is also a member of the board of directors of the Louisiana/Haiti Sustainable Village Project. Finally, he serves on the Louisiana Governor’s Advisory Committee on Coastal Restoration and Protection.

Allen received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana and his Master of Science in Public Health from Tulane University. Allen is a life-long resident of New Orleans.

Mitch Andrus Royal Engineers & Consultants

As Vice President of Royal’s South Division, Mitch Andrus oversees the technical operations of the Lafayette, Cameron and Mobile, AL offices in addition to all coastal and environmental projects company-wide. Andrus has extensive experience and education in civil and environmental engineering, and specializes in managing complex coastal projects. He has over 12 years of engineering experience managing projects for government organizations such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine and Fisheries Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

Additionally, Andrus has a diverse range of capabilities demonstrated by a background not limited to engineering. He is well-versed in scientific research, field investigations, project design and management, permit coordination, feasibility studies, and technical writing. Andrus is a proven leader and possesses a deep commitment to preserving, restoring, and sustaining coastal resources and communities. Andrus holds a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering, and Masters degree in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences.

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Kim Anema Flood Resilience Group at UNESCO-IHE, Delft, Netherlands

Studying the different aspects of management and decision-making for complex social issues, Kim Anema is intrigued by the dynamics between institutions and stakeholders. Her interest in flood and water management arose when she encountered the (potential) consequences of climate change in her work on emergency response and preparedness.

Anema holds a MSc. degree in Public Administration and Policy Studies. She graduated in interactive policy making (IPM) while working for the Red Cross Society in the region of Rotterdam and is currently starting a PhD project on social resilience. With her research, conducted within the Flood Resilience Group in Delft, she wants to explore new, non-structural methods to enhance and nurture the resilience of societies. When visiting Australia after the Queensland flooding, she found the remarkable resilience of the people there an inspiring case of emergency management in modern society. She is involved in the proposal of a joint RTD program to review the key role that social media played in the disaster response in Brisbane.

Richard Ashley University of Sheffield, UK

Richard Ashley is a Professional Civil and Environmental Engineer, Director of EcoFutures Ltd., Professor of Urban Water, and former Managing Director of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funded multi-disciplinary Platform Centre, the Pennine Water Group (PWG) at the University of Sheffield. Ashley has more than 300 publications in journals, articles, reports and books. He led the urban flooding aspects of the UK Government’s 2004 Foresight Future Flooding study, the AUDACIOUS project on adapting local drainage to climate change; was involved in three UK Government flagship local drainage pilot studies and advised the Government Cabinet Office inquiry into the UK 2007 floods.

Ashley is involved in four current EU projects related to flood resilience, water, sanitation and climate change. He holds part-time positions at UNESCO-IHE, Delft, and the University of Bradford. Ashley won the International Water Association’s biennial Prize for Research Excellence in Support of Sustainable Urban Water Management in 2008. His recent activities include advising the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering on adapting to climate change in the urban environment; the OECD on flood risk management in the Loire catchment; and reviewing the Dutch Room for the River programme.

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Patrick Barnes Barnes, Ferland & Associates and Limitless Vistas, Inc.

Patrick Barnes, P.G. holds a Bachelors of Science in Geology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the president, CEO, and founder of Barnes, Ferland & Associates – the largest African-American-owned environmental engineering firm in Florida. Barnes has designed and managed several large-scale coastal environmental restoration projects including the Biscayne Bay Florida Minimum Flows and Levels (MFL) Ecological Indicators and Kissimmee River Restoration Program analysis. He also managed BFA’s 25-million emergency response contract with the USACE to ensure quality related to the Hurricane Rita / Katrina impact zone debris mission.

Over his 25-year career, Patrick has worked extensively in the minority community, and on groundbreaking environmental justice projects. In 2006, he founded a New Orleans based non-profit organization dedicated to training at-risk youth in Louisiana as environmental field technicians. Over the past three years, that organization, “Limitless Vistas, Inc.,” has provided job training and work credentials to over 250 youths between the ages of 17 and 25. Patrick is dedicated to making the connection between the needs of our disconnected population and the environmental/green movement, particularly as it relates to Gulf Coast restoration and resilience.

Larry Buss USACE, Ret.; National Nonstructural/Flood Proofing Committee

Mr. Larry S. Buss has served as a senior advisor/national expert with the US Army Corps of Engineers in the areas of flood risk management and nonstructural flood risk reduction. Buss retired from the Corps of Engineers as Chief of Hydrologic Engineering, Omaha District. In that position, he led a team of 50 people with expertise in such areas as Water Control, Water Quality, Hydraulic Structure Design, Statistical Analysis, River Ecosystem Restoration, Flood Plain Management, Emergency Flood Fighting, Flood Control Design, Sediment/Erosion Control, Watershed Modeling, Flood Warning Systems, Nonstructural and Structural Flood Mitigation, and Hydrographic Surveys. Prior positions with the Corps of Engineers included Chief, Flood Plain Management Services; Chief, Planning; Assistant Chief, Planning; and Chief, Civil Works, all within the Omaha District. He has over 39 years of experience with the Corps of Engineers, all in Water Resources.

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Buss is also a past Chair of the US Army Corps of Engineers National Nonstructural/Flood Proofing Committee. This committee promotes the development, implementation, and proper use of nonstructural flood mitigation techniques including relocation/buoyant, flood proofing, flood warning/preparedness, flood plain regulation, flood insurance, etc. Buss has presented at numerous workshops, seminars, and conferences throughout the United States on the use of nonstructural measures to reduce flood risk. He is also involved on National task force teams dealing with levee security, levee safety, flood risk management, and implementation of nonstructural measures.

Brad Case Director of Mitigation for the City of New Orleans

Brad Case is a Senior Hazard Mitigation Specialist and the Acting Director of Mitigation for the City of New Orleans. Created in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Hazard Mitigation Branch of the City’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness is responsible for developing and implementing mitigation policy throughout the City of New Orleans. This includes administration of all FEMA mitigation programs for private property and infrastructure as well as advancement of the awareness of mitigation concepts and practices for communities and businesses. The mitigation office also represents the City throughout the state and the country to improve the resilience of the City.

