Curt Harris PhD ’08 is aware of his periodic desk, chemical compounds, and learn how to work a lab. What the bodily scientist wasn’t anticipating was to turn out to be simply as adept on the sophisticated subject of communications.
However when he joined the College of Georgia’s Institute of Catastrophe Administration, housed within the Faculty of Public Well being, one factor grew to become abundantly clear.
Curt Harris heads the Faculty of Public Well being’s Institute for Catastrophe Administration, which encompasses a curriculum closely centered on disaster communication. (Picture by Peter Frey/UGA)
“Communication was at all times an issue once we had been catastrophe responses and interesting in catastrophe preparation workout routines,” says Harris, who grew to become the institute’s director in 2019. “Speaking was one thing that we did, but it surely wasn’t one thing we did extraordinarily nicely—primarily as a result of we didn’t prepare on it.”
That’s one thing he needed to repair when he started creating the curriculum for the Grasp of Public Well being in Catastrophe Administration within the early 2010s. However Harris quickly realized {that a} single disaster communications course wasn’t going to chop it. Disaster communications wanted to be built-in into each class the institute’s school taught.
Glen Nowak, co-director of the Heart for Well being and Threat Communication in UGA’s Grady Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, was a visitor lecturer in catastrophe administration programs through the years. A number of years later when Nowak talked about {that a} graduate program on disaster communications was within the works, Harris was all in.
Starting in fall 2024, UGA started providing the Graduate Certificates in Disaster, Threat, and Catastrophe Communication, considered one of few applications nationwide that gives this mixture of programs in a graduate certificates.
The brand new interdisciplinary certificates is a collaboration amongst three nationally acknowledged applications to coach college students: the Disaster Communication Suppose Tank on the Grady Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Threat Administration and Insurance coverage program on the Terry Faculty of Enterprise, and the Institute for Catastrophe Administration on the Faculty of Public Well being.
The 12-credit program offers specialised coursework in disaster, danger, and catastrophe communication. This system connects the tutorial theories in these fields with {industry} apply, making ready college students to handle and talk by way of advanced and troublesome conditions.
“Our purpose is to make UGA the place to review, to analysis, and to get coaching on disaster communication administration,” says Yan Jin, the C. Richard Yarbrough Professor in Disaster Communication Management on the Grady Faculty and director of the certificates program. “How are you going to be proactive? How are you going to be prepared?”
Being Prepared
That theme of readiness is a cornerstone of each the certificates program and the Disaster Communication Suppose Tank, which Jin co-founded in 2018. The Suppose Tank combines the evidence-based experience of teachers from wide-ranging disciplines with the experience-driven insights of communication executives from companies and different outstanding establishments, together with the American Medical Affiliation, Ketchum, and Wellstar Well being Methods.
The Suppose Tank attracts on UGA’s in depth and internationally acknowledged scholarship in disaster and danger analysis.
Terry’s Threat Administration and Insurance coverage program is the biggest undergraduate program of its type within the U.S. and has been ranked No. 1 for the previous 5 years by U.S. Information & World Report.
In the meantime, the Institute for Catastrophe Administration is considered one of solely six entities nationwide to supply a Grasp of Public Well being diploma with a focus in catastrophe administration. And this system emphasizes working with communities, authorities companies, nonprofits, and extra to maximise experiential studying alternatives for college students.
Our purpose is to make UGA the place to review, to analysis, and to get coaching on disaster communication administration.” — Yan Jin, C. Richard Yarbrough Professor in Disaster Communication Management
A Program for Professionals
Disaster communications coaching at UGA isn’t only for college students, although.
The Suppose Tank and Terry’s Govt Training program just lately partnered on a disaster readiness workshop for enterprise leaders in Atlanta, with the purpose of training executives on proactive disaster administration methods, how authorized and danger administration work together, the complexities of expertise, media coaching, and a disaster situation simulation.
Mike Pfarrer, the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Distinguished Chair of Enterprise Administration, leads applications that train executives learn how to deal with crises. (Picture by Peter Frey/UGA)
“I feel a part of the problem for enterprise executives is the phrase ‘disaster,’” says Mike Pfarrer, the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Distinguished Chair of Enterprise Administration and Professor within the Terry Faculty and the affiliate dean for Analysis and Govt Packages. “Executives typically assume they don’t have crises as a result of it’s simply such a robust phrase.
“However ‘disaster’ can imply plenty of issues and is outlined by the {industry} you might be in. Each firm and its executives ought to put together for one thing unhealthy to occur, whether or not it’s an information breach, an oil spill, or no matter it’s. And what we’re discovering is that plenty of companies wish to be higher ready.”
That’s why workshops like this one emphasize industry-specific challenges with actionable recommendation that executives can put into apply of their office instantly.
The Mannequin for Disaster Comms
UGA is nicely on its solution to turning into the go-to spot for disaster communications coaching, in line with the founders of this system, with many establishments modeling their very own applications after Grady’s profitable Suppose Tank mannequin.
However for the disaster communications leaders on the college, it’s much less about incomes a level or certificates and extra about shaping a mindset. Everybody, whether or not they’re in enterprise, public relations, or public well being, will probably face a disaster. And what they do in a annoying second can imply the distinction between a profitable picture rehabilitation plan for an organization or the entire destruction of a model.
“No matter whether or not it’s an undergraduate class or an government coaching program, I feel the secret is understanding that disaster communication isn’t just about communication,” Jin says. “It’s fascinated with disaster administration as an ongoing course of, from prevention, to preparation, to response, to revisiting to be taught from any errors.
“How are you going to at all times be prepared?”
