Texas A&M and Fast Company panel explores how communities can better prepare for disasters
Texas A&M experts explain that building resilient communities takes sustained collaboration, reflecting the university’s commitment to serving others and being a force for good.
As disasters increase in frequency and complexity, Texas A&M University stands at the forefront of disaster mitigation, leading efforts to redefine resilience for the next generation. Driven by a commitment to innovation, service and the public good, Texas A&M brings interdisciplinary expertise to the urgent challenge of preparing for and responding to crises. Through advanced data analytics, interdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on resilience as a learned skill, Aggies are empowering communities to anticipate hazards, adapt gracefully and recover stronger than before.
Recently, Texas A&M held a Fast Company-moderated panel discussion titled “Building a Brighter, Safer World: Redefining Resilience for the Next Generation.” Moderator Julianne Pepitone led the conversation, noting that while businesses often view resilience through the narrow lens of risk mitigation (like supply chain diversification or insurance), the modern era of “continuous disruption” requires a more holistic approach. She said the panel aimed to explore how leadership must evolve to future-proof institutions against environmental uncertainty and infrastructure stress through scientific advances and technological acceleration.
The panel consisted of Dr. Sam Brody, Regents Professor in Marine and Coastal Environmental Science and director of the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas (IDRT) at Texas A&M University at Galveston, and Dr. Amy Waer, dean of the Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine at Texas A&M.
Leading the IDRT, which emphasizes long-term recovery and mitigation strategies for communities, Brody enters areas affected by disasters with his team and collaborates with city officials to mitigate future flood-damage risks.
When asked how he defines mitigation, Brody explained that its meaning varies among groups. “For the Institute and its scholars, it’s not just about bouncing back to what may have been a nonsustainable or nonresilient level. Instead, it means having systems function and be viable in the face of disturbances like floods, hurricanes, hail events. So the goal for decision-makers is that hazards, these disturbances, are perceived as more of a ripple in a pond versus a tidal wave of catastrophe that puts our critical systems in peril.”
Waer said, “Resilience, as I define it, is the ability to bounce back from adversity, and that’s a big topic. I do think based on the recent pandemic, it has been a little bit overused, but the importance — at least from our College of Medicine and us training our Aggie doctors and Aggie physician scientists — is the ability to look at it not as a trait, but as a skill and how we give those kind of lifelong skills that they can use as the times change and being adaptable.”
Brody emphasized the need for leaders at all levels to work together toward sustainable solutions. “One discipline cannot effectively address all of it. And so we convene engineers, sociologists, planners, data scientists in recognition that these are large spanning projects and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. So we also work with leaders to better understand the idea of multifunctionality solutions and synergy among multiple solutions.”
Waer echoed the sentiment. “To Sam’s point, that multidisciplinary approach of bringing in all those people because no one leader can presume to know it all, but working with the team to develop that adaptability and those skills, which again, I do believe you can learn some of those skills over time with the team.”
As the panel concluded, one theme became clear: Building resilient communities is a collective, continuous endeavor that demands both expertise and open collaboration. Texas A&M’s dedication to advancing interdisciplinary research and practical solutions affirms the university’s quest to become a force for good in the nation, especially when it comes to helping people prepare for and recover from the unexpected.