Greg Claydon Dept. of Environment and Resource Management, Queensland, Australia

Greg Claydon is currently the Executive Director of Strategic Water Initiatives with the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management, based in Brisbane, Australia. He is responsible for the development of and advice about statewide strategic water policy, all water related legislation, Queensland’s contributions to national and international water policies, plans and programs, and the Department’s contributions to regional water supply strategies and water infrastructure planning.

Claydon has tertiary qualifications in agricultural engineering and has held positions in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Emerald, Ayr and St George in Queensland and in Canberra. He also has work experience in New Zealand, Canada, USA, the Caribbean, Japan, Singapore, Turkey and China. He was awarded a Public Service Medal (PSM) by the Governor-General of Australia in the 2009 Australia Day Honours Awards for outstanding public service in natural resources management and water reform.

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Craig Colten Department of Geography and Anthropology, LSU

Dr. Craig E. Colten is an academic author and is the Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography at Louisiana State University. His publications concern the American South and the historical geography of human-environment interactions. His published works include Perilous Place, Powerful Storms, The American Environment; The Road to Love Canal; Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs; and Geography of Louisiana.

His book An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature, published in 2005, won the J.B. Jackson Award presented by the Association of American Geographers. Dr. Colten attained his M.A. in Geography at Louisiana State University and Ph.D. in Geography at Syracuse University. After a dozen years in state government and the private sector, Dr. Colten returned to Baton Rouge and his current position. Currently, Dr. Colten is the editor of the Geographical Review.

Clive Cook Queensland Dept. of Environment and Resource Management, Australia

Mr. Clive Cook has worked for 30 years in a number of protected areas, including Tasmania, New Zealand, Kakadu National Park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and is currently the General Manager for Conservation Strategy and Planning Branch within the Parks Division of the Queensland Department of Environment and Natural Resource Management (DERM), based in Brisbane, Australia. He holds a degree in Urban and Regional Planning and majored in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Law.

Cook was the Chair of the Queensland Government’s Natural Environment Recovery Group set up following the Pacific Adventurer oil spill in South East Queensland in 2009. His current role is the General Manager of the Environmental Recovery Co-ordination Unit charged with delivering the Environmental Line of Reconstruction in Queensland following the flooding and cyclone events in early 2011.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Richard Coutts Director, Baca Architects, UK

Richard Coutts is one of the co-founders of Baca. Baca is an award-winning research-led design practice specializing in integrated environmental and high quality design. Baca is internationally recognized for innovation in flood-resilient and adaptable architecture and spatial planning.

Coutts is a Chartered Architect with over ten years experience. He is co-author of the LifE project (Long-term Initiatives for Flood-risk Environments), winner of the RIBA Presidents Research Award 2009, and a regular contributor to international industry seminars.

Coutts is the director in charge of the Eiland Veur Lent and Nijmegen (Netherlands), a new peninsula which will be created as part of an extensive dike relocation programme along the River Waal. The proposals combine water ecology, flood-resilient development and sustainable infrastructure to create an energy and water self-sufficient ‘eco-leisure’ destination. He has also been leading the Waterspace Strategy for UNESCO World Heritage Site - Liverpool South Docks. This project will help to unlock Liverpool’s waterspace potential to form an internationally recognisable and sustainable waterway and waterfront destination.

Mark Davis Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy

Mark Davis joined the Tulane University Law School as a Senior Research Fellow in 2007, and is the founding Director of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy. For the previous fourteen years he served as executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana where he helped shape programs and policies at the state and federal level to improve the stewardship of the wetlands and waters of coastal Louisiana, one of the world’s greatest coastal and estuarine resources.

Davis has practiced law in Indianapolis, the District of Columbia, and Chicago, and has taught at the Indiana University (Indianapolis) School of Business and the IIT-Chicago Kent School of Law in Chicago. He has lectured widely on the topic of water resource management and stewardship and has testified numerous times before Congress on the need for a focused and effective commitment to the viability of coastal Louisiana and other vital natural treasures.

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Angela DeSoto Duncan Hurricane Protection Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Angela DeSoto Duncan is the Deputy Chief of Execution Support Division of the Hurricane Protection Office in New Orleans. She has over twenty years of Corps structural design experience specializing in reinforced concrete design on hurricane risk reduction system and urban drainage projects.

Currently DeSoto Duncan oversees the design efforts for over $8B of hurricane and storm damage risk reduction projects in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes. In addition, she is the Corps Design Lead for the IHNC-Lake Borgne Barrier, the largest design-build civil works project in Corps history. She is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana.

Bhola Dhume City of New Orleans, Dept. of Safety and Permits

Bhola Dhume is the Deputy Director of the Dept. of Safety and Permits for the City of New Orleans. He is a Licensed Architect and a Certified Building Official. Dhume is the Past President of the Building Officials Association of Louisiana and of ICC Gulf Coast Region IX which includes Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana. He serves on many Technical Code Committees including NFPA 101 (Life Safety Code – Assembly). He served as a Director on the International Code Council Evaluation Service from 2003 to 2009. Dhume holds a Master of Architecture degree from Pratt Institute, New York and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from the University of New Orleans. Dhume has been with the Dept. of Safety and Permits, City of New Orleans for the past thirty years.

Elizabeth C. English Buoyant Foundation Project and University of Waterloo, Canada

Dr. Elizabeth English is the initiator and lead organizer of the Building Resilience Workshops I and II. She was formerly Associate Professor - Research at the LSU Hurricane Center and is currently Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Ontario. She has held Assistant or Visiting Professorships at Tulane University, the University of Minnesota, the

BIOGRAPHIES

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University of Michigan and Rhode Island School of Design. She earned an AB in Architecture and Urban Planning from Princeton University, an MS in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MS and PhD in Architectural Theory from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her areas of research include the study of wind loads on tall buildings, the aerodynamics of wind-borne debris, strategies to mitigate hurricane damage to buildings, and Russian avant-garde architectural theory. She has lectured extensively across the United States and Canada, and also in the Netherlands, France, the UK, Russia, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. English is the Founder and Director of the Buoyant Foundation Project, which seeks to retrofit existing shotgun houses in flood-prone areas with amphibious foundations. When not teaching in Canada she resides in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, where she continues her work on hurricane damage mitigation with particular application to post-Katrina New Orleans, and where she is an active participant in the culture of SW Louisiana zydeco music and dance.

