Public Health Disaster Research Webinar: Call 1
Public Health Disaster Research in U.S. Territories
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2021
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. MDT
Webinar Description: The U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are subject to various natural hazards threats and have experienced multiple disasters in recent years. Devastating hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, drought, and landslides have caused widespread destruction and ongoing disruption, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further stretched healthcare and emergency response networks.
In light of the need for more social science and public health research in the U.S. territories, the Natural Hazards Center—with the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Science Foundation—issued a call for proposals. This webinar showcased the results from the 15 projects that were ultimately funded and highlighted the research teams' reports.
The first 20 minutes of the webinar was dedicated to an overview of the call for proposals and the funded research projects. Participants were then invited to join one of four breakout rooms where they could learn about the funded projects in greater depth. Breakout rooms will focused on:
- Panel One: Disaster Response and Sheltering
- Panel Two: Education and Displacement
- Panel Three: Risk Communication and Collective Recovery
- Panel Four: Social Vulnerability
A detailed schedule of events and speakers follows.
Webinar Schedule:
| Time - All MDT | Topic | Speakers |
| 11:00 a.m. | Welcome and Webinar Overview | Jennifer Tobin, Deputy Administrator, Natural Hazards Center |
| 11:05 a.m. | Research in U.S. Territories Program Overview and Comments on the Importance of Public Health Disaster Research | Tracy Thomas, Senior Health Scientist, Office of Applied Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
| 11:15 a.m. |
Overview of Funded Projects and Final Reports Participants transition to breakout rooms. |
Jennifer Tobin, Deputy Administrator, Natural Hazards Center |
| 11:20 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Panel One: Disaster Response and Sheltering | Moderator: Haorui Wu, Dalhousie University |
| 11:20 a.m | Frontline Government Workers: Assessing Post-Disaster Burnout and Quality of Life | Kula Francis, Nisha Clavier, and Kenny Hendrickson |
| 11:33 a.m. | Nonprofit Response to Concurrent Disaster Events in Puerto Rico | Ivis Garcia, Divya Chandrasekhar, N. Emel Ganapati, Kevin Fagundo-Ojeda, Jose Velazquez-Diaz, Kaila Witkowski, and Pablo Jose Rivera Miranda |
| 11:46 a.m. | Co-Designing a Participatory Community Mapping Method for Informal Sheltering in Puerto Rico | Jonathan Sury, Yiyuan Jasmine Qin, Robert Soden, Gabriela Quijano, and Yesenia Delgado Castillo |
| 11:59 a.m. | Compound Hazards, Evacuations, and Shelter Choices: Public Health Implications for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands | Jennifer Collins, Amy Polen, Elizabeth Dunn, Leslie Maas, Erik Ackerson, Janis Valmond, Ernesto Morales, and Delián Colón-Burgos |
| 12:13 to 12:30 p.m. | Q&A and Wrap-Up | Moderator, Panelists, and All Participants |
| 11:20 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Panel Two: Education and Displacement | Moderator: Jennifer Tobin, Natural Hazards Center |
| 11:20 a.m. | When Nobody Came to Help Me: Protective Factors for College Students during Disasters in Puerto Rico | María de Lourdes Lara Hernández, Félix López Román, Elena Martínez Torres, and Sol C. Molina Parrilla |
| 11:33 a.m. | The Effect of School Services Disruptions on Educational Outcomes Following Consecutive Disasters in Puerto Rico | Eileen Segarra-Alméstica, Yolanda Cordero-Nieves, Héctor Cordero-Guzmán, José Caballero-Cueto, Indira Luciano-Montalvo, Sylvia Martínez-Mejias, and Hilda Rivera-Rivera |
| 11:46 a.m. | Long-Term Impacts of Cascading Disasters in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Student and Teacher Mental Health | Leonard Huggins and Ted Serrant |
| 11:59 a.m. | Real-Time Migration Tracking to Puerto after Natural Hazard Events | Alejandro Arrieta, Shu-Ching Chen, Juan Pablo Sarmiento, and Richard Olson |
| 12:13 to 12:30 p.m. | Q&A and Wrap-Up | Moderator, Panelists, and All Participants |
| 11:20 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Panel Three: Risk Communication and Collective Recovery | Moderator: Meghan Mordy, Natural Hazards Center |
| 11:20 a.m. | Risk Communication in Concurrent Disasters in Puerto Rico | Jenniffer Santos-Hernandez, Sara McBride, Nnenia Campbell, Lorna Jaramillo Nieves, Alejandra Figueroa-Huertas, Leslie Martínez-Román, and Ashley Méndez-Heavilin |
| 11:37 a.m. | Sharing During Disasters: Learning from Island Residents | Karl Kim, Jiwnath Ghimire, and Eric Yamashita |
| 11:54 a.m. | Photovoice and Cultural Competence in Disaster Recovery in St. Croix | Monique Constance-Huggins and Alexis Sharpe |
| 12:12 to 12:30 p.m. | Q&A and Wrap-Up | Moderator, Panelists, and All Participants |
| 11:20 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Panel Four: Social Vulnerability | Moderator: Heather Champeau, Natural Hazards Center |
| 11:20 a.m. | Hurricane Maria Mortality Study: Ascertaining the Excess Mortality and Associated Risk Factors Following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico | Kristen Cowan and Diego Zavala |
| 11:33 a.m. | Calculating the Social Vulnerability Index for Guam | Yvette C. Paulino, Grazyna Badowski, Jade Chennaux, Monica Guerrero, Casierra Cruz, Romina King, and Sela Panapasa |
| 11:46 a.m. | Relationships Between Distributions of Disaster Aid, Poverty, and Health in Puerto Rico | Alison Chopel, Antonio Fernós Sagebien, and Laura Gorbea |
| 11:59 a.m. | Cascading Disasters, Gender, and Vulnerabilities in Southwestern Puerto Rico | Waleska Sanabria-León, Jane Henrici, M. Gabriela Torres, Alitza Cardona, Anna Fairbairn, and Elizabeth Eaton |
| 12:13 to 12:30 p.m. | Q&A and Wrap-Up | Moderator, Panelists, and All Participants |
| 12:30 p.m. | End Webinar |
Acknowledgements
The Public Health Disaster Research Award Program is based on work supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through supplemental funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF Award #1635593). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CDC, NSF, or Natural Hazards Center.