EERI is pleased to announce that Laurie Johnson (M.EERI 1990) and Terri Norton (M.EERI 2003) have been selected as the 2026 EERI Honorary Members. Honorary membership of the Institute is awarded to recognize members who have made sustained and outstanding contributions to the field of earthquake engineering and/or to EERI and the pursuit of its objectives. Johnson and Norton will be recognized with the award at the 13NCEE in Portland, Oregon next summer.
Dr. Laurie Johnson is an internationally recognized urban planner specializing in disaster recovery and catastrophe risk management. For over 35 years, she has combined her unique blend of professional practice and research in earth science, urban planning and public policy to help communities, the insurance industry and other organizations address the complex challenges posed by natural hazards and disasters. She is the author of After Great Disasters: An In-Depth Analysis of How Six Countries Managed Community Recovery.
Laurie was the Chief Catastrophe Response and Resiliency Officer for the California Earthquake Authority and California Wildfire Fund and served on the Board of Trustees of Geohazards International, as well as on the advisory boards of the Global Earthquake Model and the WIFIRE Convergence project. She was also the chair of the national Advisory Committee for Earthquake Hazards Reduction from 2012-2018.
Since joining EERI in 1990, she has served as EERI President (2019-2020) and a member of the EERI Board (2006-2009), Northern California Chapter Board (2003-2006), and Earthquake Spectra Editorial Board (2011-2018). She helped launch the LFE Endowment Fund of which she is a Founding Benefactor, participated in several LFE reconnaissance teams including Japan (2007, 2011) and China (2008), and co-chaired the LFE Seismic Resilience Observatory project. She currently co-chairs the Oral History Committee. In 2024, she received EERI’s Alfred E. Alquist Special Recognition Medal for her extensive work and dedication in improving the seismic safety and resilience of communities around the world.
Dr. Terri R. Norton is the Academic Associate Dean and professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Bucknell University, where she also serves as the executive director of the Engineering Success Alliance. Terri’s technical expertise is in the area of structural dynamics and structural vulnerability. Her research interests involve evaluating the effects of hazards on civil structures, debris management, and disaster reconstruction. Her distinguished career also includes an 11-year tenure at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Fulbright Research Scholarship in Japan.
Terri has served as PI on numerous grants, and has been a member of several post-disaster reconnaissance teams including the Molise Earthquake (2003) and the GEJET Societal Dimensions (2011). She is an active member in ASCE, NSBE and SWE. She was an invited member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Resilient America Roundtable, and is the founding leader of the William “Bill” Anderson Fund (BAF).
Terri has been an active member of EERI since 2003. As a graduate student and MCEER student leadership council (SLC) member, she helped to establish the first tri-center seismic design competition (SDC), now known as the EERI SDC. As a professional member, Terri served as a member and chair of the Student Activities Committee (SAC), mentor to the SLC, member of the Young Members Committee, and participant of the Learning from Earthquakes (LFE) program. Terri served as a charting faculty adviser for EERI student chapters at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Bucknell University. Most recently she served as the EERI Vice President and a Board Member, leading the DEI strategic initiatives group and supporting the programs committee and the finance and budget committee.
