Edited Version of February 10, 19999
EIIP Classroom Online Presentation
"What is the Institute
for
Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management?'
Dr. Jack Harrald
Director of The George Washington University Institute for Crisis
The original unedited transcript of the February 10,1999 online Virtual Classroom presentation is available on the EIIP Virtual Forum (http://www.emforum.org). The following version of the transcript has been edited for easier reading and comprehension. Typos were corrected, date/time/names attributed by the software to each were deleted but content of discussions, questions, and responses are as stated by each participant. Answers from the presenter to questions by the audience are grouped beneath the appropriate question to facilitate meaning.
[Opening]
Amy Sebring: Welcome to the EIIP Virtual Classroom!
One quick note about any URLs that may be used in the session; they are live links and you can click on them and view the referenced site in your browser window.
Subsequent "slides" may display behind your chat window, so you may need to bring the browser window forward. Background information for today's session may be found at http://www.emforum.org/vclass/990210.htm .
We will follow an interview format for about thirty minutes, and then have audience Q&A for the last thirty minutes. I will review the instructions for Q&A as we are about to begin that portion.
[Introduction]
We are honored today to have with us Dr. Jack Harrald, Director of The George Washington University Institute for Crisis to answer the question: What is the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management?
Dr. Harrald is a Professor of Engineering Management in the GWU School of Engineering and Applied Science, and is also the Co Director of the GW/Virginia Tech Center for Disaster Mitigation and Management and Associate Director of the Louisiana State University/George Washington University National Ports and Waterways Institute. For Dr. Harrald's bio and photo, see <http://www.seas.gwu.edu/faculty/harrald/> .
Welcome Jack, and thank you for taking the time to be with us here today.
Jack Harrald: Thank you Amy, for the opportunity to do this. It sounds like fun.
[Interview]
Question:
Amy Sebring: Please tell us a little about the George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management and its Degree Programs.
Jack Harrald: Sure. Please show the first slide.
[SLIDE 1]
Jack Harrald: The Institute was chartered in 1994 as an interdisciplinary academic center at George Washington. I am in the Engineering School and my co-directors are in the Elliott School of International Affairs (Dr. Post) and the Emergency Medicine Program (Dr. Barbera).
Our initial activities were primarily in the research area but we have now created unique education and development programs. We have been offering graduate courses in crisis and emergency management for the last two years and last fall the University approved a crisis and emergency management Masters degree program within our Engineering Management curriculum. We are also offering a Doctor of Science in this area.
I will talk about the educational program first, and then, as time permits, talk about our research and other activities.
Question:
Amy Sebring: What are the objectives of the crisis and emergency management concentration of your program?
Jack Harrald: The objective of the Institute is to improve the disaster, emergency, and crisis management plans, actions, and decisions of government, corporate, and not-for-profit organizations by transforming theory to practice.
We think that high quality graduate degree programs are a fundamental step toward increasing the level of professionalism and knowledge in the crisis and emergency management field.
Question:
Amy Sebring: Please share with us the prime areas of knowledge and capability stressed by the crisis and emergency management educational program.
Jack Harrald: Perhaps the best way to do this is to just walk through the next three slides describing the courses. The first slide describes 3 courses:
[SLIDE 2]
EMGT 232: The first course is intended to provide a basic of theoretical and experiential concepts in crisis and emergency management. The students we are attracting come from a wide variety of backgrounds, so there is a lot of information sharing.
EMGT 234: Our next course focuses on Risk Management, a fundamental skill for crisis and emergency managers and is the basis for informed planning, response, and mitigation decisions.
EMGT 236: I am currently teaching the course information technology. This is perhaps the most rapidly changing aspect of emergency management. Our recent conference on GIS and Remote Sensing showcased this area.
Jack Harrald: This next slide shows:
[SLIDE 3]
EMGT 238: We have a "current" issues course in the curriculum to allow us to offer a modular course that will change over time. I expect that some modules will become full courses. This semester we are focusing on natural disaster mitigation, critical infrastructure protection, weapons of mass destruction, and international disaster response.
