Advisory Board

Our Internal Advisory Board will be comprised of Curtis D. White, Sr., faculty development and diversity coordinator from the Chief Diversity Officer’s office; Dr. Frankie Felder, senior associate dean in the Graduate School; and Melur Ramasubramanian, former NSF IGERT program manager. The chairs of the eight participating departments and their respective deans will also serve on the Internal Advisory Board. The Steering Committee will meet with the Internal Advisory Board twice a year to provide input on programmatic activities, such as recruitment to the program, curriculum changes, integration of research and education, successful mentoring and retention of students.

We have formed an External Advisory Board composed of experts in disaster resilience from government and national laboratories, experts on educational and programmatic aspects, and professors from international academic institutions. Depending on their area of expertise, the External Advisory Board members will provide input guiding the programmatic activities on topics such as workforce development, student job placement, global engagement, professional networking, and mentoring.

Program Partners

  • Ed Hecker - Senior Advisor to the Directorate of Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, MD, USA
  • Lori Parrot - Program Manager, National Infrastructure Simulation & Analysis Center, Sandia National Laboratories, NM, USA
  • Cherri Black - Critical Infrastructure Strategist, Idaho National Laboratory, ID, USA
  • Steven Batson - Chief of Staff, South Carolina Emergency Management Division, SC, USA

Educational and Programmatic Advisory Board

  • Anne Donnelly, Ph.D. - Director, Center for Undergraduate Research, University of Florida, FL, USA
  • Leslie Gonzales, Ed.D. - Asst. Professor, Dept. of Educational Administration, Michigan State University, MI, USA
  • Benjamin Heddy, Ph.D. - Asst. Professor, Educational Psychology, University of Oklahoma, OK, USA
  • Lemuel W. Watson - Chief of Staff, South Carolina Emergency Management Division, SC, USA
  • Robert Barthorpe, Ph.D. - Lecturer, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Sheffield, UK
  • Ian Smith, Ph.D. - Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Roland Platz, Ph.D. - Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF, Darmstadt, Germany

Each student will be responsible for identifying and inviting internationally known leaders in their research area to serve as external guest committee members. These guest members will be asked to review the doctoral dissertation/thesis before it is approved, and will collectively form our Scientific Advisory Board. Each guest member will stay on the Scientific Advisory Board until the student graduates, keeping the board constantly engaged and up-to-date with the changing needs of our students. Students will be encouraged to identify the guest committee members through Clemson’s established Global Faculty Program.