Emily Seiple, class of 2017, recently won the Best Paper Award from American Planning Association’s Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Planning Division. Her paper, “Does Recovery Mean Resilience? An Analysis of the Waterbury, Vermont Response to Tropical Storm Irene,” was selected by a jury of six planning professors from all over the country who reviewed graduate student entries and evaluated them on originality, clarity of writing, quality of evidence, and application. Emily accepted her award, with a $2500 prize, at the National Planning Conference in New York City in May.

Jim Schwab, FAICP, URP alum and adjunct professor, had Emily in his class, “Planning for Disaster Mitigation and Recovery,” and has posted her paper on his blog. Jim’s life-long work has focused on disaster preparation and recovery and he recently retired from the American Planning Association as Manager of the APA Hazards Planning Center. He sat down with Emily to discuss her paper and the video can be viewed on the APA website.