EMGT 332: This course focuses on organizational continuity and business disaster recovery --- areas of focus for private sector organizations and increasingly an area of interest for public sector organizations. I hope to offer this course jointly with our business school.
EMGT 334: Technological and environmental hazards provide unique mitigation and response challenges. This course will be coordinated with our Environmental Management program.
EMGT 297: This is our master's degree capstone course and will be a team project oriented course.
Jack Harrald: This next slide shows three courses that are under development.
[SLIDE 4]
Jack Harrald: These courses will bring to the program the strengths and views of our School of International Affairs, our Emergency Medicine Program, and School of Public Health. The objective is to produce a truly inter-disciplinary program.
Jack Harrald: This next slide shows how our current master's degree program fits together.
[SLIDE 5]
Jack Harrald: The courses on the left are the core courses for the Master of Science degree --- a basic management/systems management oriented group of courses. The courses on the right are the concentration courses. We offer a graduate certificate for completion of six concentration courses --- a program that is attractive to persons who already have a masters degree.
A doctoral program is individually determined but would consist of 6 courses in your major area, 4 courses in a minor area (e.g. public administration, public health, sociology, environmental science, etc), qualifying exams and a dissertation.
Question:
Amy Sebring: Why have you emphasized risk management in this concentration?
Jack Harrald: Risk management is a central discipline. It is one of our primary areas of research and it is the main topic of one course and a component of several others. I think that the ability to estimate, communicate, and manage risk have become critical elements of any crisis and emergency manager’s job.
Question:
Amy Sebring: The Institute also involves considerable research. Would you please expand on the research perspective?
Jack Harrald: We believe that creating knowledge and transmitting knowledge are core values for a university and our research and education programs are closely linked.
Our research core competencies are risk and vulnerability analysis, and crisis and emergency decision support. Our current research projects involve four faculty and five students as graduate research assistants.
(To indicate the global diversity of George Washington --- these students are from the US, Nepal, Egypt, Turkey, and Malaysia; the faculty are from the US, UK, and the Netherlands).
Question:
Amy Sebring: Could you share a case study or two in research?
[SLIDE 6]
Jack Harrald: The three most recent projects are two maritime risk analyses, and a NSF sponsored collaboration with the Association of Bay Area Governments in a risk and vulnerability analysis for California earthquakes.
The results of the earthquake project are described on ABAG's web page <http://www.abag.ca.gov>, so I will briefly mention the other two --- risk assessment of the oil transportation by tankers in Prince William Sound Alaska (site of the EXXON VALDEZ spill) and a risk assessment of the Washington State Ferry System (the largest passenger ferry system in the US). Next slide.
[SLIDE 7]
Jack Harrald: A maritime (or any transportation) accident takes place in a dynamic system. The probability and impact are both affected by situational and organizational variables. We have developed an approach based on using dynamic simulation as a risk assessment tool, eliciting expert judgment to supplement sparse data, and developing complete risk management intervention strategies. Next slide.
[SLIDE 8]
Jack Harrald: An effective risk management strategy involves a set of interventions that impact events throughout the causal chain. We find that stakeholders tend to focus on one area (e.g. double hull tankers prevent oil spills from tankers once an accident occurs) to the exclusion of others (improved traffic management prevents the triggering incident that could lead to an accident). Next slide.
[SLIDE 9]
Jack Harrald: This is a screen print of our Prince William Sound simulation. The tankers and their escort tugs follow the traffic lanes. The graph on the lower right is a running risk history of the system. Note that their are peak risk situations. The system identifies what causes these peaks and allows us to measure the effectiveness of risk reduction interventions. Next slide.
[SLIDE 10]
Jack Harrald: We are currently working with the State of Washington on a risk and safety management project. This is a graphic of their new Jumbo Mark II ferry that carries 2,500 passengers. They have also started running high speed passenger ferries that travel at 40 mph. Next slide.
