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New Lectures Announced in OR&R’s Lecture Series
JULY 17, 2023 — On Thursday of this week, July 20th, the You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know lecture series begins its second annual OR&R 101 series!
As many of you already “know,” OR&R scientists bring a wealth of knowledge and capacity to our nation's response and recovery posture. This new three-part lecture series features response expertise from three of our divisions. Here's the line up, including a short description of each of the lectures:
July 20, 2023: “Planning for the Unplanned: Emergency Response to Marine Debris,” with Jessica Conway, Response Specialist, OR&R Marine Debris Division, Charleston, South Carolina. Jessica will outline how OR&R responds to marine debris following natural disasters and her role during a response.
Since 2015, Jessica has been working with NOAA staff to improve the preparedness of coastal states in their response to marine debris after disasters, by building relationships across all levels of government, facilitating collaborative workshops, and developing partner resources. She has her Master of Science degree in Coastal Marine and Wetland Studies from Coastal Carolina University.
August 17, 2023: “Oil Chemistry and Properties” with Dalina Thrift-Viveros, Chemistry Team Lead, OR&R's Emergency Response Division (ERD), Seattle, Washington. Dalina will share one of OR&R’s classic Science of Oil Spills presentations that will cover the varied chemical properties of oil.
Dalina coordinates OR&R’s chemistry hazard assessment support for the U.S. Coast Guard in the event of an oil or chemical spill. Since joining OR&R in 2011, her expertise as a response chemist has grown and she now serves as a chemistry subject matter expert on a variety of ERD-produced response software projects, including ALOHA, CAMEO Chemicals, ADIOS, and CAFE.
September 21, 2023: “Disaster Recovery 101” with Autumn Lotze, Natural Resource and Community Recovery Specialist, OR&R's Disaster Preparedness Program, Silver Spring, Maryland. Autumn will lead a conversation about the federal recovery support landscape and how NOAA works with partners to help coastal communities, economies, and ecosystems recover from disaster.
As part of OR&R’s Disaster Preparedness Program, Autumn focuses on strategy development, planning, and operational coordination. Since 2019, she has built partnerships at all levels of government to help connect NOAA resources to community disaster resilience and recovery needs.
So, who is responsible for debris generated in a natural disaster? Isn’t oil just oil? Why do we need to know about the chemical properties? How does our nation help communities recover from large scale natural disasters? Please join us to gain additional knowledge and insights about these topics, because You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know!
As always, meet us on the third Thursday of each month at 3:00 pm ET in our online seminar room.