David Gauthe Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing

Mr. Gauthe serves as a Community Organizer for BISCO (Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing) in Lafourche, Terrebonne and Jefferson Parishes. He serves BISCO as the Director of Local, State and Federal Policy and Economic Development. His areas of expertise include: Lafourche and Terrebonne Parish Public Relations, Policy Planning, Logistical Planning, Environmental Advocacy, Economic Development and Disaster Relief and Recovery. David began his volunteer efforts in BISCO in 1995. He was hired as a part-time organizer in 2008 and was promoted to full-time organizer in 2008.

Mr. Gauthe has a Bachelor of Science degree from Nicholls State University and is a Licensed Life Insurance Agent and NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers) Representative. He serves on the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee as a representative of Lafourche Parish. He has won several awards as a volunteer in his community, including Outstanding Young Man of Thibodaux and runner-up for Outstanding Young Man in Louisiana. His family was also the recipient of the runner up for the Great American Family award of Thibodaux and runner up for the Great American Family of Louisiana Award, given by the National Jaycees, the very next year.

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Philippe Gourbesville University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France

Since 2007 Prof. Dr. Philippe Gourbesville has been the Director of Polytech Nice Sophia, the engineering school of Nice Sophia University (NSU), France. Gourbesville is a professor of Hydroinformatics and Water Engineering at NSU and is a visiting professor at universities including Newcastle University, Brandenburg University in Cottbus, Technical University of Catalunya, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Asian Institute of Technology, Singapore National University, Beijing University of Technology, Seoul National University, and Kyoto University.

Before joining NSU, Gourbesville spent ten years as hydraulic engineer for a European consulting company involved in many international projects. Since 2004, under the Erasmus Mundus, Gourbesville developed the first joint master degree EuroAquae focused on hydroinformatics and water management with five leading European universities [www.euroaquae.org]. The EuroAquae research group develops innovation in close partnership with industrials from the water domain.

Gourbesville’s research and teaching interests are focused on urban water management, urban flooding processes, distributed physically based modelling, impact assessment, integrated water resources management, ICT & architecture of modelling systems, collaborative engineering and virtual environments. Within the CORFU project dedicated to Urban Flooding Resilience [www.corfu-fp7.eu] he is in charge of the definition of strategies for resilient development for megacities in Asia. The project develops new guidelines for European and Asian cities exposed to urban flooding risks. Gourbesville is also the coordinator of the @qua thematic network launched by the European Union. Over the past several years he has worked with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in the production of the new guidelines for flood mapping and has collaborated with the French Ministry of Justice as a legal expert for extreme flood events in France.

Gourbesville has authored more than 120 scientific papers dedicated to hydroinformatics, numerical methods, modelling tools, flood management and resilience.

BIOGRAPHIESBIOGRAPHIES

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Cedric Grant Deputy Mayor, City of New Orleans

Cedric S. Grant currently serves as Deputy Mayor of Facilities, Infrastructure and Community Development for the City Of New Orleans. He is responsible for the City’s Capital Development, Infrastructure, and Housing programs. Prior to his current position, Grant served as Chief Administrative Officer of Ascension Parish, Louisiana. He was responsible for management and oversight of all governmental operations for this Parish, which is the fastest growing Parish in Louisiana and has the largest industrial base in south Louisiana.

From 2004 to 2008 Grant was Deputy Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and was responsible for day-to-day operations of the department, public-private partnerships and major special economic development capital projects. Prior to this, Grant was employed by Parsons Corporation in Atlanta, where he managed road and highway infrastructure projects valued at $10 million for clients such as the Georgia Department of Transportation and the City of Atlanta. Prior to his Parsons employment, Grant held numerous managerial and administrative positions in government over thirty years, most recently with the City of New Orleans as Chief Administrative Officer. He also served as Planning Manager for the Port of New Orleans and Director of Capital Projects for the New Orleans Downtown Development District.

Grant served his country in the United States Army and completed twenty-three years of active and reserve service. In 1995 he retired with the rank of major. During his military career, Grant served in the Gulf War and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, four Army Commendation Medals and the Selective Service Meritorious Service Medal.

A New Orleans native, Grant is a certified city manager and holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of New Orleans and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Xavier University of Louisiana. Grant also serves on several boards and commissions, including the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, Delgado Community College Foundation and New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute. He has served on the Salvation Army Advisory Board, Louisiana Help America Vote Advisory Committee, and Louisiana Task Force on Design-Build Construction.

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Susan Guidry New Orleans Councilmember for District A

Susan Guidry was elected to the District “A” seat of the New Orleans City Council in March 2010. In her brief tenure, Guidry has focused on an agenda of energy efficiency, water management, and recycling. In late 2010, she received the Leadership Award from The Urban Conservancy for her concentration in these areas. Guidry is a member of the City Council’s Utility Committee and is spearheading implementation of the Council’s Energy Smart program.

A native of New Orleans, Susan Guidry is a graduate of Archbishop Chapelle High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary English Education from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and a Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Loyola Law School. Her professional career includes working as a civil law trial attorney and community activist, as well as teaching English on the junior high and high school level.

An attorney of 25 years, most recently Guidry was a member of the litigation team that represented the Port of New Orleans and successfully settled the Port of New Orleans’ suit against its insurers for Hurricane Katrina related damage to 22 miles of riverfront property. Guidry is known as a citizen leader with an extensive record on criminal justice at the community and neighborhood level. Guidry is married to Hervin Guidry and they reside in the Parkview neighborhood located in District “A.”

General Russel L. Honoré US Army, (Ret.)

Visionary Leader of the New Normal and Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, the devastation was more than anyone could have imagined. Images of the city drowning in the waters of the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain and of the dire conditions at the Louisiana Superdome and Convention Center showed the world that the United States was ill-equipped and unprepared to deal with a natural disaster of such epic proportions. In spite of questionable leadership on many levels, one leader undeniably changed the course of the disaster: Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré. Honoré swept into New Orleans and took charge, bringing the city back under control and starting the long process of putting it back together. He brought leadership to New Orleans; reminding soldiers to lower their weapons and help those in need, creating a more positive atmosphere as rebuilding began.

