Resilient Gulf News

Study Improves Disaster Resilience Training for Community Health Workers

To improve disaster resilience in targeted communities that were especially hard-hit by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, CRGC worked with its partners from the University of South Alabama’s Coastal Resource and Resiliency Center (CRRC) to train and deploy seven lay Community Health Workers (CHWs) in community-based organizations and community health clinics in Bayou La Batre, AL, Galliano, LA, and Port Sulphur, LA. CRGC researchers, Keith Nicholls, PhD, Steven J. Picou, PhD, and Selena C. McCord recently published findings on how to better prepare CHWs, who take active roles in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice: Training Community Health Workers to Enhance Disaster Resilience. Read more »

Tulane’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy Hosts: Leadership in Peacetime and Crisis

Major General Michael Regner (Image provided by DRLA)[/caption] On Saturday, December 2nd, Tulane’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy (DRLA) will welcome Major General Michael Regner, who will present Leadership in Peacetime and Crisis. Major General Regner will discuss topics including: (1) Resiliency in Peacetime and Crisis; (2) Crisis Communication; (3) Casualties – Civilians and Military Members; (4) Humanitarian Assistance and Cultural Awareness; and (5) Designing Your Leadership Philosophy. Learn more»

CRGC’s Drs. Finucane and Nicholls Contribute to National Academies Workshop on Preparing for a Rapid Response to Major Marine Oil Spills: Protecting and Assessing the Health and Well-Being of Communities

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine  recently released Proceedings of the Workshop— in Brief, chronicling the presentations and discussions from Preparing for a Rapid Response to Major Offshore Oil Spills: A Workshop on Research Needs to Protect the Health and Well-Being of Communities. The two-day workshop, which Drs. Finucane and Nicholls participated in Aug 2-3 in Washington D.C., was organized by an ad hoc committee to facilitate cross-sector, transdiciplinary discussions around research needs and other opportunities for improving public health preparedness, response, and protection related to oil spills. Learn more»

CRGC Director, Dr. Melissa Finucane, Shares Updates on Consortium’s Work & Research Findings

At this year’s Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference, The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) interviewed Dr. Melissa Finucane– Senior Social and Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation and Director of The Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities- about CRGC’s latest research findings and progress assessing and addressing the impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the health, social, and economic wellbeing of people in the Gulf Coast region. Finucane speaks to CRGC’s research, outreach, and education initiatives, which are aimed at helping communities across the Gulf Coast to more effectively understand, withstand, and overcome the multiple stressors brought on by such disasters. Learn more>>

Reliable Data: The Most Empowering Tool for Hurricane Recovery

Accessibility to transparent, up to date data has proven to play a critical role in both individual- and community-level capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disaster events, such as a hurricanes— Something that was especially evident following Hurricane Katrina. Denice W. Ross, a Public Interest Technology Fellow at New America and a co-founder of the Obama administration’s Police Data Initiative, spent more than a decade in New Orleans building community capacity to use government data and is continuing to broaden her work in the “open data” space by aggregating high-value data sets that can aid communities impacted by disaster. Learn more>>

CRGC Team Member, Amy Lessen, Part of Collaborative to Help Isle de Jean Charles Tribe Build Resilience in the Face of Climate Change and Other Social & Environmental Challenges

CRGC team member, Amy Lessen, a research associate professor with the ByWater Institute at Tulane University, is working on a collaborative, transdisciplinary effort to help the Isle de Jean Charles tribal community of southeastern Louisiana build resilience in the face of climate change and other social and environmental challenges. Read full story »

Interested in Updates on CRGC’s Work to Help Gulf Coastal Communities Improve Resilience to Future Catastrophic Oil Spills?

Check out the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute’s Summer Newsletter featuring a Q&A with Elizabeth Thornton, who heads up outreach efforts for the Consortium! You’ll hear the latest on how CRGC’s research, outreach, and education activities are helping communities across the Gulf Coast to more effectively understand, withstand, and overcome the multiple stressors brought on by such disasters as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Learn more »