Charna R. Epstein

Charna R. Epstein co-developed social intelligence and is an author of Emergency Management & Social Intelligence; she was Director of Crisis Prevention, Resettlement & Disaster Recovery at Heartland Alliance, and co-led disaster recovery efforts during the Chicago response to Hurricane Katrina. She is the recipient of the 2011 Red Cross Hero Award for relief efforts in the wake of Katrina and the Haitian earthquake. She is currently at the University of Chicago. Demond Drummer is the Executive Director of New Consensus.

FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina

Resettlement in Place: A New Model for COVID19 Recovery

This national crisis calls for a new model for economic disaster recovery. We propose a new strategy ‘resettlement in place’ – it is based on best practices in refugee resettlement and social intelligence, a model to harness local data and lessons learned from previous disasters, including Chicago’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

April 6, 2020