During disasters, disruptions rarely affect just one system. A power outage can shut down water pumps. Flooded roads can delay emergency response. Communications failures can slow down recovery. What begins as a localized incident can quickly cascade across multiple lifelines.

This reality underscores a critical shift in how we must think about infrastructure. Power, water, transportation, communications and buildings are not independent assets. They are community lifelines — deeply interconnected systems that sustain public safety, economic activity, healthcare and daily life.

To effectively protect communities, we must move beyond siloed infrastructure management and adopt a whole-systems approach — one that integrates reliability, resilience, and service continuity into planning and investment decisions.

Power, water, transportation, communications and buildings aren’t just technical systems. Since these lifelines keep communities functioning, the operators managing them face a host of complex challenges, including aging assets, frequent weather-related risks, regulatory scrutiny and budget constraints.

The good news is that there’s a growing shift in the approach to infrastructure management. Organizations are moving away from reactive repairs after failure to proactive planning that enables continuity through disruptions. The question is no longer whether to invest in resilience, but how to translate the value of prioritizing these investments for regulators, customers and communities.

Infrastructure planning has historically focused on individual assets or sectors. In practice, however, no lifeline operates alone.

• Power feeds water and wastewater systems
• Transportation enables emergency response and repair crews
• Communications connect first responders and public services
• Buildings house critical operations and healthcare facilities

When one system fails, the impacts rarely stay contained. The most severe losses from disaster often aren’t from the initial event, but from the chain reaction of failures that follow.

Reliability and resilience: Why both matter

Infrastructure performance has long been measured by reliability — keeping services running under normal conditions. Reliability investments focus on asset condition, routine maintenance and preventing predictable failures. They improve baseline performance and customer satisfaction.

But reliability alone is not enough.

A system can perform flawlessly every day and still fail catastrophically during extreme events. This is where resilience becomes essential.

Resilience determines how systems perform under stress — during wildfires, floods, extreme heat, cyber disruptions, or other high-impact events. It shapes whether outages last hours or weeks and whether communities can stabilize quickly.

The strongest infrastructure programs integrate both:

• Reliability keeps services running on good days
• Resilience means communities can function on their worst days

A reliable system without resilience can still collapse under stress. A resilient system without reliability creates unnecessary daily disruption. Communities need both.

Three practical ways to strengthen reliability and resilience:

1. Prioritize the service outcomes that matter most

Focus on protecting the services with the highest consequences if disrupted: public safety, health, economic continuity and essential operations.

This means identifying and reinforcing critical interdependencies such as:

• Electrical supply to water and wastewater pump stations
• Power and access routes to hospitals and emergency operations centers
• Transportation corridors that enable repair crews and supply chains

By prioritizing these crucial service nodes, decision makers invest where failure would cause the greatest harm. This reduces both everyday disruption and the risk of cascading failures during crises.

2. Translate resilience into measurable performance outcomes

Resilience can sound abstract. To gain support from regulators, governing boards and stakeholders, it must be framed in terms they already use. Instead of presenting a project as “resilience,” operators can describe concrete outcomes, such as:

• Reducing service restoration times from weeks to days
• Protecting power supply to critical facilities (e.g., hospitals or water utilities)
• Maintaining water quality during extreme weather
• Improving recovery time for essential services

When resilience is tied to measurable performance metrics — like outage duration, time to restore critical customers, or continuity of essential services — it becomes an accountability-driven investment, not a discretionary upgrade.

3. Embed resilience into routine capital planning

Resilience should not compete as a standalone initiative. It should be integrated into regular maintenance, modernization and lifecycle planning.

Practical examples include:

• Elevating or hardening equipment already scheduled for replacement
• Incorporating future hazard projections into standard design criteria
• Updating asset management strategies to reflect intensifying risks

Embedding resilience into planned upgrades reduces incremental costs and avoids creating isolated projects that are harder to fund or approve.

Build resilience before disaster strikes

Communities often coordinate effectively during emergencies. The larger opportunity lies before disasters by integrating whole-systems thinking into long-term planning and capital investment.