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Since his command of Joint Task Force Katrina, Honoré has brought the lessons of Katrina to organizations around the country. An expert on preparedness and responding to catastrophe, he offers insights into protecting people and organizations, outlining the principles necessary to lead through unexpected and uncontrollable crises. Honoré’s lengthy career has taken him around the world, from Korea to Germany and the entire United States. He has many awards and distinctions, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and a Bronze Star. Recently, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Loyola University.

In May 2009, he published his first book, Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family from Disasters. He also serves as a CNN preparedness contributor; a senior scientist with Gallup; as chairman of the board of Grand ISS, a comprehensive risk solutions provider; and on the Expert Council of Firestorm Solutions, LLC. The man that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called a “John Wayne dude,” Honoré has proven that by taking charge and creating a culture of preparedness, whether as an individual, a group, a city, or an entire country, unexpected crises can be managed and their impacts can be minimized.

Frauke Hoss Technical University of Delft, Netherlands

Frauke Hoss graduated in October 2010 from Delft University of Technology with a MSc thesis on Multilayered Safety. Anno 2011 Multilayered Safety is a much discussed issue in the Netherlands, since it proposes to amend the traditional flood prevention (using dikes etc.) with Spatial Adaptation/Resilient Building and Crisis Management. The thesis was done as part of the European Interreg-Project MARE and a research program on Multilayered Safety by the Dutch Deltacommittee. Since Hoss found that Multilayered Safety is a potential supplement to current Dutch flood risk management rather than the hoped-for alternative to it, her thesis has received much attention in the Netherlands.

Currently Hoss is employed as a researcher at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at TU Delft. Additionally, she works on finishing a BSc in Political Science at Leiden University. Her ambition is to do further research on the interface of policy-making and (flood) risk management, possibly in the form of a PhD, by putting priority on developing a dynamic approach to e.g. standardization instead of the current static approach.

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Brian Jackson Community Resiliency Specialist, Water & Wildlife Program, Environmental Defense Fund

Brian Jackson is a community resiliency specialist for the Environmental Defense Fund’s Coastal Louisiana Restoration project. He focuses on community resiliency and non-structural flood protection in Southern Louisiana.

Jackson works closely with the Lower 9th Ward, United Houma Nation and Carrolton-Hollygrove communities to address their flood risks and future sustainability in the face of a vanishing Mississippi River Delta.

Jackson has a B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.A. in Applied Economics (with a focus on resource and environmental economics) from Johns Hopkins University.

K.C. King UNO-CHART

K.C. King has over forty years’ experience defining, executing, verifying and validating the processes for architecting, specifying, engineering and building large, agile information-intensive systems for enterprise-scale missions in both commercial and government sectors. His experience includes sixteen years of large-scale systems engineering with Boeing, eleven years of championing the adoption and adaptation of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and its predecessors to very large scale, non-traditional development, and five years of collaborative teaming between Boeing, the military Services, DARPA and the Carnegie-Mellon SEI on applied architecture and engineering processes research.

King most recently applied his career systems engineering experience to two catastrophic incidents impacting the residents of Southern Louisiana – Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Blowout. He advocates a systems approach based on emerging resilience systems engineering doctrine and practices. King is a member of the Governor’s Housing Task Force in support of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. He is also a member of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), collaborating with The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) in developing a framework for Resilience Systems Engineering (RSE).

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Shirley Laska UNO-CHART

Shirley Laska, PhD, is professor emerita of sociology and founding past director of the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology at the University of New Orleans (UNO-CHART). She has been conducting applied research on the social/environmental interface, natural & technological hazards, and disaster response, especially long-term recovery and risk reduction, for 25 years. Her work includes studies on residential flood mitigation, hurricane response, coastal land loss effects, coastal fisheries, community risk assessment and risk management for coastal hazards, use of information technology and GIS as support tools for disaster management and evacuation of the vulnerable.

Since Katrina, Laska’s work has been focused on lessons to be learned from the event, especially in the realm of community recovery and hazard resiliency both in the urban and non urban setting. This work emphasizes Participatory Action Research in both slow onset – coastal land loss and sea level rise -- and abrupt major disaster events – hurricane Katrina and the BP oil leak.

Jenny Leis General Manager Corporate Services, Queensland Urban Utilities, Australia

As General Manager Corporate Services, Jenny Leis is responsible for leading the provision of a range of corporate services functions including procurement, business resilience, fleet and property management, performance reporting and business support. Leis began her career within the water and wastewater industry when she joined Brisbane Water in 1998. She is an experienced and successful business management professional who has operated at Senior Executive level, with an history of strong leadership and effective management of multi-functional teams.

Throughout her career, Leis has developed, coordinated and implemented business improvement strategies, led integration and change management efforts, increased operational capability, utilized her strong financial management skills and continuously delivered customer-focused outcomes. Most recently, Leis led and managed Queensland Urban Utilities (Brisbane) Corporate Services and the Program Connect Corporate Services Portfolio.

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Belinda Little-Wood Naval Support Activity New Orleans Advisory Task Force

Belinda Little-Wood is the Executive Director of the Local Redevelopment Authority for the Naval Support Activity “East Bank” facility in New Orleans. Little-Wood assumed this position in 2007 as part of the Office of Recovery of the City of New Orleans. Working in the Recovery Office, she took part in the planning and implementation of many of the rebuilding efforts. Building on the aspects of recovery from hurricane Katrina, she has led a Task Force who created a reuse plan for the Naval Support Activity “East Bank” facility. This development envisions an international disaster management center that will include an emergency operations center, temporary shelter for essential personnel during a catastrophic event, research and development opportunities, and training facilities.

Prior to joining the City of New Orleans she owned and operated 10th Capital Small Business Advisors, LLC, a business consulting firm specializing in small business development and entrepreneurship. Before Hurricane Katrina, she was the President/CEO of Newtek Community Financial Services, LLC, in New Orleans, which provided services to businesses such as financing, planning, and tax services. Ms. Little-Wood is a 28-year resident of New Orleans. She holds a Masters in Business Administration, and graduated from the Mid-South School of Banking.

John Anthony Lopez Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

Born in New Orleans, John Lopez holds a Masters in Geology from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. in Coastal Sciences of Biology, Coastal Engineering and Geology from the University of New Orleans. He is an accomplished Gulf Coast geologist and coastal scientist. He worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Project Management for the Coastal Restoration Branch including assignments with the Coastal Wetlands, Planning Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) and the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study.

