First Class of EERI Housner Fellows Selected

EERI’s Housner Fellows Management Committee undertook the difficult task of selecting eight Fellows out of 55 competitive applications that were received for the first class of Housner Fellows, the new leadership training program that EERI inaugurated with a bequest from George Housner. Additional support for the program has been provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) of the World Bank. GFDRR is supporting the participation of three Fellows.

The eight Fellows selected are as follows:

1. Syed Mohammed Ali, Earthquake Engineering Centre, University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan (GFDRR);
2. Cale R. Ash, Degenkolb Engineers, Seattle, Washington;
3. Carlien D. Bou-Chedid, Ghana Institution of Engineers on the Geological Technical Committee of NADMO (GFDRR);
4. Danielle Hutchings, Association of Bay Area Governments, Oakland, California;
5. Lindsey Maclise, Forell/Elsesser Engineers. Inc., San Francisco, California;
6. Hassan Steven Mdala, Geological Survey Department of Malawi (GFDRR);
7. Kate Stillwell, EQECAT, Oakland, California;
8. Vivek Rawal, People-in-Centre Consulting, Ahmedabad, India.

This inaugural class will meet with the program leadership trainer, EERI member Lucy Arendt of the University of Wisconsin Green Bay, along with Board members and members of the Housner Management Committee during the Annual Meeting in April in Memphis. They will participate in a weeklong leadership training program at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, California, in June. During their two years of active participation in the program, the class will develop a group project and individual projects with the support of mentors. EERI members will soon be able to learn more about each Fellow online and follow their progress.

The Management Committee intends for this program to run for at least five years. If funding can be secured to make the program sustainable, it will continue. Applications for the next class will be solicited in the summer of 2012. For additional information about the program, visit https://www.eeri.org/projects/housner-fellows-program/.