Formal frameworks and emergency management structures support cross-sector coordination. The next step is connecting those frameworks directly to investment decisions, so communities are not just responding better but investing smarter. Infrastructure is more than steel and concrete. It is the foundation of public safety, economic vitality and daily life. By adopting a whole-systems approach and investing in both reliability and resilience, communities can reduce cascading risk, accelerate recovery and strengthen the systems we rely on every day. This way we are not just coordinating during a crisis but investing ahead of time.

See Jordanna discuss this topic with other panelists at the Building for Tomorrow Conference:

The post Breaking the cascade: Three keys to establishing reliable, resilient community lifelines appeared first on Blog.

As a leader in our Civil Works department, Kimberly Heenan brings a unique blend of technical expertise, strategic vision, and deep personal commitment to infrastructure resilience. With more than 19 years of experience and over $2.5 billion in constructed projects, she has led the inspection, assessment, design and construction of levees, floodwalls, dams, floodgates and stormwater pump stations across the U.S.

Kimberly’s portfolio spans more than 275 miles of levee systems and 35 dams, supporting agencies such as the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), United States International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), and USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Under her leadership, our civil works team has grown into a nationally connected group equipped to take on the country’s most complex water infrastructure challenges. Whether managing risk assessments, engineering solutions for flood protection, or guiding large-scale alternatives analyses, Kimberly is driven by one goal: protecting communities and helping them thrive.

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.

Hurricane Katrina occurred while I was in college, and when I saw the devastation, I felt a deep calling to do something. I wanted to help fix the levees and to be part of the recovery. I remember students from Louisiana State University, Tulane University, and other universities relocating to Texas A&M, where I was attending. Their experiences really stayed with me — I just kept thinking, what can I do?

At the time, I was still finding my footing and building confidence in my ability to be an engineer. Then, during a career day event, I handed my resume to a representative from ArchTam. They passed it along, and shortly after, I received a call about a junior Geotechnical Engineer position — working on the levees in New Orleans that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It felt like a sign. Even though I was nervous about moving to the big city, I accepted the offer and committed fully to the opportunity. I worked long hours, asked questions, and soaked up knowledge from teammates who loved to teach. It was a chance to contribute to something deeply meaningful — something that had personally impacted me — and that experience became the turning point that truly anchored me in this field and shaped the trajectory of my career.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why?

Obviously, the New Orleans levee project will always mean a lot to me. But another that stands out is the Freeport Levee Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) project. Unfortunately, the client’s funding limitations meant we couldn’t finish the project, but it gave us the space to build something special at ArchTam — a civil works group that can operate from anywhere in the country and work with anyone. 

Over the course of the work we were able to complete, we grew from a team of just six people to about 20. And it wasn’t just our group working on the project. At one point, there were over 100 people across ArchTam contributing.

The project raised our team’s visibility and gave us this incredible experience with the Galveston Corps of Engineers District. The Gulf Coast region is facing significant challenges from rising sea levels, aging infrastructure, and increasingly severe storm events. The experience positioned us to contribute meaningfully to future critical resilience work still needed across this part of the country.

And honestly, I just loved the team. The people on that project made it a favorite, too.

How has the growth of ArchTam’s civil works team prepared us to meet the infrastructure resilience challenges of communities?  

For me, it means having a team I can rely on to help design these incredible levee systems that protect people and communities, so they never have to go through something like Hurricane Katrina again. Building a civil works team that can do this work, and do it well, has always been deeply meaningful.

Many of these flood risk projects are happening in communities that have historically been underserved. It’s not just about protecting property. It’s about protecting lives, bringing peace of mind, and in many cases, helping families financially by lowering flood insurance costs. Everyone deserves that kind of security, no matter where they live.

We’re at a critical moment in the U.S. Much of the nation’s infrastructure, including levees, floodwalls, and protection systems, was designed to last about 50 years. That time has passed. I knew we had to grow our civil works team because I knew these projects were coming. These systems either start to fail, or they get updated. Too often, people only pay attention after a catastrophic failure, but we shouldn’t have to wait for that to happen.

To me, this work is about making sure we don’t wait — that we’re ready. When we bring new people onto the team, we look for those who are driven by purpose, who genuinely want to make a difference in people’s lives. That’s what it’s all about.

Share a piece of career advice.

My dad coached women’s basketball, and he used to say something that stuck with me: “It doesn’t have to be perfect.” He noticed that many players would hesitate, waiting for the perfect moment to take a shot and by then, the opportunity was gone.