Lopez is Acting Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and Director of their Coastal Sustainability Program. He oversees and conducts coastal restoration research, such as river diversions, delta management, natural gas utilization etc. Lopez is currently serving on the State’s Framework Development team to advise the State’s new Master Plan for 2012. John and his wife Sharon lost their home in Hurricane Katrina but have recently rebuilt and returned to their home site on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Ky Luu Tulane Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy

Ky Luu is an expert in the field of disaster management and has extensive experience in handling all aspects of humanitarian and disaster assistance programming as an implementer, donor, and academic. Luu is a founding member and Executive Director of the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy at Tulane University. Luu recently left his post as the Director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) where he led the U.S. government office responsible for providing humanitarian assistance in response to international crises and disasters.

Prior to joining OFDA, Luu served for three years as Vice President for International Medical Corps (IMC) in Washington, DC, where he played a key role in strategic planning, policy and program development, and emergency global response. Luu has extensive experience working with NGOs, including serving as Director of Government Relations for the International Research & Exchanges Board in Washington, DC; Resettlement Officer for the United States Refugee Resettlement Office in Croatia; and Government Relations Officer for the International Rescue Committee in Washington, DC. In addition to his NGO experience, Mr. Luu worked for White & Case LLP in New York as a Corporate Associate in Mergers and Acquisitions. He holds a JD from George Washington University School of Law and a BA from the University of Michigan.

Wm. Raymond Manning Manning Architects

Ray Manning is President and CEO of Manning Architects. He oversees all aspects of the firm’s management, business development, finances, and performance of professional services. Manning has more than 30 years of experience in the design and construction of civic, residential, commercial, health care, recreational, industrial, and transportation facilities for an array of public and private sector clients. Prior to establishing a private practice, Manning was a project architect with respected architectural firms in Louisiana and Michigan, and was a staff architect and urban designer for the City of New Orleans, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration.

Manning played a central role in drafting the initiative rebuilding plan for New Orleans, and has spoken to news networks such as CNN on the blueprint for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Manning was recently elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which recognizes architects who have made a “significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession”.

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Natasa Manojlovic Institute of River & Coastal Engineering, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany

Natasa Manojlovic is a senior researcher at the Institute of River & Coastal Engineering at the Hamburg University of Technology, Germany. She achieved academic qualifications at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Belgrade (B.SC) and Hamburg University of Technology - TUHH (M.Sc) . She also holds a Professional Master’s degree in Technology Management from the Northern Institute of Technology - NIT, Hamburg. Manojlovic is a member of the Flood Resilience Group at the UNESCO - IHE and was a German representative of the COST-Initiative C22 – Urban Flood Management.

Her research and teaching is focused on flood risk management, environmental hydraulic engineering and urban hydrology. Manojlovic is a work group leader in the Research Cluster “KLIMZUG-North”, dealing with flood resilience technology and methods to adapt to climate change in urban areas. The group is developing concepts and tools for involving and empowering public and private stakeholders for their active participation in flood risk management. Currently she is a scientific coordinator of a bottom up governance approach for the development of a flood risk management plan for an urban watercourse in Hamburg, Germany within the EU- INTERREG IVb Project SAWA.

Petra Marar Building Resilience Workshop Organizer

In coastal Louisiana, Petra Marar has found her anchor for an investigation of the complex relationships between human societies and ecology. Since moving to New Orleans in 2009 after graduating Sarah Lawrence College with a BA in Design Studies, Marar has studied Louisiana’s coastal communities and the life cycle of another wetlands community, Iraq’s marsh Arabs, at Bard Urban Studies in New Orleans, worked as a continuing education program developer at FutureProof sustainable design consultancy, and assisted in the organization of the first and second annual Building Resilience Workshops. These experiences have shaped her knowledge of the region’s vulnerable ecosystems, their impacts on cultural, economic, and social aspects of affected communities, and the complex solutions at their intersection. Marar has discussed the crisis of wetlands loss and the need for the Gulf’s improved ecological health with over 2,500 citizens in her work as a field manager for the Gulf Restoration Network’s outreach campaign. This upcoming fall Marar will begin a professional degree program in Landscape Architecture at Cornell University.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Graeme Milligan Queensland Reconstruction Authority, Australia

Graeme Milligan is the General Manager Environment Liaison embedded with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. His role is to facilitate actions required by the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management to support the reconstruction effort and the influence actions across the entire reconstruction effort to deliver improved and integrated environmental and resource management outcomes.

Milligan has a wide range of knowledge and experience on natural resource management having held a range of senior executive positions in land, water, vegetation and pest management. He has led a range of water reforms and in recent years has been directly leading the integration of water quantity and water quality policy, ICT systems, and aquatic ecosystem health initiatives including monitoring. Before joining the public service in Queensland, Milligan was a land development and surveying consultant, having worked and trained in the surveying industry for twelve years. Milligan holds a degree in Applied Science (Surveying) and a Masters of Natural Resource Management.

Nancy Mock Tulane Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy

Dr. Nancy Mock has over thirty years experience in the Humanitarian, Food Security and Public Health fields. She is a co-founding member of the DRLA, Interim Executive Director for the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women as well as Associate Professor in International Health and International Development at Tulane University.

Mock was Associate Director of the Center for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (Latin American and Caribbean), a program that provides technical support to the United States Southern Command in the area of disaster preparedness and response. She co-led the development of INTERHANDS, a major training initiative, as well as providing mission support and lessons learned analysis. Additionally, Mock co-directed the Complex Emergency Response and Transition Initiative (CERTI), a crisis coordination project that aims to prevent and mitigate conflict, improve timely and appropriate response, and offers support to populations affected by conflict in transition. Mock was a chief architect of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Project (now FEWSNET) and she serves on numerous advisory boards concerned with food security.

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Nik Naudts VAK architecten & University of Ghent, Belgium

Nik Naudts works within the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning. He has a wide range of experience in large scale master-planning and public space design. Naudts is a founding partner of VAK architecten. In 2010 Naudts was appointed as senior researcher at Labo S, the department of architecture and urban design at the University of Ghent, where he heads a project on design research strategies as a tool for urban planning in Flanders.

VAK architecten participated as finalists in Delta City of the Future, an international design competition to generate ideas for delta cities response to current and future climate threats. Prior to founding VAK, Naudts worked at West 8, urban design & landscape architecture, and several respected architecture, urban design, and development firms in Belgium and the Netherlands. Naudts was educated at the University of Ghent, department of architecture & urban design.