[SLIDE 11]
Jack Harrald: The system moves 25 million passengers over 14 different routes. We are in the process of creating a system simulation. An interim report is available and the final report is due in June.
Question:
Amy Sebring: Will you share the Institute's training Strategy?
[SLIDE 12]
Jack Harrald: The Institute's training strategy is to collaborate on short term training with other providers. We have reached an agreement with the Disaster Recovery Institute to sponsor their business continuity courses at GW. We also experimented with offering UC Berkeley's emergency management courses at our Virginia Campus. Response was not good enough to continue, however. We are also offering a short course on aviation disaster and crisis management.
Question:
Amy Sebring: How much distance learning are you doing now at the Institute and what type of response are you getting from the distance learning part of your program?
Jack Harrald: We are moving carefully but certainly into the distance learning environment. We are using a password protected Internet system to support our courses taught on campus. Hopefully, this will enable us to make the transition to Internet delivered courses next year. There is extensive interest in obtaining graduate credits via distance learning. I would see us offering part of the program via the net, most on campus. Stay tuned.
Question:
Amy Sebring: We also understand you are working in partnership with some other organizations. Whom are you working with and what kind of joint efforts are these?
Jack Harrald: We have created the Joint Center for Disaster Mitigation and Management with Virginia Tech. Dr. Fred Krimgold of Virginia Tech and I are co-directors. We are sponsoring a policy seminar series and will be collaborating on research and educational projects.
We also co-host a crisis management roundtable for corporate crisis managers and lead a business continuity crosstalk group for the financial institutions in Washington DC.
We have negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Army Corps of Engineers and will be working with them in the area of professional development.
Amy Sebring: Thank you very much, Jack. We will now turn you over to our audience. A reminder on how we handle Q&A. If you have a question or comment, please indicate by inputting a question mark (?) to the chat screen. Then compose your question but hold it until you are recognized. We are ready for your questions now.
[Audience Questions]
Question:
Lindsey Burke: I have more of a comment. It is very interesting to see that another university offers the same courses that I am studying presently to obtain my EADP degree. It is intriguing and gives me more opportunities to obtain my Master's degree at another university that specializes like UNT (University of North Texas).
Jack Harrald: Graduate programs and undergraduate programs are often similar in construct. The content and student experience and educational level is typically different.
Question:
Amy Sebring: Jack, have you had any UNT students enroll?
Jack Harrald: We have one UNT student applying for the course, no one currently enrolled.
Question:
Terry Blackmon: You mentioned that most courses are on campus. That does help many of us that do not have access. Is there any way to change that?
Jack Harrald: We hope to move toward a distance learning/remote site delivery mode. I want to work our way through the curriculum first. However, we have several initiatives in the works that will provide us improved access to the technology but the content comes first. As I said, stay tuned.
Question:
Amy Sebring: I am particularly interested in the Technology course you are teaching. What is your focus there and how is that going?
Jack Harrald: The focus of the course is in the appropriate use of technology to support managers and decision makers in all phases of disaster management. I am trying to make it a user-driven, not technology driven course. Using lots of cases.
Question:
Isabel McCurdy: Are these policy seminar series open to the International community? I am a Canadian.
Jack Harrald: Yes. In fact, we are targeting the international community. After all, our neighbors include all the embassies, the World Bank, PAHO, WHO, OFDA, etc. The next seminar is on Thursday, the 18th, and will focus on the international response to Hurricane Mitch.
Question:
Keith Bea: I have a question that Jack and others may want to address. Are students being trained as administrators or IT specialists in administrative agencies, further work in academia, or something I can't name yet?
Jack Harrald: Good question. We are targeting this as a professional degree for managers and leaders; an alternative to the MBA, MPA, or single discipline degree. Our current students are professionals in FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Red Cross, various private companies, and several international students.
Question:
Terry Blackmon: Will the ability to gain credit for job experience/corporate training be factored into your program?
Jack Harrald: We plan to offer advanced standing to persons who complete specific training courses (e.g. the DRI sequence), you can transfer in 2 academic courses, but GW does not routinely give credit for work experience.
