Laurie Johnson

Laurie Johnson is an internationally recognized urban planner, specializing in disaster recovery and catastrophe risk management. For over 30 years, she has combined her unique blend of professional practice and research in earth science, urban planning and public policy to help communities address the complex urban challenges posed by natural hazards and disasters. Much of her post-disaster recovery work is captured in her recent book, After Great Disasters: An In-Depth Analysis of How Six Countries Managed Community Recovery. In June 2020, she assumed a new role of chief catastrophe response and resiliency officer for the California Earthquake Authority and the newly-established California Wildfire Fund. She is the 2019-2020 president of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, on the Science Advisory Panel of the Global Earthquake Model Foundation, and a 2018 inductee into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners. She holds a doctorate of informatics from Kyoto University, as well as a master's of urban planning, and a bachelor's of geophysics; both from Texas A&M University.