Anne Loes Nillesen Delft University of Technology & DEFACTO architectuur & stedenbouw, Netherlands

Anne Loes Nillesen is a specialist in urban research and design related to flood management. She works at the department of Urbanism of the Delft University of Technology where she is the coordinator and teacher of the Delta Interventions Msc graduate studio, and is a PhD candidate on the theme of the relation between urban design and water protection. She graduated with honors as an Architect and Urban designer at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, and undertook postdoctoral studies in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the Berlage Institute.

In 2005 Nillesen founded the DEFACTO architectuur & stedenbouw; the firm has worked on several large-scale complex urban water protection projects for Dutch governmental institutions such as The Delta Committee, Knowledge for Climate, the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, and the municipality of Rotterdam. In 2011 Nillesen published a book on Amphibious housing in the Netherlands. Her expertise lies in the following design oriented themes: translation of research topics into design tools, complex strategies, the development of prototypical designs and design on the border of different disciplines.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Billy Nungesser Parish President, Plaquemines Parish

Billy Nungesser serves as Parish President in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. He serves with a passion for helping people, representing Plaquemines residents, and accomplishing goals. As CNN put it, Nungesser grew up in the holy trinity of Louisiana: Seafood, Oil, and Politics. In 1991, he formed General Marine Leasing Company, delivering shipping containers converted to living quarters for offshore workers.

Nungesser took office as Plaquemines Parish President in 2007, shortly after Katrina, determined to rebuild and restore Plaquemines Parish. When the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off the coast of Plaquemines, Nungesser lit a fire under the federal government, Coast Guard and BP, demanding a better response. He quickly became the face of the oil spill, relentlessly fighting for the fishermen and businesses of Plaquemines Parish and Coastal Louisiana. Nungesser lives in Pointe Celeste, where he developed a ranch to raise elk and cattle, and founded Pointe Celeste Therapeutic Riding Center which helps physically and mentally challenged individuals of all ages by offering horseback riding at no charge.

Michael F. Park U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Michael F. Park became the Chief of Task Force Hope in Louisiana, part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi Valley Division, in January 2011. He is responsible for overseeing the Corps’ $14.6 billion Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System work in New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana. Prior to this position, Park served as the Deputy Director of Task Force Hope, exercising programmatic oversight and management of the hurricane system for the Greater New Orleans area.

In October 2005 Park joined the executive team for the Louisiana Recovery Field Office (LA-RFO) for the response and recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and served as the Director of the LA-RFO from June 2006 to July 2007. In this role Park led a $2.9 billion Public Works and Engineering response and recovery program in a 40-parish area of South Louisiana. Park holds a bachelors degree in Civil Engineering and a masters degree in Engineering Management, both from the University of New Orleans. Park has worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans since 1985. He served for twenty years in the New Orleans District Operations Division, where he occupied several key positions, including Acting Chief of Operations Division.

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Christopher Pulaski National Wildlife Federation

Christopher Pulaski, RLA, received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from Louisiana State University in 1996, and is a licensed Landscape Architect in several states. He is the National Wildlife Federation’s Louisiana Coastal Organizer for the Barataria/Terrebonne area based in Houma, Louisiana. Pulaski grew up in coastal Louisiana and has recently returned to participate in the ongoing restoration efforts.

Pulaski is working to raise awareness of risk-management actions that are being taken to ensure the storm-resiliency, prosperity, and sustainability of coastal communities. Additional areas of his work include coastal restoration projects to build land from sediment in the Mississippi River and the mechanical placement of river sediment to rebuild ridges and lost marsh.

Jean-Luc Salagnac Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, France

Jean-Luc Salagnac is the head of interdisciplinary projects at the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment (CSTB), where he directs a project on the impacts of climate change on the built environment. Since 2002, he has directed an interdisciplinary project which includes technical, economical, and psycho-environmental tools for developing future adaptation policies. The project develops vulnerability assessment tools that form the first step towards an adaptation policy. The research touches upon hazards such as floods, clay soil subsidence, heat waves and storms.

In 2008, Salagnac led the “Climate Change and the Built Environment” working group of the International Council for Building (CIB), and was appointed the CIB representative to the SBCI Think Tank on Climate Change. His work for this organization included publications, communications and training for stakeholder groups. Salagnac has published several papers on climate change, buildings and GHG emissions, amphibious buildings, flood risks and flood-barrier performance.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Germaine Sanders Technical University of Delft & Dura Vermeer, Netherlands

Germaine Sanders is part of the Business Development team of Prof Dr Ir Chris Zevenbergen at Dura Vermeer, working within the field of innovation for building transformation and urban development from the point of view of visionary realization and research. For Business Development she produces visionary ideas about process innovation in building for contemporary clients and for social change, climate change and economical vitality.

Sanders is a building engineer, educated as architect and urbanist at the Technical University of Delft. She has worked in architecture and urbanism in Japan, London, Italy and the Netherlands. Over the last decade Sanders focused on development and urban transformation strategy, as founder and manager of MC², a team of 12 interdisciplinary concept developers. The team’s focus was urban transformation strategy and innovation of housing corporation housing stock. In 2009 she founded ²FLUX urban projects, a dynamic network business. Sanders is a lecturer and studio professor for the Technical University of Delft, the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture and Urbanism, the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urbanism, and other universities, on the topics of urban development and design for assignments of spatial complexity and complex alliances.

Colonel Pat Santos (Ret.) Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness

Colonel Pat Santos has had a long and distinguished military career. His 25-year military experience played a key role in coordinating support efforts during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In 2006, he accepted a position at the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (LOHSEP) as the Chief of Homeland Security. Currently, as the Deputy Director of Emergency Management within the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), Santos has primary oversight of all of the State’s emergency management functions. He is a principal advisor to the Governor and the State Unified Command during emergencies such as Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008 and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. Santos earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of New Orleans and a Masters degree in Organizational Management in 1997. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Staff School and the Command and General Staff College.

