Dr. Jasmin Ruback, is the CEO of Ruback Associates, an independent consulting firm specializing in the areas of disaster research, resolution, and management. Because disaster prevention, response, and recovery are complex, fast-paced, and adaptive, she takes an evidence-based systems approach to help communities and organizations design, align, and improve their overall resilience, disaster programs, and outcomes.

For 16+ years, Dr. Ruback has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a national program consultant on program development, evaluations, recovery operations, community preparedness, and mitigation. For FEMA, she works with complex concepts of federal doctrine, mission areas, core capabilities, and operational plans. The work she enjoys most involves interacting with communities, organizations, and government officials at the local, state, and regional levels. She often fulfills special projects and deployments planning, preparing for, mitigating, and recovering from large, complex, and often resource-intensive crisis situations.

Dr. Ruback has worked at the DRC twice; once as a graduate student fulfilling a practicum degree requirement, and then, as the first Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. In this role she managed the multi-year evaluation of the Disaster Resistant Community Initiative: Project Impact. Dr. Ruback has authored or co-authored 10 peer-reviewed articles, 6 book chapters, 27 technical reports, 3 recovery plans, and 11 government publications. Dr. Ruback received her Ph.D. in Social and Community Psychology from Georgia State University and focused on post-disaster trauma, evacuation, and relocation and is a Subject Matter Expert in community dynamics, planning for catastrophes, disaster stress, methodology, and metrics.

University of Evansville, 1971-1975 (Chair, Department of Sociology)

University of Southern California, 1975-2004 (Professor, now named the Price School of Public Policy with joint appointment in the Department of Sociology)

Since graduating from UD, Benjamin has worked in several consulting positions developing disaster response plans for Ebola, nuclear terrorism, nuclear power plant emergencies, power outages, and hurricanes, as well as publishing research on climate change adaptation in urban areas, presenting on climate change as a threat multiplier at a NATO conference, and helping the City of Austin establish an alternate care site for COVID-19.

His current role includes enhancing several of FEMA Region 3’s response plans, researching climate change adaptation for the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and coordinating the international practice area for SPIN Global. His professional interests include climate change adaptation, emergency management technology (e.g., GIS, social media), organizational management/leadership, and policy development. Find him online at www.linkedin.com/in/bendwallace.

Gary Webb is Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science at the University of North Texas. The department houses the Emergency Administration and Planning program (EADP), which was established in 1983 as the nation’s first bachelor’s degree program in emergency management. Prior to UNT, he spent the early part of his career (2000-2011) at Oklahoma State University, where he received the Regents Distinguished Teaching Award and the Arts and Sciences Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence. While his primary appointment was in sociology, he was also a core member of the Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events and an affiliate of the Fire and Emergency Management Program. Before starting his academic career at OSU, Gary served as a graduate research assistant and later as a post-doctoral fellow at DRC (1994-2000), and during that time he also had the opportunity to work closely with DRC alumnus Gary Kreps at the College of William and Mary.

Gary is primarily interested in studying organizational and community preparedness for and response to large-scale disasters. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and published in a wide variety of journals, including the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, International Journal of Emergency Management, Natural Hazards Review, Environmental Hazards, and others. Most recently, along with fellow DRC alumni Brenda Phillips and Dave Neal, he co-authored a new edition of Introduction to Emergency Management. He has taught and presented his research internationally in The Netherlands, Denmark, France, South Korea, and Turkey.

M.A. in Sociology, 1976, The Ohio State University. Research Associate for three years with DRC. After previously receiving a B.A. in Journalism from OSU, was a reporter for three years at the morning newspaper in Columbus prior to grad school. From 1977 to 1994 worked in the Ohio Department of Mental Health, first as a Community Evaluation Specialist/Research Administrator; a hospital Director of Community Relations, Staff Education and Program Development in Cleveland, and back in Columbus as an Assistant Area Director for 20 rural counties, as well as Disaster Services Coordinator for ODMH. I provided technical assistance and administration of two FEMA-funded crisis counseling grants and was a reviewer for Missouri’s FEMA grant application in 1993.

After moving to Orlando, I was a Senior Planner with ERP&M, Inc, from 1998 to 2009, consulting in seven Florida counties and Kansas to develop Local Mitigation Strategy plans for State and FEMA review and subsequent adoption. I also assisted in developing Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans. This was the most fulfilling and relevant work of all, assisting local governments to plan and develop approaches in order to minimize the potential effects of disasters. I returned to Columbus in 2007 and “retired” in 2009, where I now volunteer with a couple organizations.