BAF@UD Workshop 2016

Bandana Kar, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Geology at the University of Southern Mississippi. She earned a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Her research and academic interests focus on (i) advancing the concepts of Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and hazards, (ii) applying the concepts to study the interaction of social and physical environments, and (iii) modeling the financial and anthropogenic impacts of extreme weather hazards to help reduce risk and build resilient communities.

Dr. Kar's research in GIScience focuses on: (i) uncertainty and accuracy assessment, (ii) multi-scale and spatio-temporal modeling, (iii) cyber GIS and web mapping, citizen science, location privacy, (iv) data science – machine learning, statistics, databases, and (v) change detection and feature extraction using imagery. Her research in hazard focuses on risk communication, community resilience, damage/financial loss estimation, risk and vulnerability assessment, and emergency preparedness and response. Dr. Kar has been funded by the Department of Homeland Security, National Science Foundation and Department of Defense to undertake research in risk communication, economic resilience, to build cyber-infrastructure to enable citizen science, and to investigate the usability and integration of big data for emergency management and homeland security activities.

Joshua L. Kelly is the State Public Assistance Officer and an Emergency Management Planner for the Delaware Emergency Management Agency. As the Public Assistance Officer, he is primarily responsible for administering the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Public Assistance recovery program and managing the State of Delaware's Long-term Recovery Plan. Mr. Kelly has worked on four federally declared major disasters and assisted during the City of Dallas Ebola response and the nationally recognized "Paint the Prophet" terrorist attack. Previously, he was a Senior Emergency Management Specialist for the City of Garland, Texas, and Research Assistant at both the Disaster Research Center and the University of North Texas. As a Research Assistant, he worked on four National Science Foundation funded projects and was a co-author on seven disaster-related publications - including a book chapter and several academic journal and magazine articles. He received a B.A. from the University of Delaware where he majored in Sociology and Criminal Justice and his M.P.A., with a concentration in Emergency Management, from the University of James Kendra, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration and Director of the Disaster Research Center. Previously he was coordinator of the Emergency Administration and Planning Program in the Department of Public Administration at the University of North Texas. His research interests focus on individual and organizational responses to risk, improvisation and creativity during crisis, post-disaster shelter and housing, and planning for behavioral health services. Projects have included research on the reestablishment of New York City’s emergency operations center after the 9/11 attacks, a major study of the waterborne evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11, research on the social impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami, and research on the organization of disaster behavioral health services. Dr. Kendra has been involved in several emergency planning and exercise efforts, and he is a Certified Emergency Manager. He graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy with a degree in marine transportation, and served several years at sea, attaining a Master Mariner license. His master’s degree is in geography from the University of Massachusetts, and his Ph.D. is in geography from Rutgers University.