Dr. John Vargo presents "What is Resilience? Perspectives from New Zealand".

Threats to people and property from natural hazards – floods, wildfire, hurricanes, coastal storm surges, landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions – are all on the rise due to global climate change and/or the increased exposure of growing human populations in vulnerable areas. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, extreme hurricane, wildfire, and other hazard events made 2017 the most costly U.S. disaster year on record. Immediate hazards and long-term climate trends will force human societies to face conditions unlike those ever experienced before. To initiate conversation and cross-disciplinary dialogue about related research issues, the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management is continuing its ongoing speaker series on Natural Hazards and Community Resilience.

In 2004, Resilient Organizations formed as a small group of New Zealand based researchers. They had an idea that resilience could be the key to helping organizations not only survive disruption, but also thrive in the aftermath. Since then, Resilient Organizations has developed 13 indicators of organizational resilience. Over the years they have stress-tested and refined those indicators (particularly in response to the 2011 Christchurch and 2016 Keikoura earthquakes). They have surveyed and interviewed practitioners in hundreds of organizations and made numerous refinements to our understanding of resilience. Yet the essence of their initial findings remains true – resilience emerges from an organization’s culture. It isn’t what an organization does that is so important, but how it does it that leads to effective preparation, trust building, increased adaptability and thus fosters resilience.

We invite you to join us on April 5, from 2:00 – 3:00 for a presentation by Dr. John Vargo, BBA, MBA. Dr. Vargo is the Executive Director of Resilient Organisations (sic), a New Zealand based research and consulting group focused on organizational resilience. He is an internationally renowned speaker on organizational resilience and disaster recovery, with over 15 years’ research, consulting and coaching and mentoring experience in these specialist fields. As lead on some significant New Zealand government funded research programs, Dr. Vargo has extensive experience in ensuring high quality research is translated into practical outcomes for project stakeholders.

This event is open to the campus community with a particular focus on researchers with interests related to policy development, building and community design, social equity, public health, climate change, environmental management, earth systems, storytelling, and topics in between.

This event is co-sponsored by the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management and UO Saftey and Risk Services .

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Josh Bruce, Community Service Center Program Director, at jdbruce@uoregon.edu.