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Date 3-14-06
Contact David Tisdale 601.266.4499
Hattiesburg
– School, community and emergency management leaders will
have the opportunity to review their response to Hurricane Katrina
and consider the impact of other types of catastrophes on schools
at a University of Southern Mississippi Eagle Institute for School
Leaders conference.
The event’s
theme, “Katrina and the Schools: Insights into Weathering the Storm”
is part of the institute’s Policy and Action Series and will be
held April 3-4 at Hattiesburg’s Lake Terrace Convention Center.
Along with the Institute, the Mississippi Institutions for Higher
Learning will serve as a sponsor.
A variety of
noted education and emergency agency leaders will serve as presenters,
including keynote speaker Gregory Thomas, director of the Program
for School Preparedness and Planning in the National Center for
Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. Thomas was executive
director of the New City Department of Education’s Office of School
Safety and Planning during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
‘This event
will provide a forum to discuss what has been learned about emergency
preparedness in schools,” said Dr. Michael Ward, a faculty member
in the Southern Miss College of Education and Psychology, who was
previously the North Carolina superintendent of education.
Ward said the
conference will also give participants an opportunity to weigh in
on policy recommendations and work together to develop an action
plan proposal that will be made available following the conference.
Although the
impact of Katrina is still fresh on the minds of many in the affected
education community, Ward said that school leaders need to consider
how to prepare for other types of disasters.
“We’re trying
to emphasize that disasters in the future might not be hurricanes,
but a dirty bomb, a meltdown at a nearby nuclear power plant or
a spate of tornadoes,” he said. “All of this is aimed at being better
prepared for future crises.”
Assistant U.S.
Secretary of Education Dr. Henry Johnson, who is a former Mississippi
state superintendent of education, will also be a guest speaker
along with current state Superintendent of Education Dr. Hank Bounds.
The conference will also feature a cross section of 20 panelists
that will include state community, county and emergency leaders.
“In considering
a theme for the conference, we felt it was critical to have some
kind of sense of how well our school crisis plans worked in response
to Katrina,” said Southern Miss professor Dr. Ron Styron, who served
on the steering committee that organized the event.
Along with Styron,
other steering committee members at Southern Miss include Ward,
Dr. David E. Lee, Dr. Wanda Maulding, Kyna Shelley, Aileen Bumphas,
Casey Cockrell, Cindy Parnell, Portia Hull and Lydia Frass.
For more information
about the conference or the Eagle Institute, call 601.266.4580,
visit http://www.usm.edu/leadershipinstitute/EagleInstitute/eagleinstitute.htm,
or e-mail Dr. Ron Styron at Ronald.styron@usm.edu or Dr. Michael
Ward at Mike.ward@usm.edu.
Last updated:
03/14/06 |
