Dismantling Disaster: Working with Communities Before the Storm - 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Recorded On: 10/12/2025

Disasters aren’t “natural”—they’re shaped by human patterns of settlement, policy, and economics. Too often, designers begin thinking about disasters only after they strike. This session explores innovative strategies to engage communities before disasters. Learn how designers, federal agencies, and community leaders share capacities—knowledge, resources, and skills—to help communities prevent disasters.

Learning objectives:

Identify the economic, social, and policy factors that contribute to disaster vulnerability.
Understand how designers can work with community-based organizations and federal agencies to create resilience strategies.
Give examples of design approaches that integrate climate adaptation, social equity, and disaster prevention.
Recognize strategies for fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to strengthen resilience efforts at the community level.

Wes Michaels, ASLA, PLA, LEED AP

Principal

Spackman Mossop Michaels

Wes Michaels is a Principal of Spackman Mossop Michaels landscape architects. His work is focused on building adaptive communities through green infrastructure, vacant land strategies, ecological restoration, and health-focused landscapes, with a primary focus on how the embedded cultural understanding of a landscape within a community can drive design and planning decisions. Wes is an Associate Professor at Tulane University and a Faculty Fellow at the Tulane Center on Climate and Urbanism. Wes has been awarded several ASLA National Awards, and his work has been exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.

Marilyn Hemingway

CEO/President

Gullah Geechee Chamber Foundation Inc

Marilyn L. Hemingway is founder and president of the Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce, the Gullah Geechee Chamber Foundation Inc and The Hemingway Group, communications fir

An advocate for environmental justice and wealth creation, Marilyn established the annual Gullah Geechee Environmental & Energy Conference and developed the first solar-powered, electric vehicle charging station in the state of South Carolina.

In 2022, Marilyn received a presidential appointment to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission National Heritage Area where she serves as chair of the Economic Development and Tourism Alliance committee.

She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.

Abby Hall

Senior Program Manager

CDR Associates

Abby Hall is a Senior Program Manager at CDR Associates. Abby worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 18 years, including in the Office of Water and in the Office of Climate Adaptation and Sustainability. Abby led design assistance programs for climate resilience and environmental justice. She managed a partnership between EPA and FEMA to help communities prepare for and recover from disasters. She earned a master’s degree in anthropology from Stanford University. Abby is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and is the Chair of Mt. Hood Cherokees, an at-large community-based in Oregon.