The Co-Directors of the Program on Emergency Preparedness, Crisis Management, and Disaster Recovery are Arnold M. Howitt, Executive Director, Roy and Lila Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and Herman B. “Dutch” Leonard, the George Baker Professor of Public Management at the Kennedy School of Government and Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Business. Hannah Riley Bowles and Guy Stuart are faculty affiliates. David Ahlers is an Ajunct Senior Fellow. David Giles is the Senior Research Assistant. Arrietta Chakos is the Project Director of the Acting in Time Recovery Project. Faaiza Rashid is a Doctoral Student. Colin Flood is a research assistant.

Newspaper and television news bulletins prominently feature events such as 9/11, the SARS epidemic, the Asian tsunami, widespread flooding in China, the massive earthquake in Pakistan, megafires in Southern California, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and a possible international epidemic of avian influenza.

Through its research and training activities, the Program on Emergency Preparedness, Crisis Management, and Disaster Recovery seeks to improve readiness and response to such major physical threats to society, including natural disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, forest fires, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions), technology failures (airline and train crashes or industrial disasters), emergent infectious disease (West Nile virus or SARS), or catastrophe from human agency (terrorism).

No matter how they arise, these events pose life- or livelihood threatening crises for families, communities, businesses and other institutions, and, frequently, multiple layers of government in a single country or across many nations. Disasters and health crises create pressing challenges—for emergency response, public safety, evacuation, housing, health care, and social services—that even developed countries find difficult to manage. Such crises, moreover, often massively destroy property or ravage the natural landscape—impacts from which it takes years to recover.

Effective preparedness can mitigate or avert the impacts of some disasters; and sure-handed response can lessen the burdens and hardships for individuals, as well as the economic and social disruptions for communities or countries. But governments, companies, communities and individuals are frequently ill-prepared for such response.

To improve readiness for crisis, the Program on Emergency Preparedness, Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery sponsors or collaborates in:

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