Jim Schwab, AICP, is a 1985 graduate. Currently a Senior Research Associate with the American Planning Association, he has become APA’s disaster expert, serving as principal author of Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction (1999), a PAS Report sponsored by FEMA that has become a bible for disaster recovery planners.

In 2005, he was involved both as an APA representative on a multidisciplinary mission to Sri Lanka to produce recommendations for long-term reconstruction after the Indian Ocean tsunami, and then extensively with APA efforts in support of Gulf Coast recovery after Hurricane Katrina, including various training workshops. In November 2006, at the invitation of Taiwan’s National Disaster Reduction Center, he will be traveling there to speak at a disaster recovery conference.

His next upcoming project is the development of a new report with FEMA on the integration of natural hazard concerns into local plan making.