He taught me there are only three outcomes: you miss and the other team gets the rebound, you miss and your team gets the rebound and you get to try again, or you make it. Two out of three isn’t bad. I’ve carried that with me throughout my career. When I’m facing a challenge, I remind myself not to wait for perfect. Just take the shot and keep moving forward.

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Cynthia Hartley’s background includes nearly two decades in the international development sector. Since joining ArchTam in 2016, she has focused on projects ranging from economic growth, urban resilience and environment to disaster risk management, from both the business development and project implementation sides. Cynthia works closely with our clients to pinpoint challenges and engineer solutions aimed at bolstering their effectiveness in mitigating disaster losses. She also provides technical assistance for infrastructure grant applications. Her love for meeting and engaging with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds to strengthen communities inspires her work.

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.

I’ve always been an advocate for safeguarding our environment and fostering community growth. In graduate school, I wrote my thesis on the expansion of an environmental engineering firm (MWH, now Stantec) into developing countries. The next year, I entered the Architecture and Engineering (A/E) industry working for the very same company. Several years later, I experienced firsthand the impact that natural hazards, in particular, Superstorm Sandy, can have on communities. This led me to advance my commitment and work in environmental protection, disaster risk management, and resilience, specifically in the A/E industry. In a lot of ways, it’s a continuation of the international development work I did previously. My work in our industry aligns with my desire to have a broader impact on society and leave a legacy.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why?

A common theme that runs through all my favorite projects is strategic planning and problem solving. I recently worked with West Virginia’s State Resiliency Office to develop a forward-thinking strategic plan for the state. This involved understanding West Virginia’s historical successes, aggregating its diverse challenges and needs, identifying its strengths, and filling in the gaps to meet the objectives of a legislative mandate for a statewide resiliency plan. We worked with stakeholders who care deeply about resilience and disaster risk reduction to update the state’s flood strategy for the first time in 20 years. The two-year Flood Resiliency Plan we helped develop identifies the actions needed to achieve the greatest impact for flood resiliency in West Virginia.

One of the next steps will be to develop an education and outreach strategy to identify ways to reach all people, including local and marginalized communities. In international development terms, reaching the last mile includes reaching people at the lowest economic rungs of society, people with disabilities, and the aging population — people who do not have (or have limited) access to the internet or the information it provides. We also need to reach private sector businesses that employ people from West Virginia’s communities and depend on them to generate revenue. If you’re a dairy provider in West Virginia and the roads are closed or lives are at risk due to flooding, people will not be able to access or afford your products and your employees will not be able to show up for work. By reaching the private sector and communities, we can make this a “whole-of-society” approach, because everyone has a stake in this. We’re also starting to work with the State Resiliency Office to develop a grants management program and a grants management training manual to help raise the funds needed for outreach and education and implementation of the flood resiliency plan.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.

At ArchTam, I’ve been able to reach across geographies and engage with my colleagues throughout the world — from offices in South Africa, Romania, Australia, Spain, and elsewhere — to share knowledge and exchange lessons learned, improving upon what we know to benefit the global community. And that’s how I find the greatest fulfillment — by collaborating with diverse people and groups to help the whole of society.

A key focus of my work at ArchTam has been helping countries, states, and cities develop strategies to build resiliency. This has included initiatives with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Agency for International Development, UN’s Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Reduction (UNDRR), and ARISE-US, the U.S. chapter of the UNDRR. ArchTam was one of the founding members of ARISE-US and through that engagement we developed the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities. I helped UNDRR review the Government of Bulgaria’s first disaster risk reduction strategy, and as part of FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance program, I worked closely with FEMA headquarters, leading a root cause analysis of its grants administration process to reduce the time it takes to obligate funding to the communities that need it the most. In all these initiatives, I’ve engaged with a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds to help communities overcome adversities and become more resilient.

Share a piece of career advice

Stay true to your passion and goals. If you have a fire in your belly to do something, then pursue it. Consider the multitude of opportunities that will present themselves as you pursue a particular goal. You may have to diverge at a point to something that’s tangentially related to what you want to pursue, and that’s OK, because it will help build your strengths more broadly and provide you with one more tool in your toolbox.

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This week, we are highlighting Doug Bellomo, a flood risk management expert from our global Water business line, based in Arlington, Virginia. Doug shares how he and his team conducted a study that demonstrates the lifesaving and economic benefits of disaster resilient building codes. 

