Rebecca Morgenstern Brenner, MPA is a Senior Lecturer in the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University with additional collaborations as a Cornell Atkinson Sustainable Future Senior Faculty Fellow, Faculty Fellow in the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, and Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies Faculty Associate. Rebecca is co-lead for the FEMA’s Higher Education Experiential Learning and Leadership Special Interest Group. Rebecca teaches courses on environmental policy, environmental justice, vulnerability and resilience, disaster policy, ethics, and project management. Rebecca’s research and practice focus on translating values into practice and policy and working with communities to reduce vulnerability and build resilience. To do this, Rebecca collaborates with international and domestic partners to build innovative approaches that address and improve social and environmental conditions. Her current research and practice include managed retreat and equity, resiliency planning, environmental justice, bridging policy with science, climate change education, and building disaster resilience with vulnerable communities.
To better incorporate extreme heat and people-centered disasters into U.S. emergency management, Congress and federal agencies should take several interrelated actions.
The undercounting of deaths related to extreme heat and other people-centered disasters — like extreme cold and smoke waves — hinders the political and public drive to address the problem.
To protect the health and well-being of the nation’s children, the federal government must facilitate efforts to collect the data required to drive extreme heat mitigation and adaptive capacity in the classroom.