Lisa Reshaur, Ph.D. is the Senior Director of Microsoft’s Governance, Risk, Continuity and Compliance Program. She coordinates the Company’s Information Risk Management Council, Microsoft’s security governance program. Lisa leads the Company’s Enterprise Business Continuity Management program which includes continuity, recovery and resiliency. She also runs compliance, risk management, risk remediation and privacy for Core Services Engineering. Lisa earned a Ph.D. from the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware where she focused on studying businesses in disasters. Prior to joining Microsoft, Lisa worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers where she spent 14 years working with companies around the world to help them build, improve and sustain risk and compliance programs. Lisa earned a Six Sigma Black Belt, is a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) and a Certified Risk Manager (CRM).

Angela R. Gladwell serves as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Director for Hazard Mitigation Assistance in the Mitigation Directorate within the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration. Throughout her more than twenty years of experience in emergency management and environmental policy and over twelve years leading federal programs, Ms. Gladwell has worked to inform public decision-making and improve inter-governmental collaboration, partnership and transparency in reducing the nation’s risk to natural disasters. Ms. Gladwell was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2016.

Under Ms. Gladwell’s leadership, the Hazard Mitigation Assistance Division reduces disaster suffering by delivering grant programs that reduce disaster losses. She directs FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance Programs, including the new Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) Program, the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program, ensuring the Federal Government is a leader in prioritizing federal investments for mitigation and resilience and catalyzing community partnerships to promote sustained and equitable investments in risk reduction.

Ms. Gladwell co-chairs the inter-agency Mitigation Framework Leadership Group (MitFLG) that coordinates mitigation and resilience efforts across the Federal Government in consultation with state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments as well as the private sector. Under her leadership, the MitFLG developed and has begun implementing the National Mitigation Investment Strategy to increase the effectiveness of investments in reducing disaster losses and increasing resilience, and to provide strategic planning considerations for the federal government, as well for SLTT entities and the private sector in making resource allocation decisions.

Before joining the Mitigation Directorate in 2020, Gladwell was the Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Risk Management Directorate since 2016, and spent the previous decade as the Director of FEMA’s Office of Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation. During this time, she significantly matured the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s environmental compliance function to meet the rapidly evolving nature of emergency management programs and operations as a result of major disaster events including 9/11, and Hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Sandy, and subsequent legislative change.

Ms. Gladwell holds a Master of Arts in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from University of Delaware, and a Bachelor of Arts in Historic Preservation from Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington).

Gary Webb is Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science at the University of North Texas. The department houses the Emergency Administration and Planning program (EADP), which was established in 1983 as the nation’s first bachelor’s degree program in emergency management. Prior to UNT, he spent the early part of his career (2000-2011) at Oklahoma State University, where he received the Regents Distinguished Teaching Award and the Arts and Sciences Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence. While his primary appointment was in sociology, he was also a core member of the Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events and an affiliate of the Fire and Emergency Management Program. Before starting his academic career at OSU, Gary served as a graduate research assistant and later as a post-doctoral fellow at DRC (1994-2000), and during that time he also had the opportunity to work closely with DRC alumnus Gary Kreps at the College of William and Mary.

Gary is primarily interested in studying organizational and community preparedness for and response to large-scale disasters. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and published in a wide variety of journals, including the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, International Journal of Emergency Management, Natural Hazards Review, Environmental Hazards, and others. Most recently, along with fellow DRC alumni Brenda Phillips and Dave Neal, he co-authored a new edition of Introduction to Emergency Management. He has taught and presented his research internationally in The Netherlands, Denmark, France, South Korea, and Turkey.

Dr. Jasmin Ruback, is the CEO of Ruback Associates, an independent consulting firm specializing in the areas of disaster research, resolution, and management. Because disaster prevention, response, and recovery are complex, fast-paced, and adaptive, she takes an evidence-based systems approach to help communities and organizations design, align, and improve their overall resilience, disaster programs, and outcomes.

For 16+ years, Dr. Ruback has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a national program consultant on program development, evaluations, recovery operations, community preparedness, and mitigation. For FEMA, she works with complex concepts of federal doctrine, mission areas, core capabilities, and operational plans. The work she enjoys most involves interacting with communities, organizations, and government officials at the local, state, and regional levels. She often fulfills special projects and deployments planning, preparing for, mitigating, and recovering from large, complex, and often resource-intensive crisis situations.

Dr. Ruback has worked at the DRC twice; once as a graduate student fulfilling a practicum degree requirement, and then, as the first Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. In this role she managed the multi-year evaluation of the Disaster Resistant Community Initiative: Project Impact. Dr. Ruback has authored or co-authored 10 peer-reviewed articles, 6 book chapters, 27 technical reports, 3 recovery plans, and 11 government publications. Dr. Ruback received her Ph.D. in Social and Community Psychology from Georgia State University and focused on post-disaster trauma, evacuation, and relocation and is a Subject Matter Expert in community dynamics, planning for catastrophes, disaster stress, methodology, and metrics.

Thirty years conducting research into behavioral and organizational response to disaster, have resulted in the production of a body of work that includes the following: designing and teaching ten different graduate and undergraduate courses, mentoring students who are now colleagues in the discipline, presentation of more than three dozen papers at professional conferences, the publication of two dozen scholarly journal articles, three books, two monographs, consulting for Research Planning, Inc./Department of Defense, consulting for the Office of Emergency Management/Justice Department on TOPOFF2, appearances on CNN and MS-NBC to discuss high consequence event issues. Professional memberships have been held in the International Sociological Association, the International Research Committee on Disasters (IRCD), the European Sociological Association, the American Sociological Association and the International Association of Emergency Managers. Service positions include: editor of IRCD’s official newsletter, UnScheduled Events, 1998-2008, editor of IRCD’s online journal of reviews Contemporary Disaster Review 2002-2007, as well as webmaster for the internet version of International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 2004-2007). Creation of a multi-disciplinary minor in Environmental Hazards & Emergency Management, an online master’s degree in emergency management, and the founding director of the Center for Disaster Research & Education (CDRE); all of which involved 18 faculty from across the university as well as many student research assistants. Funding sources included the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the Natural Hazards Center (University of Colorado), and the National Science Foundation.

Brenda Phillips, Ph.D., is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Indiana University South Bend, where she will be guest lecturing on gender and disasters in the Women and Gender Studies program, and on socio-behavioral response and recovery in our Natural Disasters course. She is an author of Disaster Recovery, Introduction to Emergency Management, Qualitative Disaster Research and Mennonite Disaster Service. She has co-edited Social Vulnerability to Disasters and Women and Disasters. Her published research, funded by the National Science Foundation, can be found in a variety of journals including the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Disaster Prevention, Disasters, Humanity and Society, the Journal of Emergency Management, Natural Hazards Review, and Environmental Hazards.

Dr. Phillips has been invited to teach, consult, or present in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, India, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Venezuela, Canada, Sweden, and the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Phillips earned the Blanchard Award for excellence in emergency management education and the Myers Award for work on the effects of disasters on women. She was inducted into the International Women’s Hall of Fame for Emergency Management and Homeland Security in 2013.

Ken received his Ph.D. degree in Rural Sociology at Ohio State University, and served as a graduate research associate (field research supervisor) affiliated with the “Emergent Citizen Groups in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Activities” project conducted at the OSU-DRC. Although his resume does not reflect a specialization or expertise in the field of disasters, his experiences at DRC most certainly contributed significantly to his accomplishments. After graduation he served jointly as the Assistant Director and Research Professor at the Agricultural Experiment Station of University of the Virgin Islands. While there he was the principal investigator for four USDA and USDI sponsored Eastern Caribbean research projects. He left the Caribbean to assume an Executive Director position within a multi-jurisdictional district of the Appalachian Regional Commission; and due to his unique residential location was able to maintain constant classroom practices as an adjunct professor of sociology at Frostburg State University, Shepherd University and Shenandoah University; as well as serve on appointments with West Virginia University and Marshall University.

Two years after retiring in 2002 and moving to Canada; Ken came out of retirement and helped establish an accredited and government approved online university, which he now serves as its “virtual” Provost from his one of his three homes (depending on the weather) in Canada, France, and Spain.

Quinten retired in 2006 as a Federal Security Director with the Transportation Security Administration. His career with the US Government spanned over thirty years, nearly all involving transportation safety or security.

During graduate studies at OSU, Quinten was the DRC’s project manager of the Hazardous Materials Planning and Response Project.

Following OSU, Quinten was selected as a Presidential Management Intern sponsored by the US Coast Guard. During that time, he was also a staff investigator on the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island.

