Disasters throw us off balance. The chaos of devastating storms, terror events, public health emergencies, and the ever-present threat of climate change upsets the equilibria of communities, organizations, and people. Our research focuses on the tipping point of those systems, at levels ranging from the individual, to the household, the community, up to political governance systems, and what is needed to maintain a system’s balance, to right it, or to support the populations and organizations dependent upon it if it has been lost.
Provide evidence to practitioners, policy-makers, advocates, and thought leaders. We aim to apply theory and methods to the scientists, engineers, advocates, and designers who focus on building a resilient whole community.
NCDP staff and affiliated scientists are experts in public health, emergency management, GIS and spatial data, climate change, systems thinking, education and training, environmental health, sociology, epidemiology, pediatric care, mental health, and among others. Our work seeks to integrate the various epistemologies, methodologies and approaches in an increasingly complex environment to bring clarity and direction to improve population health and well-being.
The mission of the research at NCDP is to understand how to be ready and prepared for the chaos of disasters and emergencies, how best to respond when confronted with such chaos, and how to recover. Our research focuses on the tipping point of systems, at levels ranging from the individual to the household, the community, up to political governance systems, and what is needed to maintain a system’s balance, to right it, or to support the populations and organizations dependent upon it if it has been lost.
Balance in a system is contingent upon the readiness of our formal response and recovery systems, upon competent and capable workforces, and our attention to the needs of those most vulnerable or at-risk among us. In our research, we have examined US attitudes and behaviors regarding disaster preparedness; tracked the health status and recovery trajectories of people exposed to 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with a particular focus on children’s health; and tested new strategies for communicating with high-risk and vulnerable populations. Our research focuses on the domains of:
