The second biennial National Evacuation Conference will be held February 7-9, 2012 in New Orleans, La. at the Hilton Riverside hotel. Stephen Flynn, professor of political science and the founding co-director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University, will headline an impressive lineup of keynote speakers and panelists set to appear. The conference is organized by the Stephenson Disaster Management Institute and the Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency (CETR), which is housed at both LSU and the University of New Orleans within the UNO Transportation Institute (UNOTI).
“Preparing our society to respond to crisis and disaster is incomplete without planning for evacuations,” said John L. Renne, director of UNOTI. “The National Evacuation Conference is unique because it facilitates the exchange of ideas drawn from both research and practice among a diverse audience. Lessons benefit all segments of society, including the most vulnerable, to make Americans better prepared during times of emergency.”
This conference will be relevant to both academics and professionals with an interest in the development and modeling of comprehensive evacuation plans. The conference will offer a venue for dialogue between the academy and practice, as well as between the private and public sector. Participants will contribute to an important step towards more efficient and effective evacuation planning.
In addition to Flynn, speakers for the conference will include:
o Richard Devylder, Senior Advisor for Accessible Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation;
o James Kendra, Director, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware;
o William Brockmann Long, Vice President of State and Local Business Development, Hagerty Consulting;
o Former Director of Alabama’s Emergency Management Agency;
o Irwin Redlener, M.D., Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness; Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University; and President and Co-Founder, Children's Health Fund
o Marcie Roth, Senior Advisor to Administrator Fugate, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
For speaker biographies, visit www.nationalevacuationconference.org. Additionally, those wishing to learn more can follow the conference on Twitter using the hashtag #NatlEvacConf. Along with premier sponsor AARP, the National Evacuation Conference is being supported by the following governmental, educational, corporate and organization partners:
• Entergy Corporation
• ZeroHour powered by ASG
• Sandia National Laboratories
• Atkins Global
• Dewberry
• Argonne National Laboratory
• First Line Technology: AmbuBus
• Transportation Research Board of the National Academies
• Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
• The International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters
• The American Society of Civil Engineers’ Natural Hazards Review
• National Center for Biomedical Research and Training
CETR is focused on evacuation and transportation resiliency in an effort to address the multitude of issues that impact transportation processes under emergency conditions such as evacuation and other types of major events.
The Merritt C. Becker Jr. UNO Transportation Institute focuses on the role of transportation in creating a sustainable, livable and resilient future. UNOTI combines applied research, outreach and education to impact positively the transportation field from the local to the international spheres.