The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

CRC 5th Annual Meeting: March 11- March13, 20Chapel Hill, NC

Institutionalization, Expansion, and Enhancement of Interdisciplinary Minor

Disaster and Coastal Studies (DCS)

Principal Investigator: Meherun Laiju, Ph.D.Dean of Social Sciences Associate ProfessorSociology & Social Work DepartmentTougaloo College

CRC 5th Annual Meeting Mar. 11- Mar 13, 2020

Core Courses

NSD 210 Introduction to Natural and Manmade

Disasters

DCS 320 Emergency Preparedness and Response

DCS 400 Internship

Electives(Choose 1)

Interdisciplinary

PSY 328- Health Psychology in Disaster Preparedness

POL 317 Public Policy and Legal Issues in Disaster

Management

SOC/SWK 331- Social,Community Organizations and Disaster Preparedness

COP 211: Public Relations Writing

DCS

Min

or C

ours

es

Introduction to Natural Disasters

Public Health Issues in Disaster Management

Political and legal Aspects of Disaster Management

Emergency Preparedness Planning and Response

Internship

Elective (choose 1)

Economic Dimension of Disasters

Psychological aspect of Disaster

Project Overview

• Disaster & Coastal Studies (DCS):• Certificate program offers a multidisciplinary approach from social science

perspective about the nature of natural disasters in the coastal zone• Project addresses the social aspects of catastrophes or disasters

• Organizational issues inherent in preparedness, planning, and managing all forms of disasters.

• The program is housed in Sociology and Social Work Department in SSD

Objectives:

• Diversify the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) workforce

• Train interested students for career in the field of disaster management for local emergency management agencies and graduate studies

• Faculty and students to engage in cross-disciplinary research• Collaboration with local End User• Community Outreach initiatives

•Professional Development

•Publications & Presentation

•Student Mentoring

Faculty

DCS certificate:Courses (6-7 per year)Research (3 faculty, 6-9 students)Community OutreachEngagement – End users

Curriculum • Internship•Scholarships (10 -11per

year)•Research•Conference•Presentations•Training (GIS)

Student

Stakeholder Engagement Year 1-4

InternsInstructor

Advisory BoardNeighborhood

Training

MEMA

Homeland Security

American Red Cross

County Emergency Managemen

t

Salvation Army

Accomplishment 2015 – 16 Minor 2016-17

Minor

2017-18 Minor

2018 -19 Certificate

Total Course Offers 7 6 5 7

Total Student Serve 62 60+ 60 66

Declare Minor 12 9+ 10* -

Interested Certificate

- - 10

Internship (End –User)

7 7+ -** 4

Graduate With Minor 2 4-5 3 -

Graduate With Certificate

-- -- -- 5

Research Project/Training

8* 10 11 8

Conference Presentation

5 7 6

Symposium 1 1 1 1

SUMERX 1 2 1 2

Community Outreach - - - 2

Education Work and Accomplishments (Year1- 4)

Student in class GIS Training

Research Participants

Training Overview

ICS (Incident Command System)

NIMS (National Incident Management System)

Preparing for a Disaster ( Home Plan/ Emergency Kit )

Exercise Scenario (Tornado)

Neighborhood Outreach Training Initiative (1 -4)

Half day training was arranged for Community outreach program on May 6, 2017 by the DCS Program at Woodhaven Neighborhood.

