PREPARED FOR WHATEVER TOMORROW BRINGS By Mollie Tolbert
Elizabeth Hardister had her eyes set on getting a master’s degree from the University of Georgia Institute for Disaster Management (IDM) before she had even declared an undergraduate major. Her interest in emergency preparedness began when she was in high school, cheering on her father who was competing in the 2013 Boston Marathon where two homemade bombs detonated near the finish line injured hundreds of people and killed three. Her father was OK, but Hardister remembers being struck by how quickly
In 2018, Hardister presented a talk at TEDxUGA on how everyday people can be prepared to be first responders.
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COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH 2023 MAGAZINE
first responders mobilized resources to get people to safety. “You hear sirens in the background as you’re going through your day, but before that, I had never taken notice of the infrastructure and the coordination that is required to respond to large emergencies like that,” she said.
