Irwin Redlener
Irwin Redlener is the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, which works to understand and improve the nation's capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The Earth Institute is part of Columbia University, where Redlener also holds professorships in Health Policy & Management and Pediatrics. Redlener is a nationally recognized expert on disaster preparedness policies, pandemic influenza, the threat of terrorism in the U.S., the impact and consequences of major natural disasters and related issues. Following Hurricane Sandy, he was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to co-chair the NY State Ready Commission, and he also recently served as one of the ten members of the congressionally-established National Commission on Children and Disasters. He is the author of Americans At Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared For Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now.
Redlener is also president and co-founder of the Children’s Health Fund, a philanthropic initiative created to develop health care programs in 25 of the nation’s most medically underserved urban and rural communities. Under his leadership, the Children’s Health Fund has grown to become a national network of more than 50 mobile and fixed site pediatric clinics providing more than 250,000 health care encounters each year.
Redlener received his M.D. degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine, and pediatric training at Babies Hospital of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, the University of Colorado Medical Center and the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. He holds honorary doctoral degrees from Hunter College of the City University of New York and Hofstra University, among numerous other awards and honors.