Following the internship, he joined the National Transportation Safety Board first as a hazardous materials accident investigator, and later as a member of the executive staff.

Prior to joining the Transportation Security Administration, QuintenQuinten Johnon 1979.jpg held several security positions with the Federal Aviation Administration including Director of its Office of Policy and Planning, Manager of the Civil Aviation Security Division, Manager of the foreign airport assessment program, and Manager of the Research and Development requirements program. Primarily, he was responsible for all security regulations imposed on US carriers, foreign carriers operating in the US, as well as all commercial airports in the US.

Throughout his career in the federal government and as a consultant, Quinten has traveled to over 50 countries, been interviewed by ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, CNN and several print media including the Washington Post, and testified before Congress. He has also been an expert witness in several cases involving aviation security.

Quinten is married and resides near the Gulf Coast in southern Alabama. He is an avid fisherman and boater. He is eternally grateful to his mentors at the DRC and OSU.

M.A. in Sociology, 1976, The Ohio State University. Research Associate for three years with DRC. After previously receiving a B.A. in Journalism from OSU, was a reporter for three years at the morning newspaper in Columbus prior to grad school. From 1977 to 1994 worked in the Ohio Department of Mental Health, first as a Community Evaluation Specialist/Research Administrator; a hospital Director of Community Relations, Staff Education and Program Development in Cleveland, and back in Columbus as an Assistant Area Director for 20 rural counties, as well as Disaster Services Coordinator for ODMH. I provided technical assistance and administration of two FEMA-funded crisis counseling grants and was a reviewer for Missouri’s FEMA grant application in 1993.

After moving to Orlando, I was a Senior Planner with ERP&M, Inc, from 1998 to 2009, consulting in seven Florida counties and Kansas to develop Local Mitigation Strategy plans for State and FEMA review and subsequent adoption. I also assisted in developing Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans. This was the most fulfilling and relevant work of all, assisting local governments to plan and develop approaches in order to minimize the potential effects of disasters. I returned to Columbus in 2007 and “retired” in 2009, where I now volunteer with a couple organizations.

Gary Kreps is a retired Vice Provost and Professor of Sociology at the College of William and Mary. Following completion of his PhD in Sociology (1971) at the Ohio State University, he began his career as a faculty member (1972-to retirement) and administrator (1994-to retirement) at William and Mary. During his long career Kreps had long-standing research interests in organizational and role theories as both relate to structural analyses of community, regional, and societal responses to natural, technological, and willful hazards and disasters. Following work as a staff office and consultant at the National Research Council during the late 1970s, for over twenty years Kreps' archival studies of disaster events were supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. Over the course of these two decades, Kreps and his colleagues and students developed taxonomies and theories of organizing and role enactment during the emergency periods of disasters. Major findings from Kreps' research program were reported in two books and articles in Sociological Theory, Annual Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, and many other basic and applied publications. Kreps also collaborated with Thomas Drabek on resolving venerable issues in the definition of disasters as physical and sociological events. His 2001 entry in the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Disaster, Sociology of) emphasized the need to reconcile functionalist and constructivist conceptions of disasters as acute systemic events. In 2008, Kreps received the E.L. Quarantelli award for contributions to social science disaster theory.

University of Evansville, 1971-1975 (Chair, Department of Sociology)

University of Southern California, 1975-2004 (Professor, now named the Price School of Public Policy with joint appointment in the Department of Sociology)

Thomas E. Drabek (MA ’62, Ph.D. ’65) retired from the University of Denver after 39 years of service including Departmental Chair (1974-79; 1985-87). He served as Editor of the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters and President of the International Research Committee on Disasters (1990-1994). He has published over 100 research articles and book chapters and 28 books including the second edition of The Human Side of Disaster (2013, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press). Other book titles include Thomas E. Drabek, with the assistance of Ruth A. Drabek, The Sociology of Disaster: Fictional Explorations of Human Experiences, New York: Routledge, 2020.

In August 2007, Drabek was the third recipient of the E.L. Quarantelli Award for contributions to social science disaster theory by the International Research Committee on Disasters and in June 2008, he received the first Dr. B. Wayne Blanchard Award for Academic Excellence in Emergency Management Higher Education. Since his retirement from the University of Denver (DU) he has continued his writing and conference addresses with the assistance of his wife and research collaborator, Ruth Ann Drabek. During his multi-decade career, he has remained dedicated to a vision of implementing disaster research for the common good.