Center for Disaster and Community Resilience

The vision of the JSU Center for Disaster and Community Resilience (CDCR) is to harness the collaborative power and collective wisdom of our interdisciplinary team to produce high quality research and policy analyses that advance the state of theory and practice for disaster management and resilience.

View the Center Projects Page

The JSU CDCR is dedicated to:

  • Supporting and engaging in innovative, interdisciplinary research and applications for understanding and improving disaster and community resilience.
  • Exploring collaborations with other research centers in pursuit of a more resilient nation.
  • Proposing policy initiatives and implementation strategies to promote disaster and community resilience.
  • Educating the next generation of scholars, policy experts, and advocates.
  • Disseminating information, research and policy positions.
  • Engaging important stakeholders to promote resilience in their organizations and communities.
  • Providing leadership and support to the Eastern Alabama Emergency Management Coalition and other regional, state and/or local organizations to help transform resilience concepts into practice and build disaster resilient communities.

Center Staff

Jane Kushma, Ph.D., Center Director
Department of Emergency Management
Research Interests/Specialization: Long Term Recovery, Disaster Case Management, Policy Implementation, Collaborative Practices, Community Engagement
jkushma@jsu.edu

Tanveer Islam, Ph.D., Research Associate
Department of Emergency Management
Research Interests/Specialization: GIS Applications, Hazard Mitigation, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, Social Media
tislam@jsu.edu

Alessandra Jerolleman, Ph.D., Research Associate
Department of Emergency Management
Research Interests/Specialization: Disaster Recovery, Risk Reduction, Hazard Policy
ajerolleman@jsu.edu

Laura Olson, Ph.D., Research Associate
Research Interests/Specialization: Social Vulnerability, Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Recovery, Resilience

Scott Manning, D.Sc., Research Associate
Research Interests/Specialization: Disaster Planning and Policy, Hazard Vulnerability and Disaster Resilience, Transportation Systems and Infrastructure Protection, and Strategic Program Management

Chongming Wang, Ph.D., Research Associate
Department of Emergency Management
Research Interests/Specialization: Human-environment Geography, Natural Hazards and Vulnerability, Risk Perception and Behavior, Mixed-methods Research, Applied GIS
cwang@jsu.edu

Jake Fast, Graduate Assistant

For Further Information Contact:

Dr. Jane Kushma
Director
Center for Disaster and Community Resilience
(256) 782-8432
jkushma@jsu.edu