Doug specializes in flood risk management and emergency services. Following his previous tenure with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), he moved to ArchTam to pursue his interest in private sector innovations and solutions that help shape public policy and create more resilient communities, businesses and natural landscapes. Prior to joining us five years ago, he oversaw the execution of several federal programs including FEMA Risk MAP, National Dam Safety Program and FEMA’s Mitigation Planning Operations with an average annual budget of $260 million. 

Tell us about a project that has impacted or been a major highlight of your career. How is it delivering a better world?  

What drew me to ArchTam was its mission of delivering a better world. I researched the company, talked to people, and decided ArchTam would be a good fit for me. Public service, flood risk reduction, building community resilience and delivering positive environmental and social outcomes have always been a big part of why I do what I do — and that’s also the case for so many of my colleagues at ArchTam.  

Having witnessed firsthand the devastating impacts of flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, I am grateful to be able to play a part in promoting the value of disaster-resistant building codes. In 2020, I worked on a FEMA project called “Building Codes Save: A Nationwide Study of Loss Prevention,” which demonstrates how disaster-resilient building codes can prevent the direct losses — economic harm and human suffering — often caused by three types of natural hazards that are earthquakes, flooding and hurricane winds. It compares average annual losses between buildings designed with higher codes versus minimum codes. ArchTam, as part of the COMPASS Joint Venture (JV), played a pivotal role in managing the work and developing the analytical framework, which was based on a database of 18 million buildings, the hazard frequency in each locality, and the type of building code in effect at the time. This work resulted in user-friendly materials with actionable guidance to help emergency management professionals, policymakers and others adopt modern building codes and avoid future losses.   

What was a key challenge you/your team faced while working on this project? How did you solve it?  

The technical side was difficult. There is no detailed national data set of adopted building codes. We had to comb through various resources to make sure the data accurately represented which elements of codes were adopted. We also experienced a lot of challenges around organizing the data sets, making sure the data was aligned and distilling credible results at the end. We worked closely with the client to effectively meet their objectives in a technically sound manner, despite a variety of constraints.  

The COMPASS JV team and I collaborated with ArchTam communications specialists to help FEMA develop a brochure of the findings. Despite the benefits of resilience outweighing the costs of resilient construction, we discovered that as much as 65 percent of U.S. counties do not have modern building codes.  

We also sought to predict how hazard resilience may change over time. With an expected average of 577,000 new buildings per year, approximately 13.9 million buildings will be added to the U.S. inventory between 2016 and 2040. We projected that about 70 percent (approximately 9.7 million) will be built to international codes (I-codes) or similar codes. Based on results of the Average Annualized Losses Avoided (AALA) — a risk-based metric —the cumulative savings will be $132 billion. That number would grow significantly if there was broader adoption of modern codes.   

Since the study’s publication, the federal government (through its Federal Flood Risk Management Standard) and the American Society of Civil Engineers have continued the push to improve resilient building design. It is really exciting to see the continuing conversation around the importance of building codes.  

How has ArchTam enabled you and your teams to cultivate the expertise needed to deliver this project and future work like it?  

I have always been impressed with ArchTam’s breadth of experts and capabilities, including the architects who take concepts and present them in much more compelling ways than the tables and charts engineers often use. As an engineer with a flood hazard and risk management background, having access and opportunities to learn from experts in other fields has been a great way for me to develop professionally. I also learned a lot from our communications experts during this study. I am a big fan of these experts because they help us to simplify complicated information and make it more accessible to the public and decision makers.   

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Jamie Rivera has been with ArchTam for 22 years. Her educational background is in structural engineering, but through deployments on several FEMA disaster assignments she has transitioned to managing FEMA relationships and contracts including two critical ones: FEMA Consolidated Resource Center (CRC) Support and FEMA Public Assistance Technical Assistance Program (PA-TAC). 

These contracts involve providing technical resources, like engineers and architects, to assess public infrastructure damages and prepare scopes of work and cost estimates for restoration. The contracts are significant, often valued at $500 million for five years. 

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry. 

