The 2006 recipient was
Dr. Brenda Phillips '80
Professor, Fire and emergency management program, Oklahoma State University
Rebuilding lives
"Disasters bring out the best in people," says Brenda Phillips, a resident of Stillwater, Okla. She would know, having spent 25 years studying them. While in graduate school, Brenda began working at the Disaster Research Center of The Ohio State University, which piqued her interest in disaster management and recovery. Specializing in social vulnerability, Brenda researches what happens to people who are marginalized by race, income and gender in the face of disaster, including who are most at risk for injury, death or loss of homes and who takes the longest to recover.
Since earning her doctorate in 1985, Brenda has taught or given invited talks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, India, Australia and Germany. She is currently a senior researcher with the Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events at Oklahoma State University where she teaches in the fire and emergency management program. "Teaching gives me a chance to make a difference every day," she says. "You never know who is going to come alive in the classroom." She's received multiple grants, contracts and awards, and served as a principal investigator and project consultant time and again. In 2006, she earned a Big 12 Faculty Fellowship which consists of teaching at Texas A&M University, sharing research, coordinating on publications and traveling to the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. to work on post-disaster housing recovery.
The day before Hurricane Katrina came ashore, Brenda spoke with the executive director of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), playing out a worst-case scenario of what would happen. Their worst nightmare occurred in the following days, and the disaster's aftermath will be felt for years to come, Brenda says. She has been very involved in Katrina recovery efforts, traveling almost nonstop-consulting, giving presentations and teaching classes. Her work has led her to help create disaster-relief degree programs at Hesston College in Hesston, Kan., and Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "The goal of these programs is to graduate students interested in serving as project directors for Mennonite Disaster Service," Brenda says. "We're training the next generation of MDS!"
In speaking of her time at Bluffton, Brenda says, "Bluffton gave me professors and administrators who believed in me, who gave me opportunities to grow and who supported my intellectual growth. As a faculty member, they are my role models, and everyday, I strive to be like them."
