Crisis and Disaster: Public Policies for Response, Resilience, and Transformation

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

As events of the first quarter of 21st Century have repeatedly made starkly clear, the United States, alone and as part of a global community, will continue to face numerous, increasing, and often intersecting, environmental and public health threats endangering human lives, economic security, and social stability at the local, regional, and national scales. The severity and rapid onset of such crises presents public agencies and officials as well as community and private sector stakeholders with a range of complex challenges related to: a) responding to such threats when they may arise and b) designing and implementing sector-specific, “whole of government,” and/or “whole of society” initiatives to ensure greater community and societal resilience to such threats in the future.

Reflecting the conference theme of “Forging Collaborations for Resilient and Transformative Policy Solutions,” this panel will examine dimensions of federal/national, state, and local policymaking related to some of the most pressing challenges in modern times: emerging infectious diseases, climate change, and public responses to these threats. Specifically, the four papers, collectively representing cross-disciplinary and multi-method (quantitative and qualitative) approaches, will focus on the intersections of social, political, economic, epidemiological, and ethical factors that contribute to—and complicate—the design, adoption. implementation, effectiveness, cost-benefit, and equity of policies for response and/or resilience to the 21st Century realities of such threats to human life and collective welfare.

The presenters and discussant represent a diverse range of fields (public administration and policy, political science, environmental science, demography, public and population health), institutions, and career stages. Their collective level of expertise via research and practice will offer the audience an engaging, thought-provoking, and timely session for considering these specific topics and broader issues of disaster/threat mitigation and resilience.

Policy Area

• Health Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• National & Homeland Security and Crisis Management

Chair

• Richard M. Carpiano, University of California, Riverside

Discussants

• Margaret Marie Weden, RAND Corporation

• Richard M. Carpiano, University of California, Riverside

Organizer

• Richard M. Carpiano, University of California, Riverside

Individual Presentations

• One Health in the Trump Administration: Implications for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Resilience - Presenting Author: Katarzyna Klasa, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

• Collaboration and Extreme Heat: Exploring Local Policy to Extreme Heat Events - Presenting Author: Dorothy M. Daley, University of Kansas; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Margaret Swenson, University of Wyoming

• Protecting Homes and Communities: Perceptions about the Benefits of Adaptation Policies - Presenting Author: Megan Mullin, University of California - Los Angeles

• Preserving Public Health Legitimacy: State Responses to the Politicization of Federal Expertise During the Covid-19 Pandemic - Presenting Author: Sarah Denise Rozenblum, Cornell University