This has been done in collaboration with MEMA----Training officers- Mr. Jesse Murphree

(Emergency Preparedness) and Training OfficerMs. Loretta Thorpe

(Director, Training Bureau, Office of Preparedness)

Conduct Survey to assess community needs

Speaker : Donta Council, Ph.D Student;Old Dominion University

DCS Students, Faculty, and Guest

Old Dominion

University

University of Delaware Disaster Research Center

Research & Training*:Geographic Information System (GIS) concepts some emphasis in the STEM areas

Familiarity with national preparedness and resilience literature, develop skills to critically review journal articlesDesign survey instrument, administer the survey, interview skills, skills related to statistical software program SPSS ,

Activity Status

Offer 6 courses (fall & spring) Complete

Students Taking Courses (may serve as electives) 70 Students

Intern Placement to end user setting Complete (4 students)

Selection of students for research and training* Complete (8 students)

Recruit for the certificate Complete (10 students)

Select students for CRC “SUMREX 2020” In Progress (2 students)

Guest Speaker (Research Partner) 2020 Complete (2 speakers)

DCS Research Symposium March 20, 2020; 9:00 -1:00; TC

Students Graduating with Certificate May 2020 (4 -6 students, )

Community Outreach Complete

Abstracts Published in Mississippi Academy of Sciences (MAS), February edition(ISSN 0076-9436,vol65, # 1) & Presented at 84th Annual Meeting in Hattiesburg February 21, 2019:

ØCourtney Thomas and Meherun Laiju

Natura Disaster Preparedness Among Undergraduate Students In Jackson, Mississippi, abstract published in 84th MAS (ISSN 0076 – 9436, Vol 65 # 1) journal and presented the Paper at MAS conference on February 20, 2020

ØNakyah Hill, DiMaya Randle, and Shaila Khano Assessment of Psychological Impact of Coastal Disaster, abstract published

in 84th MAS (ISSN 0076 – 9436, Vol 65 # 1) journal and presented the Paper at MAS conference on February 20, 2020

Education Work and Accomplishments:

Community Outreach (November 14, 2019)

Offered in Fall by NSD

STEM oriented

Course is designed to give a broad overview of natural and man-made disaster and applications of modern tools like GIS to study natural disasters.

Interested students will gain fundamental knowledge of Natural Disasters, pursuing a certificate in Disaster Coastal studies, and

Also, learn about future prospects in this field.

Instructor: Dr. Santanu Banerjee; Professor of Physics

Class Presentation

The course introduces students to the field of Disaster Preparedness.

Students are exposed to the terminology, policy, planning, and management issues that arise in preparing for and responding to disasters.

Help students understand the role of human organizations in providing assistance to people and communities affected by disasters in the immediate aftermath and for long term recovery.

The course examined particular events that occur recently as well as past incidents.

Offered in Spring by Political Science

Attorney specialized in the field teaches this course.

The course presents concepts and basic descriptive information about the public policy process in the executive and legislative branches of government and actions of the judicial branch in court cases that relate to disaster preparedness.

Examine the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s legal requirements, responsibilities, laws pertaining to emergency management, and actions based on these laws.

Also includes analysis of public policies and understanding the procedures and requirements in emergency management.

Instructor Atty. Dennis Sweet

Michelle WayInsurance Adjuster

Atty. Bobby Owens, Litigator Deep Water Horizon, BP Oil Spill

The course investigates the nature of complex social and community organizations such as business, industry, and government.

Students will learn certain basic social concepts and theories and their functions as a framework for bringing about effective community-based social action (or community organization as a tool for addressing issues effecting the local community to advocate for social justice).

Special attention (topic) will be given to community-based disaster preparedness, recovery efforts, and management strategies.

Students will be familiar with the strategies to build resilient community, community-mindedness and cooperative relationships between disaster victims and recovery organizations.

How disasters lead to rapid social change will also be explored.

PSY 328-01: Health Psychology and Disaster Preparedness

This is a three-hour, credit course that focuses on psychological factors (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression, individual differences, or personality characteristics) and environmental events (e.g., natural or man-made disasters) that can negatively affect survivors’ mental and physical well-being as well as the relationship between patients and practitioners.

Students in the course will learn about the role of psychologists in the assessment and treatment of disaster related mental and emotional problems, and the promotion of changes to lifestyle, health habits, and coping practices to optimize recovery from disaster (i.e., dealing with psychosocial sequelae of disasters).

An educationally-directed practice experience in disaster management agencies with trained site supervisor.

