Play Therapy Conferences in Alabama

							                             Hurricane REU Mentor List




Graham A. Tobin (Ph.D., University of Strathclyde, 1978) is Professor of Geography at
the University of South Florida. His research specialties include natural hazards,
especially floods, volcanoes and hurricanes; water resources management and policy; and
environmental contamination. He has published several books, monographs, and book
chapters; numerous refereed articles, proceedings, technical reports, working papers, and
book reviews; and he has received over a million dollars in grant funding. He has been
Department Chair at two universities and an Associate Vice Chancellor, and he has
served on many committees at the national, university, college, and department levels; he
has also held office in various professional organizations, and is Co-Executive Director
of the Applied Geography Conferences. He has received a number of research awards,
including the Research Honors Award from the Southeastern Division of the Association
of American Geographers, the Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award from the
University of South Florida and the Research Award from the College of Liberal Arts at
the University of Minnesota Duluth. His current research activities are concerned with
evacuation strategies and health problems associated with volcanic eruptions, socio-
economic and environmental impacts of flooding and hurricanes, and pollution reduction
strategies in urban areas.

Project:

Hurricane Vulnerability of Mobile Home Residents

Students will have the opportunity to participate in ongoing interdisciplinary research of
community resources and disaster resilience among Florida mobile home residents. We
are currently studying several communities, including a low income urban neighborhood,
a suburban/rural area, and a coastal town near Tampa. Students will assist with
interviewing mobile home residents, conducting background research on these
communities, and coding and analyzing existing data sets. We especially welcome social
science students with an interest in the effects of hurricanes on vulnerable populations
such as seniors, families, migrant workers, people with low incomes, and people with
disabilities.


Dr. Kusenbach, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. Her
current research focuses on community issues. In 2007 she received an NSF grant to
conduct an interdisciplinary study of community resources and disaster resilience in
Florida mobile home parks. Her other areas of interest include urban neighborhoods,
emotions, and qualitative methods. She has published several book chapters and articles
in City & Community, Symbolic Interaction, Qualitative Sociology, Forum Qualitative
Social Research (FQS), Ethnography, and Studies in Symbolic Interaction. She is also
working on two co-authored books.


Project:
Hurricane Vulnerability of Mobile Home Residents

Students will have the opportunity to participate in ongoing interdisciplinary research of
community resources and disaster resilience among Florida mobile home residents. We
are currently studying several communities, including a low income urban neighborhood,
a suburban/rural area, and a coastal town near Tampa. Students will assist with
interviewing mobile home residents, conducting background research on these
communities, and coding and analyzing existing data sets. We especially welcome social
science students with an interest in the effects of hurricanes on vulnerable populations
such as seniors, families, migrant workers, people with low incomes, and people with
disabilities.

Jennifer Baggerly, Ph.D., LMHC-S, RPT-S, is an associate professor in the Counselor
Education program at the University of South Florida. She holds a doctorate in
counseling education with a specialization in play therapy. Dr. Baggerly is a Licensed
Mental Health Counselor Supervisor, a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, and a Field
Traumatologist. She has over thirteen years of clinical experience in play therapy and
counseling children and families who have experienced trauma. She teaches graduate
courses such as Principles of Counseling, Counseling Theories, and Play Therapy as well
as numerous workshops on trauma interventions with children. Dr. Baggerly's research
projects and publications include the effectiveness of play therapy with children who are
homeless, counseling interventions for traumatized children, and the effectiveness of
trauma debriefing trainings with professionals. She has also given national and
international presentations on these topics. Dr. Baggerly provided trauma interventions
for children after the 2004 Florida hurricanes, the tsunami in Sri Lanka, and Hurricane
Katrina. Her current hurricane related research project is the impact of the 2004
hurricanes on school children’s Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores.
She is also interested in researching the impact of play-based crisis intervention strategies
on children’s symptoms and coping skills.

Projects:
Hurricane REU projects for Summer 2009 will be:
1. Survey of Texas School Counselors after Hurricane Ivan: Helpful Interventions and
   Needs
2. Effectiveness of Hurricane Preparedness Training on Children’s Anxiety and Coping
   Skills


Jennifer Collins
Dr. Jennifer Collins is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of South
Florida. Her research focuses on tropical climatology, particularly hurricane activity. She
is currently studying the environmental factors influencing the interannual variation of
hurricane numbers in the Northeast Pacific and she is examining the anti-correlation
between hurricane numbers in the Atlantic versus those in part of the Northeast Pacific
ocean basin. Jennifer is an active member of the West Central Florida American
Meteorological Society, and she is also a member of the Association of American
Geographers and Florida Society of Geographers.

