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Resilience

Disaster & failure studies

NCST Advisory Committee Members

Committee Member	Title and Organization
José Izquierdo-Encarnación (Chair)	Principal, PORTICUS, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Term Expires: September 30, 2026 José Izquierdo-Encarnación has over 35 years of experience as a civil engineer specializing in structural engineering. Puerto Rico. For the past 25 years he has worked in the international field of engineering, becoming president of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) from 2003 to 2004. He has held several professional, civic, and public positions in Puerto Rico, including serving as Secretary of State and Secretary of Transportation and Public Works for the Commonwealth, as well as President and Board member of the Institute of Engineers and Land Surveyors. Mr. Izquierdo-Encarnación has also served as a Board member and Vice President of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and Trustee of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.
Kimberley Shoaf (Vice-Chair)	Professor, Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT Term Expires: April 30, 2026 Dr. Kimberley Shoaf is a Professor in the Division of Public Health and Associate Chief for Community-Engaged Scholarship at the University of Utah. Dr. Shoaf is a practice-based public health systems and services researcher utilizing mixed-methods. Her expertise is in the combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies for studying disasters. Her research in emergency public health includes the study of the health impacts of various hazards with an emphasis on earthquakes; casualty estimation modeling for earthquakes and other natural and human-induced hazards; the study of public health workforce issues relative to the field of emergency public health; as well as the study of factors related to the resilience of health systems. She has worked with more than 50 local health departments in preparing for a response to disasters through training, assessments, and exercises as well as in the development of written response plans. Prior to joining the University of Utah, Dr. Shoaf was the Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, including serving as the principal investigator for the UCLA Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center.
Donald Dusenberry	Consulting Engineer, Wakefield, MA Term Expires: August 31, 2025 Mr. Dusenberry is a licensed professional engineer in over 15 states and owns his own engineering consulting firm. He has over 45 years of professional experience, and in 2021 retired from the engineering mechanics division of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. in Waltham, MA, where he served as Senior Principal. Additionally, Mr. Dusenberry volunteers much of his time with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), where he is a Fellow. During his time with ASCE, he has served on technical committees, standards committees, awards committees, the continuing education committee, and worked as an associate editor for one of the journals. Mr. Dusenberry served on SEI’s Board of Governors for seven years, including two years as President. Before his term on the Board of Governors, he served on the Executive Committee of SEI’s Technical Activities Division for five years.
Kurtis Gurley	Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Term Expires: August 31, 2027 Dr. Gurley is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. His primary areas of research are wind effects on residential structures and stochastic modeling of extreme winds and structural resistance. Dr. Gurley has largely focused on modeling the vulnerability of residential structures to hurricane wind damage. Dr. Gurley is an Associate Editor for ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, the Associate Director of the UF Engineering School for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Environment (ESSIE – early faculty development), and the Associate Director of the shared-use UF NSF NHERI Wind Hazard Experimental Facility.
John Osteraas	Corporate Vice President & Principal Engineer, Exponent Engineering & Scientific Consulting, Menlo Park, CA Term Expires: August 31, 2027 Dr. Osteraas is a Corporate Vice President and Principal Engineer in Exponent's Buildings and Structures Practice. He specializes in the evaluation of the performance of buildings under extreme loads, including earthquake, wind, flood, landslide, explosion, high-energy impact, and construction failure. His research has focused on performance of structures under seismic loading and full-scale instrumentation and testing of structures under dynamic loading. Dr. Osteraas' expertise in structural and earthquake engineering includes structural safety and damage assessment; structural analysis; soil-structure interaction; seismic site response assessment; and analysis and design of wood, steel, concrete, masonry, and composite systems. His geotechnical engineering expertise extends to foundation and retaining structure analysis and design, slope stability analysis, and analysis of soil-structure interaction. Dr. Osteraas has also served as a Structures Specialist with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue program and has been deployed to New Orleans in 2005, the World Trade Center in 2001, and Oklahoma City in 1995 to assist with search and rescue activities. He was a founding Board Member and Corporate Secretary for Krawinkler Luth and Associates, Inc., and has held research and consulting positions with the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford University, the Counter Quake Corporation, Structural Research Inc., Engineering Research Inc., Marshall Erdman and Associates, and Fel-Pro Energy Systems.
Lori Peek	Professor, Department of Sociology and Director, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO Term Expires: April 2, 2026 Dr. Peek is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Peek has published extensively on the sociology of disaster, with an emphasis on the health and social effects on vulnerable populations. She is author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-author of Children of Katrina and The Continuing Storm: Learning from Katrina, and co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora and the Handbook of Environmental Sociology. She has received multiple awards for her scholarly publications, teaching, and service to the discipline of Sociology and the hazards community. In 2021, she was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden and approved by the U.S. Senate to serve on the Board of Directors for the National Institute of Building Sciences. Peek holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder, a M.Ed. from Colorado State University, and a B.A. in Sociology from Ottawa University (summa cum laude).
Aspasia Zerva	Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA Term Expires: August 31, 2025 Dr. Aspasia Zerva is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. She previously held appointments as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, Visiting Associate under a National Science Foundation (NSF) Visiting Professorship Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education award in Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the California Institute of Technology, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. She also served as Program Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Centers in the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, Directorate for Engineering, at NSF. Her research interests span the areas of Engineering Seismology, with emphasis on the analysis of seismic spatial strong motion array data, modeling of spatially variable seismic ground motions, wave propagation techniques, and earthquake engineering.

