Mary Fran Myers Scholarship Winners
The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship recognizes outstanding individuals who share Myers' commitment to disaster research and practice and have the potential to make a lasting contribution to reducing disaster vulnerability.
2012 winners are:
Hsien-Ho (Ray) Chang
Hsien-Ho (Ray) Chang is a PhD student in Disaster Science and Management at the University of Delaware. Before he began his doctoral studies, Ray spent six years in the Taipei County Fire Department in Taiwan as a fire captain. He was in charge of developing emergency plans for a 13-kilometer tunnel (one of the longest tunnels in Taiwan) and organizing an urban search and rescue team. Chang also wrote several chapters of the 2005 Taiwan National Firefighter’s Handbook. Chang earned his master’s degree from Arizona State University and majored in fire service administration. During his studies in Phoenix, he spent a year working with the Phoenix Fire Department to develop technology to locate new fire stations and collecting and analyzing data from major disaster drills.
Chang is interested in disaster response and his dissertation focuses on the Incident Command System (ICS). His goal is to develop the theoretical foundation for the ICS that incorporates his experience from Taiwanese and American fire departments and strengthens the practical applications of this system. Chang hopes his practical background and post-graduate studies will bridge the gap between academics and practitioners in the future and believes his Asian heritage and cross-cultural training will benefit disaster management systems in the United States and around the world.
Mike Kline
Mike Kline is the manager of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation's Rivers and Floodplain Program. He holds a master's in river ecology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. During his 24 years with the department, Kline has worked to combine flood and erosion hazard mitigation with other aspects of watershed management. He has authored integrated river habitat and stream geomorphic assessment protocols and developed a river corridor planning program to help more than 150 Vermont communities complete multi-objective projects that improve water quality, restore river ecosystems, and mitigate floods and erosion.
Kline has worked in Vermont, and nationally, on programs and policies join floodplain encroachment, stream alteration, and river flow management. Stressing the importance of river science and data collection, the Rivers and Floodplain Program is known for an "avoidance approach" by striving to keep the natural equilibrium of Vermont rivers and floodplains. Kline has worked to move state and federal programs away from stream channelization and structural mitigation.
Kline has developed a nationally recognized fluvial erosion hazard (FEH) area protection program based on the principles of stream equilibrium and natural floodplain function. Other states are adopting erosion hazard mapping and mitigation programs based on the Vermont approach and Kline frequently speaks at regional and national workshops on the topic of river corridor and floodplain protection. Kline hopes to use his Tropical Storm Irene experience to help Vermont and other states better prepare mitigation and avoidance-based programs to engage during the emergency phases of recovery when so many critical and lasting decisions are made.
Justin Moresco
Justin Moresco is a project manager at GeoHazards International, where he promotes earthquake risk reduction through the design and implementation of preparedness and mitigation projects, with an emphasis on developing countries. Most recently, he’s managing an 18-month project for the Global Earthquake Model Foundation that investigates seismic risk reduction in 11 cities worldwide. Moresco is particularly interested in working on initiatives that draw from diverse fields—social sciences, public health, engineering, and earth sciences—to increase the impact of risk reduction efforts.
Moresco is a licensed civil engineer in California with expertise in earthquake engineering and a LEED Accredited Professional with a focus on existing buildings. He holds a master's and a bachelor’s in structural engineering. Moresco has also worked as a professional journalist, writing extensively on sustainability and international development issues. He has lived and worked in Switzerland and Ghana, West Africa, where he wrote for the United Nations news agency, IRIN news. Moresco has a post-graduate diploma in journalism.
Judy Sears
Judy Sears lives on the north coast of California near the Mendocino Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates grind below and past each other. Running north of the Triple Junction is the 700-mile long Cascadia subduction zone, believed to be capable of producing magnitude 9 earthquakes, which some geologists predict will occur within the next 50 years. A native Californian, Sears has always lived with threats of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, torrential storms, and flooding—but it was her son’s schooling in New Orleans and his work there as an ambulance driver that opened her eyes and coalesced into a passion to get her community disaster prepared.
In the summer of 2012, Sears will complete her master’s degree at Humboldt State University in Environment and Community. She researched the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training model to explore the efficacy of adapting the model to mitigate losses in rural coastal settings, which can be isolated from first responders and the rest of the state after disasters. From her research came a new question—what complement of personal and community action would include most people, empower them to make neighborhood connections, and build resilience to better prepare them for slow and rapid changes?
Sears has worked as the administrator of United States Servas, a national non-profit organization; as the operations manager for World Shelters; as a public relations employee for a community college; and as a retailer, a tile setter, and a truck driver. All of these positions have lead her to this place of seeking collaborations in developing community strategies to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. Sears is now community liaison for the fledgling Regional Training Institute—Community Disaster Preparedness (RTI), which provides preparedness training for residents in the five northern California counties.