I was drawn to study engineering because I love math and science and figuring out how things work. After college, one of my professors who knew about my strong process management and Excel skills helped me land an interview at URS Corporation, an ArchTam legacy company that held Public Assistance (PA) contracts with FEMA. Once I learned about URS’s global reach and their incredible work, the opportunity was too exciting to pass up. I ran with it and fell in love with the company and the work. Shortly after, I was deployed to Guam for my first FEMA PA assignment as a project specialist where I assessed typhoon damages to Guam’s schools. I was three months out of college, learning something new every day and helping communities recover by assisting them with navigating FEMA’s PA process. It was an amazing and rewarding experience and I’ve been doing it ever since. 

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? 

Most of my projects are related to supporting FEMA’s PA Program on different disasters and helping applicants recover. Each disaster is unique, but one was truly different for me: the 2013 Colorado floods impacting Rocky Mountain National Park and several mountainous corridors, which we were tasked to support by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).  

I got to be on the flip side — still doing disaster recovery, but this time for a stage agency, CDOT. I was assigned as the FEMA subject matter expert to lead their FEMA projects, manage the debris removal program and help guide them through the process of procuring a debris removal contractor.  

It was eye-opening to be directly exposed to everything an applicant was doing to maintain normal operations, respond to and recover from the event, while still working within FEMA’s complex processes and programs. The disaster itself was memorable because of the interesting geography and coordination required with other Federal agencies, but the new angle of understanding of FEMA’s PA Program was pivotal for my career. This shaped how I work with applicants and communicate with our staff who are working with applicants.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.

Working on FEMA projects is both complex and rewarding. The PA Program itself is intricate, but I find it incredibly fulfilling to sit down with community officials and guide them through the process. While I can’t simplify the complexity, I can meet people where they are and help them navigate the channels specific to their situations. 

If there’s something I can’t assist them with, I guide them to the right resources, which is usually very helpful.  We make sure our team understands that community officials may also be disaster victims and it’s our job to make the process as easy and consistent as possible for them. This applies to working with higher-level community officials, but also with those doing hands-on work like public works directors and financial managers. These individuals are crucial in getting the work done and disasters are often a once-in-a-career event for them.  

Major disasters like Sandy, Harvey, Ike, and Katrina impact different metro areas uniquely, making each experience new and requiring constant support for the affected communities. After these large disasters, my team and I are responsible for setting up extensive training events for technical specialists deployed to support disaster recovery. We organize and mobilize up to 1,000 people, training them in staggered sessions, and then forward deploy them out to disaster sites. Coordinating and orchestrating these logistics is a significant task. 

My role is to coordinate with the client and contractor companies, figure out logistics, determine the duration and costs, and set up schedules. I also work with these companies to identify the individuals for deployment, then supervise as everything comes together. The rapid logistics turnaround and deployment are always interesting and quite satisfying when everything works out. 

Share a piece of career advice. 

Raise your hand to sign up for things. You never know where a road will lead, and in our line of work flexibility is an amazing thing. Opportunities will always come up, so say yes and see where your career takes you.  

The post People Spotlight: Meet Jamie Rivera appeared first on Blog.

A study from the University of Washington found that predominately Black, Hispanic or Native American communities are 50 percent more vulnerable to disasters than communities overall. Native Americans have even greater levels of vulnerability due to socioeconomic barriers, making recovery especially difficult.¹ After Hurricane Ian, people with limited mobility and chronic health conditions were especially vulnerable, with nearly all the fatalities being people aged 50 or older. The devastating Maui wildfires of 2023 imposed unequal burdens on people of color and indigenous communities, many now facing long-term environmental and public health impacts.

To support the most vulnerable, disaster planners, emergency managers and recovery professionals must prioritize equitable strategies covering pre- and post-disaster response and recovery. These strategies shorten the disaster cycle for all survivors, reduce disproportionate impacts, promote community resilience, and enhance social justice. Failing to address equity has serious consequences and impacts on our most vulnerable communities.

