The Antioch University New England Center for Academic Innovation, Green Advantage, and the International Code Council are convening a Development and Research Planning Forum at the headquarters of American Institute of Architects in Washington, DC, on November 4-6, 2015. Among the scheduled speakers for the event are Antioch University New England (AUNE) President Dr. Steven Jones; and Dr. Barb Andrews and Dr. Cathy Lounsbury, both core faculty in the AUNE Department of Applied Psychology. The end goal of the forum is to develop a Disaster Recovery Specialist Certification for construction industry professionals in the U.S. and Canada, based upon a recognized body of knowledge and an examination protocol that is accredited under ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024.
Over the past three decades, extreme weather events have combined with the demographic trend of more tightly clustered communities to spur a steady rise in the number and total cost of disasters costing a billion dollars or more. Since 1983, the U.S. federal government has spent more than one trillion dollars in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts. As a result, the Federal Emergency Management Agency in its Mitigation Framework urges identification of ways to “stop increasing the trajectory of our risk and start taking steps to reduce it.”
To ensure community stabilization and reconstruction following any event, construction personnel must posses essential knowledge, skills, and abilities. Moreover, their work can and should utilize green construction best practices, means, methods, and materials to ensure the durability, risk mitigation, and resilience of the recovery effort. Preparing construction workers to implement these state-of-the-art approaches and technologies requires high quality educational efforts, and it is toward that end that the certification platform is being developed.
To learn more, visit: Forum Description
