As communities face increasing threats from disasters, extreme weather, and public health crises, the role of local organizations and institutions becomes ever more critical. Libraries, public health departments, and community organizations serve as cornerstones for preparedness, response, and recovery. Our speakers will delve into strategies for disaster and emergency preparedness, hazard mitigation, and community resilience. They will also discuss innovative approaches, collaborative partnerships, and resource management to strengthen the vital role that local organizations and institutions play in safeguarding community well-being.  

About the panelists:

Meteorologist Erik Salna is the Associate Director of Education and Outreach at the Extreme Events Institute and International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University in Miami. EEI and the IHRC are at the forefront of reducing the impact of natural hazard events through research on storm surge, economic loss modeling, and wind engineering, including the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind. Education outreach has been a career focus for Erik, including participation in the Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge High School Competition, the Eye of the Storm Museum Hurricane Event, the Wall of Wind Museum Exhibit, and the NWS Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador Program.  These successful projects involved many public-private-corporate partnerships, including NOAA’s National Weather Service, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.  Erik testified to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology in the hearing entitled “The Future of Forecasting: Building a Weather-Ready Nation on All Fronts,” on October 14th, 2021.  Before FIU, he worked at Miami-based America's Emergency Network (AEN) and the non-profit Hurricane Warning at the Disaster Survival House in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He also has over 25 years of experience as a television meteorologist, providing live, continuous coverage for hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding.  Erik earned an MS in Meteorology from Northern Illinois University and a BS in Physical Geography with an emphasis in Meteorology from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Pablo Mendez Lazaro is a geographer by training, and expanded his transdisciplinary background by studying natural science, a Master of Sciences in Marine Science and a PhD in Environmental Sciences and a Post Doc on Climate Change and Weather Extreme Events at the University of South Florida-College of Marine of Science and the San Juan Bay Estuary Program. He has over 15 years of experience working at the Department of Environmental Health of the Graduate School of Public Health, UPR-MSC. He was one of the scientists responsible of supervising the implementation and compliance of Act No. 33-2019: Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience in Puerto Rico (PR) 2019-2024. Chapter Lead of the Fifth National Climate Assessment of 2023 (NCA5) for the US Caribbean for the US Global Change Research Program, a contributing Author in the IPCC Working Group II (WG2) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Chapter 6 (Cities, Settlements, and Key Infrastructure): Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability 2022. He has served as Supervisor at the US Forest Service-Office of Sustainability and Climate. As an investigator, he has been the Principal Investigator on several NASA research projects integrating observing satellites, modeled weather information, and public health data. Currently, I’m leading the Caribbean Collaborative Action Network-A NOAA CAP/RISA Team (Grant Number: NA22OAR4310545) and I’m one of the multiple PIs for CARIB CARES and the CDC-Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE)-PR. 

Dr. Feili Tu-Keefner is an associate professor at the School of Information Science (iSchool) at the University of South Carolina. Her specialty in research and teaching is health librarianship, health informatics, and health communication; she is also known for her expertise in disaster management and the pivotal role of public libraries in community resilience. Dr. Tu-Keefner has led teams to complete six situation-specific case studies that illustrate public libraries’ value in facilitating emergency response and recovery during disasters. Dr. Tu-Keefner is a founding member of and current academic advisor for the Certificate of Graduate Study in Health Communication program jointly administered by the Arnold School of Public Health and the College of Information and Communications at the University. Dr. Tu-Keefner completed the Infodemic Manager training program sponsored by the WHO and the U.S. CDC in 2021, and she is a WHO-certified infodemic manager. Dr. Tu-Keefner has co-edited a book, Health Librarianship: An Introduction, and she has authored a number of journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters on library and information science, health information studies, and public health. Dr. Tu-Keefner has published in venues such as the Journal of Consumer Health Information on the Internet, Journal of New Librarianship, Science & Technology Libraries, Health Promotion Practice, and Journal of the Medical Library Association.