A Federal priority

At the beginning of President Joe Biden’s term, racial equity was identified as a top Federal priority. In January 2021, the administration passed Executive Order 13985: “Advancing Racial Justice and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government” and Executive Order 14091: “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities”.  As a result, the Justice40 social Equity Initiative was created (Executive Order 14008). Justice40 is a whole-of-government effort to ensure that Federal agencies work with states and local communities to deliver at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from Federal investment in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities. More than 14 Federal Agencies are implementing and advancing the Justice40 Initiative from clean energy projects to floodwater protections.²

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is working to deliver better services to marginalized and vulnerable populations and has identified initiatives to address equity in its programs. FEMA’s equitable strategies include leveraging resources to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, consulting underserved communities in FEMA policy and program implementation, and providing training and tools to FEMA staff and partners to advance equitable programs. This approach can be a foundation or guiding principle for local emergency managers to design an equitable disaster response and recovery program.

Designing an equity framework for local emergency managers and disaster professionals

With FEMA’s approach as a guide, the following key steps can be used as a framework to build and implement an effective equitable approach to disaster response and recovery:

1. Gather data and analyze disparities: Tools including SoVI, SVI, EJ Screen, National Risk Index (NRI), and census data can help identify and map communities that will most likely need support before, during and after a hazardous event. During data collection, “ground truthing community” data may be required with key stakeholders, community-based organizations or faith-based organizations to make sure you have the right data, it is complete and accurate, and that you understand it. Using your data, identify inequalities in access to critical services including, housing, healthcare, education or employment and consider the intersectionality of such factors with race, gender, socio-economic or other factors that interact and exacerbate disparities.

2. Identify the desired intent, goals and objectives: Determine what you are working to achieve in an equitable response and recovery program and recognize this will be specific to your community. Reducing disparities allows access to resources and services, promoting greater trust in institutions responsible for providing them. Creating systemic change can help avoid or reduce disparities in post-event resources and support, fostering equitable distribution and appropriate differentiation of services.

3. Engage and empower stakeholders: To address a community’s unique needs, it is important to involve the community in policy and program decision-making, listen to their needs and work with them to develop a plan that meets those needs. Conduct listening sessions to collect information about the community’s specific experience and provide opportunities for stakeholders to take on appropriate leadership roles in emergency management programs. Involving community members throughout the disaster lifecycle will support an equitable emergency and disaster management approach.

4. Develop tactics and strategies: Design flexible tactics and strategies since community members have differing abilities to access recovery programs. For example, consider emergency management personnel and teams – are they multilingual? Do they have a shared vision for equity? Are you designing programs with a ‘survivor first’ mentality? Do your spaces and resources meet accessibility and functional mobility needs?

5. Evaluate and adjust: Once designed and implemented, it is important to continuously measure the success of your program and determine if you are meeting your program objectives. Evaluation metrics should help you understand access, use, and quality of services and time to recovery.

As you implement, continue to monitor and evaluate your strategies. Maintain transparency and consider feedback methods to understand program outputs such as participation rates and near- and mid-term outcomes.

At the local level, full integration of equitable principles into all phases of emergency and disaster management will help managers understand the unique needs of their communities and support the most impactful approach to response and recovery. Such a framework is essential to supporting vulnerable populations with disaster recovery because it ensures fairness, addresses disparities, reduces vulnerability, builds trust and resilience, promotes social justice, and provides a path for sustainable recovery.

¹ https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/11/02/racial-ethnic-minorities-face-greater-vulnerability-to-wildfires/

² https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Justice40-Initiative-Covered-Programs-List_v2.0_11.23_FINAL.pdf

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Joanna Redmond is based in Louisiana and has 16 years of experience in disaster recovery. Since joining ArchTam in 2018, Joanna has been involved in multiple federal-funded projects through which she’s supported communities impacted by natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. 

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.

Hurricane Katrina brought major devastation to South Louisiana in 2005. It was the costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States. In response, the State started a housing program to help residents recover from the storm. This program was the first of its kind in terms of size and complexity — and it was also my introduction to the industry.  

In 2007, I was finishing graduate school and wasn’t sure of the next step in my career path. Through a friend in graduate school, I was hired by the consultant responsible for the Hurricane Katrina housing program. It was meant to be a temporary job until I could find something more permanent, however, I ended up staying on the housing program for seven years. I enjoyed the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of the project. There was no precedent for this type of program, so the processes, policies and systems were designed and built from scratch. It was a fulfilling challenge.  

While my initial step into disaster recovery wasn’t intentional, the decision to continue this career path certainly was. It is rewarding to serve communities that have been impacted by disasters — to be a part of their recovery and help them to be better prepared for the next storm event.  

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why?

