Beyond Reconstruction: Environmental, social, and infrastructural challenges for long-term recovery after major earthquakes in Mexico and Chile

Date: 

Thursday, April 18, 2019, 9:00am to 1:00pm

Location: 

Lower Common Room, Adams House

Click here to register
Click here for information on DAY 1

9:00-10:00 am - The role of Universities in Disaster Recovery

  • Lorena Bello, MIT

  • Ivan Cartes, Universidad de Bío-Bío

  • Diane Davis, GSD

  • Judith Palfrey, HMS

  • Dough Ahlers, HKS

  • Moderator: Pablo Allard, UDD

10:00-10: 15 am – Coffee Break

10:15- 11:30 am Bottom Up Community Involvement  

A panel discussion on how communities have pulled together and the external supports that may enhance the opportunities to heal post-disaster and move forward – sometimes to a “better” place than prior to the catastrophes.

  • Women Empowerment, Pilar del Canto, Recupera Chile

  • School Based Mental Health Activities, Lilly Peacock MD

  • Sea farmers, Alex Mansfield, Jones River Watershed Association

  • MIT Design Projects, Lorena Bello

  • Moderator: Marcela Rentería

11:30-12:00 pm - Lunch Break (Sandwiches and salad will be provided)

12:00 -1:00  -  Lessons Learned 

The full fruits of case management and social investment often do not emerge for 4 to 5 years after a disaster. This conversation will discuss envisioning recovery as an organic and dynamic process, with multiple paths to successful recovery. 

  • Recupera Chile Experience (2011-2019) Ana Maria Quiros, GSD

  • Comments: Pablo Allard, Lorena Bello, Diane Davis, and Judith Palfrey

Recupera Chile Participants: 

Dough Ahlers, Senior Fellow at the Program on Crisis Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, co-founder of Recupera Chile.

Pablo Allard, Doctor of Design Studies, Master of Architecture in Urban Design, GSD. RFK Professor of Latin American Studies at Harvard GSD, Dean Faculty of Architecture Universidad del Desarrollo. After the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Chile in 2010, Allard was appointed by President Piñera to serve as National Urban Reconstruction Coordinator at the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urbanism, leading the recovery master plans of more than 150 Chilean cities and towns. In this role, he helped to connect the Recupera Chile team with the local recovery teams in the Biobio region, providing key governmental support to the initiative. In 2018 he rejoined the research team as part of his RFK professorship at Harvard.

Pilar del Canto, Program Manager, Recupera Chile

Ivan Cartes, Architect and Professor, Head Department of Urban Planning and Design, Universidad de Bío-Bío, Chile

Diane Davis, Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Ubanism, Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, GSD

Alex Mansfield, Ecology Program Director for Jones River Watershed Association. Principal Research Scientist for Battelle Memorial Institute. is a Marine Ecologist, Master of Science in Environmental Coastal and Ocean Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Environmental Restoration Specialist, and (former) Oyster Farmer in Massachusetts. Through those related networks Alex connected with Harvard's Recupera Chile program. In January 2014 Alex served as an advisor to Harvard students working on aquaculture planning in Dichato, Chile as part of Harvard's Community Recovery: Rebuilding Disaster Damaged Communities course. The outcomes of that effort lead to expanding the outreach to a number of impacted communities through the creation of the Granjeros del Mar program. Alex helped lead a hands-on workshop in the community that focused on business planning and creating economic opportunities through small-scale, family-owned, aquaculture operations.

Judith Palfrey, MD T. Berry Brazelton Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Associate in Medicine at Children’s Hospital, Boston. Dr. Palfrey has worked for the past 8 year as on the Recupera Chile project as one of the Harvard faculty leads. She has been particularly responsible for the children’s health and mental health work through L’Escula en Realidad in conjunction with the Dichato, Chile school.

Lilly Peacock-Chambers, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at University of Massachusetts Medical School

Ana Maria Quiros, Master of Design Studies, Risk and Resilience, GSD. Ana Maria conducted a series of interviews and surveys in January 2019 with senior municipality leaders, university faculty members, and community members who candidly shared their experiences and insights about these programs. Her findings have been summarized in a report to define best practices that can help community groups and organizations in Chile and other countries initiate and sustain long-term community-based recovery projects post disaster.

Marcela Rentería, Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations, Lesley University, Executive Director, Regional Office, David Rockefeller Center for Latin Americas Studies, Harvard University. Marcela is the co-founder of Recupera Chile initiative, after the 27F earthquake and tsunami in Chile. From its inception, Marcela has been the mind responsible for connecting and articulating academic interventions, funds and support from Harvard faculty and students from different schools, with national and international institutions and efforts, across public, private and academic sectors, towards the development of a coherent effective community disaster recovery program intervention. The main areas of this holistic approach have been urban, economic, social and cultural development, with special emphasis on children's mental health and women empowerment.