Cultural Competency for Emergency and Crisis Management

Claire Connolly Knox, Ph.D., is an associate professor and the director of the Master of Emergency and Crisis Management program in the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests include environmental vulnerability and disaster response, environmental policy and management, Habermas Critical Theory, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She has published in multiple journals, including Public Administration Review, Coastal Management Journal, Disaster Prevention and Management, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Environmental Politics, Administration & Society, Journal of Emergency Management, and Journal of Public Affairs Education. She is chair of ASPA’s Section on Emergency and Crisis Management, associate editor for Emergency Management for Public Administration Review, and editorial board member for the International Journal of Security, Preparedness and Resilience Education, and she is the past chair for FEMA’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning special interest group. She has won multiple awards for her research and teaching, including the 2015 Florida Emergency Preparedness Association’s Gary Arnold for her dedication to improving Florida’s emergency management community through higher education. Brittany “Brie” Haupt, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her previous educational achievements contributed to developing her passion for increasing her cultural competency and becoming trained in diversity education and multiculturalism, as well as intercultural dialogue and community development. Her research interests include cultural competency, emergency management communication, community resilience, and competency-based education. She has published in Public Administration Review; Journal of Public Affairs Education; Disaster Prevention and Management; Risk, Hazards, & Crisis in Public Policy; Journal of Emergency Management; and the Frontiers in Communication section on disaster communications. In addition, she has presented at the American Society for Public Administration, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Public Administration Research conferences, as well as presented for the Federal Emergency Management Agency on a case study created for diversity education–related training. Her professional efforts were acknowledged through selection as the American Society for Public Administration’s Founders Fellow in 2017, as well as an International Scholar Workshop participant in Chennai, India.

1. Introduction 2. Cultural Competency Historical Presence and Development 3. Cultural Competency in Emergency and Crisis Management 4. Facilitating Difficult Conversations 5: Preparing Schools for Active Threats 6. Evacuation of an At-Risk Population: Cultural Competency and Ensuring Safety 7. Wildfires and Homelessness in the United States 8. Disaster Shelter Planning for Special Needs Populations 9. Consequence Management and HAZMAT Incidents 10. Accommodating Special Needs Populations in Disaster Management: The Case of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder 11. Diversity During a Storm: Accommodating Religious Minorities in an Evacuation Shelter 12. Teaching Preparedness, Warning, and Protective Action with a Social Vulnerability Twist 13. Cultural Competence and Disaster Management: Flooding in Coastalville 14. Response to Ebola Virus Outbreak in a Refugee Camp: Local Contexts vs. International Standards 15. Cultural Competence Training for International Response and Recovery Workers 16. Disaster Relief in a Conflict Zone: The Case of Syria