My favorite is the relocation assistance project I’m currently managing in Houston, Texas. It involves locating and contacting approximately 600 former tenants of flood-prone properties purchased by the City of Houston using federal funds. The State is obligated to make sure the displaced tenants find new, affordable accommodation and compensate them for any moving costs incurred. Our role is to ensure that this program complies with federal regulations by locating the former tenants and informing them of their rights and eligible benefits under the relocation assistance program. 

Some people are easy to locate and engage as they have remained locally and have heard about the program. Others are harder, especially if they’ve moved out of state. In this case, we get creative using social media, newspaper adverts and encouraging the community to spread the word. I am very proud of the team supporting this project, we have banded together to support the State and have represented ArchTam well to our client. 

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. 

The inherent nature of disaster recovery is to support communities. After Hurricane Harvey, I was involved in a large housing project in Texas that supported more than 1,600 families whose homes were damaged or destroyed during the storm. Most of the homes were in low-income communities where the cost of repairing or rebuilding the properties would have been unaffordable and impractical for most residents. In conjunction with the State and federal government, we implemented a program to help families repair and return to their homes and communities. We were responsible for designing the program policies and processes and provided program applicants with outreach, case management and construction management oversight. 

Share a piece of career advice

I heard this quote some time ago and it resonated strongly with me: “Your value does not decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” Prior to working at ArchTam, I experienced line managers who didn’t value my input and this had a negative impact on my morale. It’s important to keep your integrity and always do your best, even if your work is not appreciated or is undervalued. I carry this quote with me because it’s helped me appreciate the importance ArchTam places in acknowledging the value of their people.  

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After completing her degree in civil engineering, Harriet joined ArchTam as an early career professional straight out of university. For the past two and a half years she has worked as a coastal engineer for our engineering design projects that boost flood and coastal erosion risk resilience and environment protection for local communities. 

What inspired you to join the industry? 

I grew up in the coastal town of Dawlish in the southwest of England. Dawlish was heavily battered by storms in 2014, which led to the collapse of the coastal wall that supports the only railway to and from the town. I used to catch the train down to secondary school and my journey time doubled during the repair works, so I witnessed firsthand the devastation this caused. The emergency coastal engineering works to make the frontage more climate resilient inspired me to study civil engineering at the University of Southampton. This is where my interest in flood and coastal engineering grew. The ongoing challenge of implementing cost-effective, climate-resilient and sustainable projects makes it a fascinating field to be a part of.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why?

For the past two years I have been heavily involved in designing the Langstone Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) project in south of the UK. Due for completion in 2025, the project aims to provide enhanced resilience against tidal flooding for the village of Langstone and A3023, the only road on and off Hayling Island.  

The site itself is heavily constrained and challenging. The village is bordered by Langstone and Chichester Harbours, which are environmentally designated at a local, national and international level, with a required 10 percent biodiversity net gain for land take of the foreshore habitat. As a result, new structures have a minimal footprint and sit adjacent to existing, deteriorating structures that must be considered in design and works sequencing. The village is also an important area for cultural heritage, falling under two conservation areas with eight listed buildings. This has partially dictated the aesthetics and form of the new structures. 

What I’ve enjoyed most about the project is seeing the design for the project come together, with a solution that – in my opinion – blends in and respects the unique historical setting of the village. I’ve had the opportunity to lead the development of a 3D BIM model for the project, which has formed the basis of a holistic design and has been used to support stakeholder engagement. 

As part of the project, I’ve also had the opportunity to lead the design for one of the seven frontages. This frontage is eligible for minimal central government funding (Grant-in-Aid) and would require funding from the community. For these works, I explored and developed four different tiers of options which would extend the life of the existing sea defences and maintain or increase the standard of protection offered to the residents. The options included: Tier 1 consisting of toe stabilisation works; Tier 2 consisting of patch repairs works to existing defences in conjunction to the toe stabilisation works; Tier 3 consisting of capital refurbishment of the existing defences; and Tier 4 option consisting of capital refurbishment of the existing defences, ecological enhancements and introducing new defences.  

