Instructor:ÌýJohn Thomas
Suggested priorÌýknowledge:ÌýNone
Prerequisites: None
Semester(s) Offered: See course list
Ìý
Course Description
The 21st century risk environment is a mix of natural and manmade threats including wildfires, hurricanes, floods, extreme heat events, power outages, industrial accidents, pandemics, cyber intrusions, human misdeeds, and social unrest. Within this evolving threat environment, critical infrastructures essential to public health, safety, and security are inherently vulnerable to unanticipated catastrophic disruptions and cascading failures. This threat scenario challenges leaders to navigate radical change and unanticipated operational disruptions in our complex, interconnected world.
Resilience Engineering and Leadership in Crisis examines the qualities, concepts, and practices of resilience leadership amid conditions of chaos, uncertainty, and catastrophic breakdowns of complex social, ecological, and technological systems. Drawing on resilience policy, case studies, and contemporary literature, the curriculum constructs a practical understanding of resilience as an intricate network of dynamic processes embedded within and across complex systems.
The course applies a holistic approach to critical infrastructure resilience and crisis leadership, fostering subject-matter understanding, critical issues analyses, and insight into crisis leadership. Throughout the semester, students engage in progressive assignments that culminate in a semester-long project. They select a complex system scenario, conduct a comprehensive threat analysis, perform resilience assessment, and create a crisis management plan, forming the core components of the semester project.
Skills and Knowledge GainedÌý
Why should you take this course?Ìý
Apply knowledge gained to evaluate security and resilience and prepare resilience reports, organizational plans, and leadership strategies that address unanticipated threats and disruptions.
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