The Private Sector's Role in Disasters ─ Leveraging the Private Sector in Emergency Management

The private sector plays a tremendous role in the creation of policies related to emergency management and their implementation at the federal, state, and local levels. This book examines the role of the private sector and its intersection with government, government agencies, and the public sectors in all phases of emergency management. With a particular focus on the areas in which government regulation and guidelines promote or encourage private sector involvement, the book also looks at best practices for public-private partnerships and some of the common pitfalls of the contracting model.

Alessandra Jerolleman is vice president of Louisiana Water Works and is also a senior emergency management and hazard mitigation planner for JEO Consulting Group Inc. She currently teaches at Tulane University and Jacksonville State University. She has served as a program specialist in the Gulf Coast with Save the Children USA and worked on a resilience initiative around children’s needs in emergencies. She has also participated in hazard mitigation planning at the local, state, and campus levels, in community education and outreach regarding mitigation measures and preparedness, in developing collaborative networks and information sharing avenues among practitioners; and in training and educating various stakeholders. Dr. Jerolleman is one of the founders of the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association (NHMA) and served as its executive director for its first seven years. She is involved in various aspects of planning and policy at the national and local level, including participation in several workshops each year. She also speaks on many topics, including: hazard mitigation and climate change; campus planning; threat, hazard and vulnerability assessments; hazard mitigation planning; protecting children in disasters; and public–private partnerships.

John J. Kiefer is a professor and director of the MPA program at the Department of Political Science at the University of New Orleans (UNO). He is also a faculty associate at the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART), UNO’s applied hazards social science research center. He is currently either principal investigator or a research team member for several projects and is on the Executive Board of the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration. He has also delivered numerous papers and chaired panels at professional meetings in the United States and Canada. His current research interests include hazard policy, emergency management, and program evaluation, and he specializes in the development of outcome-focused collaborative networks to create disaster resilience, especially in vulnerable populations.