I also considered how these options could be constructed in phases. For example, ensuring that the toe stabilisation works could occur before the wall encasement works for most effective deployment of capital investment. The output from this work was a prioritised remedial work schedule, with the top-tier design incorporating ecological enhancements such as ecoformliners and release of hard surfacing to intertidal habitat. It’s been a great learning experience to approach the design of this frontage differently, providing the community with options to maximize flood protection. The lower tier designs aim to extend the life of the existing sea defences and the highest tier design focuses on bringing the standard of protection up to a 1:200-year protection against still tidal water level.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. 

As part of the Langstone FCERM project, I have been involved in several stakeholder engagement sessions. My role involved presenting and answering queries on the technical design to the community and helping them understand the key drivers for the project. What’s been most rewarding with community engagement is seeing the level of public support go from below 50 percent at concept design stage to above 90 percent at the final stage of design.  

Photo realistic visualisations and 3D model demonstrations of the project have been greatly helpful in garnering support from the local communities. There’s still a way to go before the project obtains planning permission and is constructed but it’s great to see the community involved in the project at this pivotal moment. 

Share a piece of career advice. 

Say yes to opportunities! It’s often our own insecurities and doubts that hold us back. Even if the opportunity doesn’t work out as you had hoped, by taking an active role and saying yes, you will have taught yourself something along the way. Sometimes you won’t know a wrong turn until you take it. 

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Jordanna Rubin has 25 years of experience implementing resilient disaster recovery programs to improve social outcomes and support vulnerable and underserved communities.

Before joining ArchTam, she served as the director of resilience and sustainability for APTIM, environmental manager for the City of Miami Beach, assistant director for the Columbia University Energy Policy Center, and as an analyst for NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Jordanna helped to relocate an indigenous community out of a high-risk zone in southern Louisiana, developed a COVID-19 food security program for vulnerable populations in Southern California and implemented residential resilience programs. She has also managed disaster recovery teams in California, New York, Florida, Texas and Guam, implementing programs that helped communities recover from disasters and enriched their futures.

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry 

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 hurricane, hit the southeast coast of Florida. Having never experienced a hurricane, my family and I collected towels, buckets and some duct tape in case a window broke. As the wind and rain picked up, I rushed from my room and huddled under the kitchen table. I grabbed my cat and a few prized possessions – to which my parents looked at me with a confused look. We listened together to the noise that can only be described as a freight train roaring through the house and we waited, holding our breath until it was over.  

Our family was beyond lucky that day because at the last minute, the Hurricane “wobbled” and turned south. But many of our friends and family further south were not as lucky. We heard stories of friends losing their homes, friends huddled in their cars when the roof tore off, schools destroyed and infrastructure damaged. 

Looking back on that day, I remember the fear and helplessness we felt before mother nature. As I journeyed on my career path, I kept that memory in my mind as I worked not only to help survivors of other human-made or natural disasters but also to mitigate future impacts and build more resilient communities. 

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? 

My favorite projects tend to be those where we bring together a multi-disciplinary team to work with a client. Our varying backgrounds and experiences shine a light on solutions that only a diverse team can create.  

Currently, we are supporting the Utah Department of Emergency Management to enhance their disaster mitigation programs. We have brought together a team of planners, mitigation experts and programmers to deliver a digital planning tool for the state. 

Our team started by analyzing available hazard mitigation plans at both the state and local levels to understand key mitigation objectives across the state.  We are currently reviewing available social vulnerability tools to compare the various indicators used to identify and support vulnerable populations in Utah. The final objective of this project will be to build the state their own tailored social vulnerability tool and incorporate community-tailored mitigation strategies within their mitigation portfolio.   

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.  

In 2021, ArchTam supported the establishment of an emergency intake site for unaccompanied children who had come across the U.S. border. ArchTam provided clothing, toiletries, and medical and other services, to support more than 2,500 children. This included rapidly mobilizing architects, planners, engineers and case managers to design and create a safe and enriching environment for the children. I spent the first couple of months of the program supporting an amazing team that came together for one purpose: to support the children.  

People are at the heart of the work we do in disaster response and recovery. It’s all about helping people get their lives back. The most meaningful moment of this project was when I met the cutest little boy, dressed in the soccer jersey we supplied. He gave me the biggest smile, waved at me and in his best broken English wished me a “good morning and to have a happy day”! And that makes it all worthwhile.  

Share a piece of career advice 

You don’t always need to have all the answers and you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. You just need to be skilled in knowing how to find the right answer when you need it.

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