Creating Katrina, Rebuilding Resilience

Dr. Michael J. Zakour, PhD, is Professor of Social Work at West Virginia University. He was Principal Investigator for the WVU research grant and sub-award “Evacuation of Persons with Disabilities,” funded by the US Department of Education through the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. In 2013 he was author, with David Gillespie, of “Community Disaster Vulnerability: Theory, Research, and Practice” published by Springer Press. He was Editor of “Disaster and Traumatic Stress: Research and Intervention”, published by Tulane University School of Social Work, New Orleans, LA. He has also published in such journals as Social Work Research, Journal of Social Service Research, Social Work, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Social Development Issues, the Journal of Volunteer Administration, and Tulane Studies in Social Welfare. Dr. Zakour is founder (in 1995), and original chairperson of the Disaster & Traumatic Stress Symposium / Track, at the Council on Social Work Education, Annual Program Meeting. This organization is the accrediting body for the profession of social work, and the annual meetings are the major venue for social work educators in the world.

Dr. Nancy Mock has over 30 years of experience in the Humanitarian, Food Security and Public Health fields. She is a co-founding member of the Tulane Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, an Associate Professor in International Health and International Development as well as past Interim Executive Director for the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women at Tulane University.

Dr. Mock was Associate Director of the Center for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (Latin American and Caribbean), a program funded through the Office of Naval Research to provide technical support to the United States Southern Command in the area of disaster preparedness and response. Dr. Mock co-led the development of INTERHANDS, a major training initiative, and provided mission support and lessons learned analysis. Additionally, as part of a separate USAID project, Dr. 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. She was a chief architect of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Project (now FEWSNET) and serves on numerous advisory boards concerned with food security.

Other professional achievements include serving as a member of the Advisory Council for the World Vision Hurricane Relief Assistance Program and also as a member of the 2006 US Centers for Disease Control Expert Panel on Rapid Needs Assessment, Post-Disaster. She has also served as a technical advisor and course developer for international NGOs and other academic institutions in the area of public health in emergency settings. Dr. Mock continues to oversee the development and management of international projects valued at over $4.5 million dollars annually. She has been Principal and Co-Principal Investigator for multiple international programs and is currently involved in the development of a school of Public Health in Rwanda.

Paul Kadetz holds the Robert Fisher Oxnam Chair of Science and Society at Drew University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Liverpool in China and an Associate and Lecturer of the China Centre for Health and Humanity, University College London. Paul has conducted research concerning: Post-disaster recovery, global health policy, the anthropology of safety, health care integration, the impact of foreign aid on healthcare systems and healthcare challenges in China, The Philippines, Cuba, Guatemala, and Madagascar. Over 40 of his research papers, book chapters and technical reports have been published. His co-edited volume, The Handbook of Welfare in China, was recently published by Edward Elgar.