Focus placed upon the application of the theoretical knowledge in real-life situation. Prerequisite: must complete the core requirements.

Research Team

2019-2020

Institutionalize Interdisciplinary Certificate by helping create collaborations with other institutions and DHS related public & private entities—students have options to join in workforce

Diversify the future DHS S&T related workforce by training underrepresented minorities, mirroring some ofthe more vulnerable population impacted by Disaster scenarios

Local Emergency Management organizations get student interns, serve as instructors, & participate in Advisory committees as well as the Annual Symposium.

Opportunity for students to be trained in interdisciplinary fields across academic divisions (Natural Science,Social Science, & Humanities). Partner institutions may be able to recruit graduate students for theirprogram with a background in disaster related curriculum.

Opportunity for students to participate in natural disaster related research and present in conferences

Allow faculty members in cross-disciplinary research on climate issues

Enhance Community Preparedness – Neighborhood Training Initiative in collaboration MEMA

Collaborate with other Departments and Divisions to add additional courses

Education Division-Early Childhood & Elementary Education (Emergency Preparedness course part of their curriculum)

Students will have more options to choose from, help in recruitment, and institutionalizing process

Contact additional local public and private end-users to place interns and collaborate to continue Community outreach initiative

Explore options to offer online Certificate program for non-traditional students/professionals

Encourage students to pursue graduate studies in this field

Collaborate with partner Institution

Addressing DHS Recommendations

Thank you all for the positive feed back

Suggestions:

Broaden students placements:Made progress with FEMA and other local Emergency Management Agency

Inviting local emergency Management agency to College career fair

Encouraging students to attend graduate program related to Emergency Management

Improve Marketing Efforts:

Working with local High School students, plan to offer Stem oriented disaster course in summer

Increase Community Outreach forums

Curriculum Replication (other Institution)

PI is writing an article which discusses how small colleges may use Tougaloo College’s Multidisciplinary Certificate Disaster Coastal Studies (DCS) curriculum as a model to design a program at their Institution.

Core RequirementsCourse Name Objective Offered Status

DCS/NSD 210 Introduction to Natural and Manmade Disasters

Basic Ideas and GIS Training Fall

DCS 320 Emergency Preparedness and Response

Training as a first responder Fall

DCS 400 Internship**(Prerequisite DCS210 and 320)

Practical skills working in a Local Emergency Agency

Spring

Elective Courses (Choose 1)Course Name Objective Offered Status

PSY 328- Health Psychology in Disaster Preparedness

Understand Health issues pertaining Disasters & Policy

Spring

POL 317 Public Policy and Legal Issues in Disaster Management

Understand Policy and Legal issues related to disaster

Spring

SOC/SWK 331- Social, Community Organizations and Disaster Preparedness

Understand Organization and Community’s Connectedness in Rescue and Management (Policy)

Fall

COP 211: Public Relations Writing Develop writing & editing Skills along with incorporate media role in disaster management

Spring

MUTIDISCIPLINARY CERTIFICATE: DISASTER COASTAL STUDIES VERIFICATION & TRACKING FORM

STUDENT NAME ______________________________________________________

MAJOR _______________________________________________________________

ENROLLMENT DATE__________________________________________________

EXPECTED GRADUATION ________________ GENDER ___________

PERMANENT ADDRESS

PERSONAL EMAIL____________________________________________________

PHONE________________________________________________________________

ADVISOR’S NAME

HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS PROGRAM?•College Recruiter•Brochure•During Orientation (Faculty Presentation)•DCS Symposium•Advisor•Other ___________________________

PLAN AFTER GRADUATION :

Upcoming Symposium

Speaker: Gregory SlusarczykResearch Mathematician(ERDC)PhD in Coastal Engineering(JSU)

Speaker: Von Anderson,Senior Planner-Jackson

DCS Symposium Friday March 20Institutionalized: add the event with Social Justice Week

2016 2017

2018

2019 - 20