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Jensen named Assistant Director

Jessica Jensen has been named assistant director of the Center for Disaster Studies and Emergency Management.

Jensen, who has a Presidential Fellowship, earned a bachelor's degree in political science from California State University-Northridge and a master's degree in emergency management from NDSU.  A Presidential Fellowship provides a full tuition waiver and a $16,000 stipend for four years.  It is considered the top-funding category for graduate students.

In 2008, she received a National Science Foundation-sponsored Quick Response Grant from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  The grant allowed her to travel to a disaster site to immediately begin gathering data on response efforts.  Most of her research has focused on the National Incident Management System, which was implemented after the World Trade Center attack.

Jensen also is directing a research project for the International Association of Emergency Managers detailing the response infrastructure 194 countries.

Center for Disaster Studies and Emergency Management

The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education approved the establishment of the NDSU Center for Disaster Studies and Emergency Management on Sept. 18, 2008.   The establishment of the center is a natural outgrowth to NDSU's comprehensive degree program in emergency management.   Professors Daniel Klenow and George Youngs are the directors of the center.

This center is intended as an organizational nexis for integrating the research efforts of multi-disciplinary groups of faculty as well as link the university to partners outside NDSU.  The program already has established close ties with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Higher Education Project, under the auspices of the Emergency Management Institute, the premiere emergency management training institute for the Department of Homeland Security.

The center will provide supportive services for state Emergency Management Associations.  The program has received two National Science Foundation Quick Response Grants administered through the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder.  One of the goals of the center will be to develop the capability to conduct quick response studies for disasters in our immediate region, which will help provide a rural, as well as urban, focus to the center. 


Student Focused. Land Grant. Research University.

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Site manager: Kate Ulmer
Published by the NDSU Dept. of Sociology,
Anthropology, & Emergency Management

Last Updated: Thursday, January 21, 2010 10:06:33 AM
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