In her talk, Yumei Wang will present a challenge to develop new and transformative approaches for improving society’s resilience to future natural disasters. The severity and consequences of disasters caused by natural hazards are greatly affected by the functionality of critical lifeline infrastructure — related to fuel, power, water, transportation, and communications — after the events. To reduce the frequency and impacts of future disasters such as a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami as a society we need to develop new coordinated approaches among lifeline infrastructure system owners for delivery of basic services to ensure community resilience.

The Le Val Lund Lecture on Lifeline Infrastructure and Community Resilience intends to (1) promote interaction between engineering professionals, community leaders and organizations, educational and research institutions, and students, and (2) improve lifeline infrastructure resilience to support resilient communities.

About the presenter:

Yumei Wang, P.E. is a resilience engineer at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI). She focuses on building resilience to natural hazards and earthquake risk management, including on schools, emergency response facilities and critical lifelines infrastructure. Ms. Wang has been honored by The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) with the 2018 Le Val Lund Award for Practicing Lifeline Risk Reduction for her outstanding contributions to the field of lifeline engineering and for promoting seismic lifeline resilience and fuel resilience in Oregon, including the development of a statewide resilience plan.

About the panelists:

Mike Harryman is the State Resilience Officer in Governor Kate Brown’s office. The position was called out in the Oregon Resilience Plan, the 50-year long-term planning document that addresses reducing risk and improving recovery for the next Cascadia Earthquake and Tsunami. Prior to this appointment, Mike was the Director of Emergency Operations of the Oregon Health Authority’s, Public Health Division: Health Security, Preparedness and Response program since February 2006. Mike has been in numerous command leadership roles over the past several year’s in relation to State Public Health’s response efforts such as the 2009 H1N1 response and the 2011 Japanese Radiation response. Mike served as the Incident Manager for all state operations for the 2014 statewide Ebola planning and response. Mike also served as the Director of the EMS and Trauma Systems program from February 2012 until October 2013. Mike is a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War and retired in 1999 at the rank of Master Sergeant from the U.S. Army/Oregon Army National Guard after a 22-year career.

Janine Benner is the director of the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE). Janine joined ODOE in 2017 as assistant director for planning and innovation. In this role, she lead the department’s work on clean energy policy development and implementation of energy efficiency programs and services. Janine came to ODOE from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where she was served as associate assistant secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the largest government funder of clean energy research and development. Before that, she served as deputy assistant secretary in DOE’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. Janine also spent 12 years working for Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), first as an energy and environmental policy advisor and then as deputy chief of staff. She grew up in Portland, OR and has a degree in history from Princeton University.

Letha Tawney was appointed to the Oregon Public Utility Commission by Governor Kate Brown in June 2018. Commissioner Tawney represents Oregon on the Electricity and the Critical Infrastructure committees for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). She serves on the Energy Imbalance Market Board of State Regulators (EIM-BOSR), engaging closely on Western electricity market development in several forums. Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Tawney was an expert on electric utility business models, state regulation, clean energy development, and large customer buying strategies for World Resources Institute (WRI). As the WRI Polsky Chair for Renewable Energy, she propelled innovation in business and regulatory models in the power sector. Commissioner Tawney has a deep understanding of the constraints and interests driving both utilities and their customers as technology creates large-scale change in the sector. Commissioner Tawney holds a Master’s of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from George Fox University in business and computer science.

About the moderator:

 Jay Raskin developed an expertise in residential design, mixed use commercial projects, and historic preservation. As well as developing his architectural work, Jay has been a leader in resilience planning and design. His expertise developed out of his work in preparing the coast and Oregon for a large Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. This civic engagement included serving on committees and being elected to serve on the City Council in Cannon Beach, where he championed emergency preparedness and pre-disaster mitigation efforts. This engagement shifted to state-wide concerns, where Jay helped create the Oregon Resilience Plan. Appointed by the Governor to the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission, he now serves as Vice-chair. He is also the chair of the National Institute of Standards and Technologies’ Community Resilience Panel, a multi-hazard approach to make communities resilient. His interest in seismic issues and historic preservation resulted in chairing Restore Oregon’s Roundtable workgroup that produced the Special Report: Resilient Masonry Buildings: Saving Lives, Livelihoods, and the Livability of Oregon’s Historic Downtowns.