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Karl Kim

Karl Kim, the executive director of the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center and a professor in the UH Mānoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning has been named to a three-year term as chair of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC). In this capacity, Kim will lead the consortium in development and delivery of training and educational programs to help safeguard the nation against natural and man-made hazards and threats.

“I look forward to Dr. Kim’s tenure as NDPC chair,” said Van Romero, NDPC co-founder and vice president for research and economic development at New Mexico Tech. “His international reputation in disaster management will only enhance the already strong reputation of the consortium. His academic credentials, research and leadership skills are the right mix to shepherd the consortium through difficult challenges. This is a position that impacts the safety and security of our nation, and Dr. Kim is well-equipped to handle the challenge.”

“It is an honor to take on a leadership role focused on enhancing the nation’s preparedness and disaster response, and recovery capabilities,” said Kim. “This is an exciting opportunity to further integrate the research being conducted at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in areas such as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, sea level rise and other hazards, as well as urban planning and environmental management. As we look at the science of disasters, we’ll focus on the physical science as well as the social science. We’ll look at the impacts of disasters on communities and households, how we respond to it, how we recover from it and how we rebuild communities affected by these disasters.”

Kim has served on numerous national and international scientific panels and committees related to risk reduction, and has led executive training programs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute. He also has worked with universities from around the world to build and share curriculum on disaster risk reduction, in the belief that disaster risk reduction is best achieved through the integration of science and policy at all levels of community.

Read the UH Mānoa news release for more about Kim.

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