Question:
David Crews: Do you have EM courses tailored for developing countries?
Jack Harrald: Not yet, but we are getting a lot of interest, and our international affairs school has a development program where we could coordinate.
Question:
Cee Cee: Jack, has there been any discussion with agencies/organizations regarding possible internships (for credit?) for students of the program?
Jack Harrald: The short answer is yes. Lots of interest, but nothing firmly established yet. Obviously, a measure of program viability will be what types of jobs the graduates get.
Question:
Keith Bea: I think more basic research is required in the field. Are you seeing students interested in remaining in academia and not moving into administration?
Jack Harrald: Absolutely. One of the interesting things that happened was that by establishing a masters degree program in the Department of Engineering Management, we also obtained authority to offer the doctoral program. The interest, particularly from very highly qualified international professionals has been pretty amazing. I am very interested in growing the research aspect of the Institute in parallel with the educational program.
Question:
Paul Bourget: Is there an interest on FEMA's part in entering in to an MOA?
Jack Harrald: We have had discussions about joining their disaster resistant university program, and we have received a great deal of support from FEMA (John McKay is on our advisory board), but no formal agreement as of now.
Question:
Amy Sebring: You recently had your second remote sensing conference. Is there a compilation of the presentations available? And what are some of the things that were especially interesting?
Jack Harrald: The proceedings will be available on a CD. The major elements of interest to me was the considerable amount of DOD technology now being applied to the emergency domain; somewhat driven by the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and critical infrastructure protection issues. The conference did have an element of a lot of technology searching for problems. However, there is a real need to link the potential users of this technology to the developers.
Question:
Keith Bea: As you all know, the mitigation movement is well underway. From my limited perspective, more needs to be done on cost/benefit assessments --- their quality as well as application. Do you have specific courses or means of concentrating on CBA?
Jack Harrald: The risk and vulnerability course focuses in that direction and was very well received. A module in our current issues course focuses on mitigation. This will grow into an independent course next year. I agree that this is a critical area for research as well as education.
Question:
Amy Sebring: What was the analysis tool shown in the screen shot?
Jack Harrald: The simulation analysis tool was developed here by our risk assessment group. It is programmed in Delphi.
Question:
Keith Bea: We can follow-up on this matter in another forum, but I'd be interested in your perception of CBA application to date.
Jack Harrald: My perception is that applications have been less than rigorous, particularly on the benefit side. Would like to discuss further.
Question:
Keith Bea: Great. How about your research after Hugo and Andrew? Big changes or findings in capabilities and reactions?
Jack Harrald: We did some work after Andrew, but have been more active in the earthquake realm in California. Very difficult to estimate anything beyond direct costs or benefits.
Amy Sebring: Well, we are just about out of time. Again, our thanks for sharing some of the exciting things you are doing at George Washington University and the Institute. And doing such a beautiful job for us today!
Jack Harrald: Your welcome Amy, this has been interesting. Anyone that wants more information about the program can contact me directly by e-mail.
Question:
Amy Sebring: Will you put up your address please, Jack?
Jack Harrald: <[email protected]>
Amy Sebring: Thank you.
Question:
Ron Brittan: Do you have a course or are you planning one on international disasters?
Jack Harrald: Our current course has a module on international disaster management. It will grow into a full course next year I suspect.
Final Question:
David Crews: Great presentation! Will the CD's be available to the public?
Jack Harrald: CD's should be available in 3-4 weeks.
Amy Sebring: Avagene is traveling today, so I will do the honors on the upcoming events.
Next Wednesday in the Panel Room at 12: 00 Noon EST, we will be revisiting Project Impact one year later. We will have three of the recent awardees with us, and I think you will find that a very interesting session.
Next Tuesday Round Table session, will once again be hosted by Phyllis Mann, IAEM President Elect. I don't know yet what her topic will be, so we will all be surprised together.
Thank you audience. Our time is up, but we will be adjourning to the Virtual Forum room for a few minutes of open discussion, and you are invited to join us there.