For more information go to:
http://www.weathercenter.usf.edu/home/



Project:
        The research will be a collaborative effort also involving Charles Paxton (NWS:
Tampa Bay Area office). The student will conduct a detailed study of vulnerable
populations in the path of an ensuing hurricane. Hillsborough County has been threatened
numerous times from hurricanes and tropical storms as 60 storms have come within 75
mi of the mouth of Tampa Bay in the last 100 years. If a storm like Katrina were to hit
the city today, public and emergency officials will need to act quickly to assist the
residents. Knowledge of the social characteristics of the population in the path of the
hurricane would allow officials to more effectively organize and distribute their
resources. This can be achieved by using Geographical Information Systems in addition
to the most recent U.S. Census demographical data which describes factors of social
vulnerability. A display of this data will be created on the NWS ( Tampa Bay region)
website. Such a system would have broader applicability not only for the Tampa Bay
region as other hazards can be used with the same tool, but also as this can be adopted in
other areas which face weather hazards.
        I would like to have a student involved in this project who has preferably used US
census data. GIS is also a preferred skill. Please also indicate if you have done any web
page programming. The student will conduct a lot of research at the NWS, Ruskin and it
is therefore essential that they have transport.

Lisa Brown Ph.D

Dr. Lisa Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aging and Mental Health,
Florida Mental Health Institute, and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Medicine, University of South Florida. Dr. Brown is interested in how adults cope with
adverse personal or societal life events. Her research on mental health and disasters has
evolved from a longstanding interest in the effects of adverse events and pathological
conditions on the mental and physical health of older adults. Dr. Brown has recently
completed a longitudinal study that examines the effects of the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes
on a cohort of elderly Floridians. She is currently evaluating the effectiveness of a mental
health program that was funded by SAMHSA to reduce hurricane related distress and put
into practice statewide by the Florida Department of Children and Families after the 2004
hurricane season. Currently, she is collaborating with LuMarie Polivka-West and Dr.
Kathryn Hyer to enhance disaster preparedness and response in nursing home facilities
located in the Gulf States.


Beverly G. Ward Ph.D., MPA
Beverly Ward is a senior research associate in the department of child and family studies
at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida.
Her current research focuses on the social impacts of natural and other disasters, housing,
and transportation policies on persons with disabilities, women, and low-income and
minority communities. She has authored and coauthored articles relating to women and
minorities in the public transportation industry and how women and minorities are
affected by public policies and programs. Dr. Ward has developed courses related to her
research interests and taught in the Department of Anthropology, Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, the Environmental Science and Policy Program, and the
Honors College at USF. She is an affiliate faculty member of the Collaborative on
Aging, the Department of Women’s Studies, and the Environmental Science and Policy
Program at USF. Dr. Ward holds a B.A. from Vassar College, an M.P.A. from the
University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a Ph.D. in applied anthropology from the
University of South Florida.

Robin Ersing, Ph. D.

                               Robin Ersing - Social Work

Dr. Robin Ersing is a professor in the School of Social Work at the University of South
Florida. Social Work focuses on helping individuals, groups, and communities meet
basic needs in order to improve social functioning and promote well-being. Dr. Ersing’s
research interests include the areas of social capital, community capacity building, and
community resilience to natural disasters. Dr. Ersing is the 2008 recipient of the
American Red Cross “Good Neighbor of the Year” award, an honor bestowed for her
efforts through research, teaching and service, dedicated to disaster preparedness in the
Tampa Bay area. In addition, she is trained and certified as a Community Emergency
Response Team (CERT) member. Currently, Dr. Ersing serves as an invited member of
a special international disaster preparedness and response working group established by
the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and is in the process of editing a volume
on the role of social networks in surviving disasters. To date, her research has focused
primarily on the role of citizen responders in natural disasters, and assessing indicators of
disaster resilient communities.

REU Summer 2009 Projects:

1. Evaluating the impact and effectiveness of Community Emergency Response Teams
(CERT) in Tampa and Hillsborough County
       The CERT program is a federally funded initiative designed to prepare
neighborhood residents as grassroots responders in the event of a natural or technological
disaster. CERT programs have been established in hundreds of communities across the
country yet little evidence exists to support their effectiveness in responding to
community crises. This research will be conducted in partnership with Tampa
Fire/Rescue. A mixed methods design will be used to gather data through surveys,
content analysis, and existing databases. An online survey instrument will be designed
and administered to CERT programs nationally to assess characteristics of these citizen
responder groups. A second survey instrument will be administered to Emergency
Responders (e.g. fire/police departments) who work with CERT groups. A web-based
search will then be used to gather information nationally on the prevalence of CERT
groups. The primary objectives of the project are to examine the models used to
implement the CERT program, determine the degree to which program participants gain
knowledge and skills in disaster preparedness and response, and to assess outcomes
achieved as CERT volunteers build capacity within their neighborhoods.


2. Disaster Resistant Universities: An Exploratory Study (in collaboration with Dr.
        Jennifer Collins)
        This study will examine the characteristics and resources important to building a
disaster resistant environment within a university setting. Natural disasters pose a serious
public safety threat to individuals, animals and structures found on college campuses.
Since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a growing number of universities have invested
in plans designed to mitigate the impact of a natural hazard (e.g. tornadoes, hurricanes),
and speed the recovery process through the restoration of critical campus functions. This
research will involve the collection of secondary data from a sample of universities
located along the Gulf Coast, and semi-structured interviews with campus personnel
responsible for emergency management services. An important goal of this study will be
to determine levels of disaster resistance among institutions of higher education, and to
identify barriers to disaster preparedness and planning on college campuses.