Bio: I have a lifelong fascination with how governments manage emergencies. I’m also interested in how sometimes, when the wheels fall off, bureaucrats speak back to politicians. This began when I grew up along the Texas gulf coast and helped protect homes against hurricane winds and rain. After disaster struck, I noticed how mayors always seemed to blame the state and federal government. The federal government, in turn, pointed the finger at localities, and everyone blamed bureaucrats. Somehow, the president was assumed to be the responder-in-chief. I wondered why.
My first career was an Associated Press reporter, where I covered ice storms, floods, and New York state politics. Reporting on day-to-day events stoked my curiosity about why emergencies unfold, and why disaster and crisis policies always seem to respond to events rather than anticipate them.
My research traces the development of disaster and security organizations and their capacity, performance and especially their degree of autonomy, or ability to develop and pursue a perspective independent of the will of elected politicians and interests. Organizational autonomy is particularly important given the thickening layers of bureaucracy and increasingly coordinated agendas in contemporary politics.
My book, Disasters and the American State, provides the only single-volume history of the development of federal government disaster management in the United States. The contents range from the origins of the disaster state in the Constitution and the 19th century to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and include details behind the rise of emergency management, the formation of FEMA, and the rising expectations of government in disaster politics.