ATTENTION: Reporters covering disaster response, government, information technology, health care, housing, risk management and communications

WHAT:

A one-day roundtable in Washington, D.C., on “Integrating Disaster Recovery: What Should Long-term Disaster Recovery Look Like?” It will bring together experts and elected and appointed officials from across the country to explore a more effective way to provide disaster aid by using an integrated, interdisciplinary case management system that taps into medical models for disaster response and new information technologies.

The goal of the roundtable is to begin a dialogue about ways to improve often disjointed disaster response systems of independently designed and operating health, housing, education, economic and environmental services that typically focus on physical infrastructure. The event is being sponsored by the National Academies’ Disaster Roundtable Program and spearheaded by four Northern California experts.

Recent disasters have left millions of disaster victims in the United States and around the globe looking for help, challenged service providers, and heightened awareness of the importance of effective and integrated disaster recovery planning and delivery systems.

WHO:

The conference keynote speaker will be Frederick “Skip” Burkle, a senior fellow with the Harvard School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Initiative. Burkle, a University of California, Berkeley, alumnus, has written two books on disaster management.

Other presenters and panelists will include Mary Comerio , a UC Berkeley architecture professor and an authority on post-disaster rebuilding, and other experts with evidence-based presentations from their fields.  San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee will discuss disaster planning in his city via video.

WHEN:

8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 21

WHERE:

The Americas Room on the second floor of the Pew D.C. Conference Center, 901 E. St., NW, Washington, D.C.

DETAILS:

The agenda is available online .

The workshop will be webcast live, and advance registration for that broadcast is available here .  The proceedings will be published later to help with possible future planning and research.

The roundtable is being led by Comerio, Global Mental Health Program Director Craig Van Dyke and professor of medicine William Seaman , both of UC San Francisco; and disaster recovery consultant Arietta Chakos , formerly the city of Berkeley’s assistant city manager.