Linda Landesman
Former Chair
American Public Health Association
What's remarkable to me in looking at the results of the survey conducted by Capella is how much higher, how much more prepared the respondents believe the country is than surveys that have been conducted in the general community by let's say the Trust for America's Health. And what that says to me is that those of us who work in the field have seen the improvements and have confidence in the efforts that have been made because we have been part of it.
Daniel Martin, PhD, CEM
Faculty
School of Public Service Leadership
I think one of the things that's very interesting is that 9/11, Katrina, these are all big focusing events and there's a lot of lessons learned. You know, whenever I hear the term "lessons learned" I kind give a little cringe.
What's driving a lot of policy are these big focus events, 9/11, the Hurricane Katrina, there's a lot of policy that's developed based off of these one time events. I like to see policy and a lot of research—the research help drive the policy that can be more generalized from community to community, hazard to hazard, instead of having it be that myopic vision of what hit the Gulf Coast and make it generalized to the nation as a whole.
Joseph Pascarella, PhD
Capella Faculty
Retired NYPD Captain
I'd like to see more research and training to prepare the public for natural disasters and something like that I think we did a very good job in the last 10 years preparing them for a terrorist attack. And I don't think we've done that for natural disasters. I don't think we've adequately prepared the public so I'd like to see research and training somewhere along that way.
Erik Bergrud
President
American Society for Public Administration
There's an era that's taking place in this country in terms of the size and scope of government. And yet when you put a human face on it the work that you do, it's a very compelling story. That's not the story you're hearing on 24/7 news channels. That's not the story you're hearing in the political back and forth shouting match. I think it's going to be a challenge for people in your professions in how do we educate, how do we mobilize the citizens to tell our story for us because in the end they're the ones that are going to be affected if cuts take place, rightly or wrongly, that affect the work that you do.
Eddie Hicks, CEM
USA President
International Association of Emergency Managers
When do you really know if you are prepared? You may get to a certain level and say, set back and say, "I'm prepared," and then the next big thing comes and you say well I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was. So I guess what we've got to do is take this study and to say we're on a path toward preparedness. There's going to be turns and curves that we are going to go around, hills and valleys. So we've got to continually stay and always work towards that elusive goal: "Are we prepared?" So I've painted you all a beautiful picture. Now it's up to us all to get on that road and be prepared as a group.