Committee Member

Title and Organization

José Izquierdo-Encarnación

(Chair)

Principal, PORTICUS, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico

Term Expires: September 30, 2026

José Izquierdo-Encarnación has over 35 years of experience as a civil engineer specializing in structural engineering. Puerto Rico. For the past 25 years he has worked in the international field of engineering, becoming president of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) from 2003 to 2004. He has held several professional, civic, and public positions in Puerto Rico, including serving as Secretary of State and Secretary of Transportation and Public Works for the Commonwealth, as well as President and Board member of the Institute of Engineers and Land Surveyors. Mr. Izquierdo-Encarnación has also served as a Board member and Vice President of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and Trustee of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.

Kimberley Shoaf

(Vice-Chair)

Professor, Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT

Term Expires: April 30, 2026

Dr. Kimberley Shoaf is a Professor in the Division of Public Health and Associate Chief for Community-Engaged Scholarship at the University of Utah. Dr. Shoaf is a practice-based public health systems and services researcher utilizing mixed-methods. Her expertise is in the combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies for studying disasters. Her research in emergency public health includes the study of the health impacts of various hazards with an emphasis on earthquakes; casualty estimation modeling for earthquakes and other natural and human-induced hazards; the study of public health workforce issues relative to the field of emergency public health; as well as the study of factors related to the resilience of health systems. She has worked with more than 50 local health departments in preparing for a response to disasters through training, assessments, and exercises as well as in the development of written response plans. Prior to joining the University of Utah, Dr. Shoaf was the Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, including serving as the principal investigator for the UCLA Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center.

Donald Dusenberry

Consulting Engineer, Wakefield, MA

Term Expires: August 31, 2025

Mr. Dusenberry is a licensed professional engineer in over 15 states and owns his own engineering consulting firm. He has over 45 years of professional experience, and in 2021 retired from the engineering mechanics division of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. in Waltham, MA, where he served as Senior Principal. Additionally, Mr. Dusenberry volunteers much of his time with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), where he is a Fellow. During his time with ASCE, he has served on technical committees, standards committees, awards committees, the continuing education committee, and worked as an associate editor for one of the journals. Mr. Dusenberry served on SEI’s Board of Governors for seven years, including two years as President. Before his term on the Board of Governors, he served on the Executive Committee of SEI’s Technical Activities Division for five years.

Kurtis Gurley

Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Term Expires: August 31, 2027

Dr. Gurley is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. His primary areas of research are wind effects on residential structures and stochastic modeling of extreme winds and structural resistance. Dr. Gurley has largely focused on modeling the vulnerability of residential structures to hurricane wind damage. Dr. Gurley is an Associate Editor for ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, the Associate Director of the UF Engineering School for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Environment (ESSIE – early faculty development), and the Associate Director of the shared-use UF NSF NHERI Wind Hazard Experimental Facility.

John Osteraas

Corporate Vice President & Principal Engineer, Exponent Engineering & Scientific Consulting, Menlo Park, CA

Term Expires: August 31, 2027

Dr. Osteraas is a Corporate Vice President and Principal Engineer in Exponent's Buildings and Structures Practice. He specializes in the evaluation of the performance of buildings under extreme loads, including earthquake, wind, flood, landslide, explosion, high-energy impact, and construction failure. His research has focused on performance of structures under seismic loading and full-scale instrumentation and testing of structures under dynamic loading. Dr. Osteraas' expertise in structural and earthquake engineering includes structural safety and damage assessment; structural analysis; soil-structure interaction; seismic site response assessment; and analysis and design of wood, steel, concrete, masonry, and composite systems. His geotechnical engineering expertise extends to foundation and retaining structure analysis and design, slope stability analysis, and analysis of soil-structure interaction. Dr. Osteraas has also served as a Structures Specialist with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue program and has been deployed to New Orleans in 2005, the World Trade Center in 2001, and Oklahoma City in 1995 to assist with search and rescue activities. He was a founding Board Member and Corporate Secretary for Krawinkler Luth and Associates, Inc., and has held research and consulting positions with the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford University, the Counter Quake Corporation, Structural Research Inc., Engineering Research Inc., Marshall Erdman and Associates, and Fel-Pro Energy Systems.

Lori Peek

Professor, Department of Sociology and Director, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO

Term Expires: April 2, 2026

Dr. Peek is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Peek has published extensively on the sociology of disaster, with an emphasis on the health and social effects on vulnerable populations. She is author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-author of Children of Katrina and The Continuing Storm: Learning from Katrina, and co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora and the Handbook of Environmental Sociology. She has received multiple awards for her scholarly publications, teaching, and service to the discipline of Sociology and the hazards community. In 2021, she was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden and approved by the U.S. Senate to serve on the Board of Directors for the National Institute of Building Sciences. Peek holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder, a M.Ed. from Colorado State University, and a B.A. in Sociology from Ottawa University (summa cum laude).

Aspasia Zerva

Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

Term Expires: August 31, 2025

Dr. Aspasia Zerva is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. She previously held appointments as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, Visiting Associate under a National Science Foundation (NSF) Visiting Professorship Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education award in Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the California Institute of Technology, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. She also served as Program Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Centers in the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, Directorate for Engineering, at NSF. Her research interests span the areas of Engineering Seismology, with emphasis on the analysis of seismic spatial strong motion array data, modeling of spatially variable seismic ground motions, wave propagation techniques, and earthquake engineering.

Resilience and Disaster and failure studies

Created October 26, 2011, Updated September 26, 2024