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Cynthia M. Sarthou Gulf Restoration Network

Cynthia (Cyn) M. Sarthou is the Executive Director of the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. The GRN is a diverse network of groups and individuals concerned about the long term health of the Gulf of Mexico and committed to uniting and empowering people to protect and restore the resources of the Gulf Region. The GRN currently works to: (1) protect and restore Louisiana’s natural storm defenses; (2) protect water resources affecting the Gulf; (3) build resilient coastal communities facing the effects of global climate change; (4) protect the Gulf’s threatened and endangered species; and (5) obtain sustainable management of federal fisheries.

Sarthou received her B.A. from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, her law degree from the University of Mississippi, and her Masters of Law in Law and Marine Affairs from the University of Washington. From 1992-1995 she was staff attorney for Heart of America Northwest in Seattle, Washington, a citizens group committed to quality of life issues in the Northwest.

Rudy Schuster Fort Collins Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado

Dr. Rudy Schuster is a social scientist whose area of focus is the attitudes, processes, and behaviors related to how humans manage, protect, value, and use our natural resources; this area of study is referred to as the Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management. Natural resource stewardship is at the heart of his research. He focuses on sustainable co-management of natural resources and the communities dependent upon natural resources; and understanding how people appraise and cope with situations that have a negative impact on their recreation/tourism experience. Schuster is Chief of the USGS, Policy Analysis and Science Assistance (PASA) Branch in Fort Collins, Colorado. PASA researchers lead projects that integrate social, behavioral, economic, and biological analyses in the context of human-natural resource interactions.

Schuster has been part of many interdisciplinary teams with the goal of addressing major forces affecting human communities. Schuster was a member of the Working Group which facilitated the policy and scientific response to the Mississippi Canyon 252/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill; with the objective to develop alternative scenarios concerning the cascading consequences of the MS252 oil spill during the emergency response, mid-term, and long-term recovery period.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Eric D. Shaw Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation

Eric D. Shaw recently joined the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LDRF) as Vice President of Programs and Policy. Shaw leads all of the Foundation’s programmatic initiatives, including grant making, advocacy support and policy work. Previous to joining LDRF, Shaw served as the Director of Community Planning for the Louisiana Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit. During his term as Director, he cultivated partnerships with local planning agencies, managed a $10M grant program dedicated to community resiliency and supported recovery programs for more than fifteen parishes in northern and central Louisiana. Shaw has also worked as a program officer with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. As Deputy Director for Policy at The Growth Partnership, Shaw developed programs and policies devoted to transit-oriented development and regional strategies for social equity.

Shaw is the Vice Chair for Policy in the Planning and the Black Community Division of the American Planning Association (APA), serves on the APA Committee for Sustainable Planning and the New York Regional Catastrophic Planning Group Housing Task Force. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies from the University of California, and a Masters degree in Urban Planning from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

J Lee Stickles Topographical Shifts, San Francisco

J Lee Stickles is co-founder of Topographical Shifts, a research and design nonprofit organization focused on environmental and cultural resilience within the urban realm. Stickles, an urban designer and landscape architect with over ten years of experience, has managed the design and construction of numerous local and international projects. In 2009, she was one of the winners of Rising Tides, an international design competition examining sea level rise within San Francisco Bay and beyond. Focusing on the industrial eastern waterfront of San Francisco, the design solution proposed a flexible green infrastructure system able to adjust with sea level rise over time.

Stickles’s work focuses on the intersection of research and design, believing that knowledge of our existing environment inspires thoughtful design solutions that can be absorbed and reflected by our local culture. She received her undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture from Penn State University, and her graduate degree in Urban Design from Harvard School of Design.

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Irit Tamir Oxfam America

Irit Tamir is the Senior Advocacy and Collaborations Advisor for Oxfam America’s US Regional Office. She works on both campaigns and collaborations for better conditions and wages for migrant farm workers. Ms. Tamir also advises Oxfam America’s Gulf Coast Program where she works with grass roots organizations in the Gulf to ensure that coastal communities are more resilient to climate hazards. She is the co-author of the recently published Oxfam America report, “Weeding Out Abuses: Recommendations for a law-abiding farm labor system.”

Prior to working at Oxfam, Ms. Tamir was the Director of Government Relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. She co-led the effort to pass the Sudan Divestment Bill in Massachusetts which required the state pension funds to divest from companies doing business with the Government of Sudan in an effort to halt its human rights violations in Darfur. Ms. Tamir is an attorney with a Masters in International Law, and a devoted human rights activist. Ms. Tamir has had years of experience in government relations and is a former prosecutor that supervised civil rights prosecutions and hate crimes.

Edward A. Thomas Natural Hazard Mitigation Association

Edward A. Thomas is the President of the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association and Chair of the Hazards Sub-Committee of the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee, American Bar Association Section of State and Local Government Law. He is also a Board Member of the Association of State Floodplain Managers and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Natural Hazards Center of the University of Colorado. Attorney Thomas is employed by the Michael Baker Jr., Inc., an Engineering Corporation, working on the development of partnerships to better map natural and man-made hazards in the United States.

Thomas retired from the Department of Homeland Security-Federal Emergency Management Agency after nearly thirty-five years of Public Service. During his time in government, he worked primarily in Disaster Mitigation, Preparedness and Response. He worked on about two hundred disasters and emergencies, serving as the President’s on-scene representative dozens of times. Thomas is an Attorney, and a frequent lecturer on Emergency Management issues. He has authored several publications on Disaster related issues. Thomas has received numerous awards including the Goddard-White Award, the Gulf of Maine Visionary Award, and the lifetime achievement award from the Georgia Association of Floodplain Management.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Elizabeth “Boo” Thomas President and CEO, Center for Planning Excellence

Well versed in local community planning activities, Thomas has led neighborhood redevelopment efforts in Baton Rouge since obtaining her Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from LSU. As the former head of Plan Baton Rouge and the Mid-City Redevelopment Alliance, Thomas has been an advocate for smart growth in Louisiana throughout her career. After Katrina, she led CPEX in facilitating the Louisiana Speaks recovery process, the largest planning effort ever undertaken in Louisiana. The process resulted in the Louisiana Speaks Regional Plan, a comprehensive plan created through the participation of over 27,000 South Louisiana residents.

In recognition of her contributions to Louisiana, Thomas has been honored by the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA, the Baton Rouge Business Report, LSU and the Louisiana Architecture Foundation. In 2009, Thomas and CPEX were awarded the Olmsted Medal by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for “incredible leadership and set[ting] the standard for bringing community members and leaders together to work toward a shared vision for future growth and development.”

Dave Tilotta Resilient Home Program and North Carolina State University

Dr. David Tilotta is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at North Carolina State University. He received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. from Kansas State University. He joined the faculty of NC State in 2003 after spending thirteen years as a chemistry professor at the University of North Dakota. Since 2008 Tilotta has been a member of the Resilient Home Program, a partnership with the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI).

Prior to 1997, Dr. Tilotta’s research and education was applied to the study of pollutants in the environment. His experience with the Red River Valley of the North flood in Grand Forks in 1997 significantly expanded his interests and efforts. His current educational and research interests include resilient housing, the contamination of homes as a result of flooding, analytical methods for the detection of chemicals in solids and liquids, and the conversion of cellulosic biomass to fuel. Dr. Tilotta has published more than 50 papers, co-holds three patents, and has received four awards for his research and teaching activities.

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Robert A. Turner Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East

Robert A. Turner, Jr. is a Registered Professional Civil Engineer with thirty years’ experience in the field of engineering. He is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Concrete Institute. In 2007 Turner was appointed as the Regional Director of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPAE), charged with the oversight of flood protection for all or part of five parishes surrounding Lake Pontchartrain and the governance of the Orleans, East Jefferson and Lake Borgne Basin Levee Districts.

Turner has an extensive background in flood protection and public works, including serving as the Executive Director of the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District from 2001 until his current appointment as SLFPAE Regional Director. He served as the Director of Public Works for St. Bernard Parish from 1993 to 2001. Prior to this Turner was an Associate Engineer at Burk-Kleinpeter, Inc. and Design Engineering Manager at Power Enterprises, Inc. He was selected to serve as the Louisiana State representative for the National Committee on Levee Safety. Turner is also working with the Dutch Government on a levee information system and just returned from the Netherlands regarding that project.

Gehad Ujeyl Hamburg University of Technology, Germany

Gehad Ujeyl works as a research assistant at the Institute of River & Coastal Engineering of the Hamburg University of Technology, Germany. He holds an engineering degree Dipl.-Ing. (M.Sc. equivalent) in Civil Engineering obtained at the Hamburg University of Technology.

Ujeyl worked on the project “New Planning Strategies for Flood Prone Areas to Cope with the Increased Risk due to Climate Change”, funded by the German Ministry of Education and Science. The project was part of the research program RIMAX (“Risk Management of Extreme Flood Events”) and looked at innovative defense strategies and flexible disaster management plans, developed a cascading levee concept, and communicated the concept and its implementation to stakeholders (public and local government). Since 2008 Ujeyl has been working as a sub-project leader on the project “Extreme Storm Surges at Open Coasts and Estuarine Areas”, funded by the BMBF. Ujeyl has authored a number of publications on flood resilience and flood risk management and teaches the course Hydraulic Engineering at the Hamburg University of Technology.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Rob Verchick Loyola University

Rob Verchick holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans. A graduate of Stanford University and of Harvard Law School, he is a nationally recognized expert in environmental law, climate change adaptation, and in the developing field of disaster law and policy. From 2009 through 2010 he took leave from Loyola and served in the Obama administration as Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In that role he helped develop climate adaptation policy for the EPA and served on President Obama’s Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force.

Verchick has represented environmental interests in friend-of-the-court briefs in important cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts, including Coliseum Square Association v. Jackson, 128 S.Ct. 40 (2007); Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), and Fort Gratiot v. Michigan Dep’t of Natural Resources, 504 U.S. 353 (1992). He is a Member Scholar (on leave) and former board member of the Center for Progressive Reform, a policy institute dedicated to making a positive case for health, safety, and environmental protection. Verchick has taught and lectured extensively in the US and Internationally. He is author or co-author of three books, including Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World.

David Waggonner Waggonner & Ball Architects

David Waggonner is principal of Waggonner & Ball Architects, a New Orleans-based architecture and planning firm. He received his undergraduate education at Duke University, and a Master of Architecture from Yale University. Mr. Waggonner has served as principal-in-charge of multiple award-winning architectural projects in education, ecclesiastical, office, hotel, retail, renovation and restoration categories.

Subsequent to Hurricane Katrina, Waggonner & Ball developed the Recovery Framework for St. Bernard Parish. With the support of the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the American Planning Association, Mr. Waggonner has continued the effort to define more intelligently the planning and redevelopment problem that the New Orleans region presents. A series of Dutch Dialogues has been initiated, to inform the people in the urbanized lower Mississippi River Delta about ways to integrate infrastructure, visible and invisible, with surface, ground, and water to live safely and beneficially in south Louisiana.

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Emily Wessel Intern Architect, Building Resilience Workshop Organizer

Emily Wessel is an Intern Architect and has worked for five years as a designer and job captain at architecture and urban design firms in San Francisco, Vancouver and the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, Canada. Wessel is an assistant organizer for the Building Resilience Workshop II. Her interests lie in design that is seated within and responds to natural systems to form sustainable, beautiful and resilient urban environments. She has studied in Canada, Mexico and Italy.

Wessel recently participated on a team submission for the Living City Design Competition, which envisions cities in balance with the ecosystems they inhabit. Wessel received her Bachelor of Environmental Studies and Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo.

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CONVENING PARTNERS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

SPONSORS

THANKS TO:Charles Allen IIICraig ColtenMark DavisDavid O. FerrisJoseph FrankBrian JacksonLisa Miles JacksonK.C. KingBelinda Little-WoodRay ManningGrasshopper MendozaGene MenerayAjulo OthowMike ParkSteve PicouChris PulaskiJim RossbergEric ShawBoo ThomasRob VerchickChris Zevenbergen

THANKS TO FIRST GRACE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH:

Shawn AnglimMarti Stanley

AND ALSO:Alyssa Belsome

Maria BrodineSofia Curdumi

Zak FishGinger Kelly

Colleen MorganZack Youngerman

AND MOST ESPECIALLY:Petra Marar

Emily Wessel

American Society of Civil Engineers

Oxfam America

Environmental Defense Fund

Renaissance Reinsurance Risk Sciences Foundation Inc.

Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation

National Wildlife Federation

In Memoriam: Erik Pasche • TTU Hamburg • 1955 - 2010