MAUREEN HELEN FORDHAM - CURRICULUM VITAE – 2011
CURRENT POST
2008 Principal Lecturer/Enterprise Fellow, University of Northumbria, School of Applied Sciences, Divisions of Geography and Environmental Management. Ellison Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK
Telephone: 0191 227 3757
Fax: 0191 227 4715
Email:
Email personal:
Cell: 07711 433 029
QUALIFICATIONS
1992 PhD Middlesex University, School of Geography and Planning in collaboration with the National Rivers Authority Thames Region. Title of thesis: "Choice and constraint in flood hazard mitigation: the environmental attitudes of floodplain residents and engineers".
1990 Postgraduate Diploma in Research Methods in Social Science (Distinction) Middlesex Polytechnic.
1987 BSc (Science) Society and Technology, Middlesex Polytechnic (Upper Second Class)
CAREER DETAILS
2008- Principal Lecturer/Enterprise Fellow in Disaster Management, Northumbria University
2003-2008 Programme Leader MSc Disaster Management and Sustainable Development, University of Northumbria, Divisions of Geography and Environmental Management
2002-2008 (October onwards) Senior Lecturer in Disaster Management, University of Northumbria, Divisions of Geography and Environmental Management
2002 (February-September) Acting Head of Geography, Anglia Polytechnic University
1995-2002 Senior Lecturer in Geography, Anglia Polytechnic University.
1993-1995 Research Centre Manager, Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University.
1992-1993 Research Fellow, Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University.
1988-1992 Research Assistant, Flood Hazard Research Centre Middlesex University
1988 (April-August) Assistant Development Officer, London Borough of Harrow Housing Development) Department.
1987-1988 Tenant Liaison Officer, London Borough of Harrow Housing (Development) Department.
1986 (January-August) Conservation Assistant, London Wildlife Trust (degree placement).
MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES AND LEARNED SOCIETIES, AND SELECTED GENERAL ACADEMIC ACTIVITY
2009 Appointed one of the Lead Authors for the IPCC Special Report on "Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation" to be published 2011 (fully funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change).
Invitation to participate in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Scoping Meeting for a potential Special Report on "Extreme Events and Disasters: Managing the Risks" held in Oslo, Norway, from 23-26 March 2009
European Coordinator, EU Sixth Framework Programme, Integrated Project: MICRODIS - Integrated Health, Social and Economic Impacts of Extreme Events: Evidence, Methods and Tools
2008 Academic Partner for GROOTS International
Editorial Board member of Disasters Journal
2006 Winner of the 2006 Mary Fran Myers Award. Presented for advancing women’s careers in emergency management and the academy and for promoting gendered disaster research
2004- Member of the Company: River Restoration Centre
2002-2006 General Editor of the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (4 year term)
2002- Member Emergency Planning Society
2002-2005 External Examiner University of Birmingham, Special Technology Programme, School of Engineering
2001- Member of the Women and Geography Study Group of the Royal Geographical Society and, until 2006, designer and manager of the website
2001- Founder member (and Joint Editor with Ben Wisner) of RADIX – Radical Interpretations of Disaster www.radixonline.org
2001- Member of the International Geographical Union, Commission on Hazards and Risks (UGI Commission des Aléas et des Risques)
2001 Invited member of an international reconnaissance team (organized by the World Seismic Safety Initiative and Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative) to Gujarat, one month after the earthquake, with responsibility for coordinating the research on social issues.
1999- European Sociological Association, UK representative and Board Member ‘Disaster and Social Crisis Research Network’
1998- International Sociological Association, Member.
1998- International Sociological Association, Research Committee on Disasters, First Vice-President, elected for 4-year period (to 2002).
1998- European Sociological Association Member.
1997- Founder member and current web manager of the Gender and Disaster Network www.gdnonline.org
1995- Royal Geographical Society, Fellow.
1993- Institute of British Geographers, Member.
1992-1998 Member of the Technical Group, previously Member of the Board of Directors and Core Executive, of the River Restoration Project (now River Restoration Centre)
· Reviewer for UK Economic and Social Research Council; for UN research reports; various publishers and journals
· External PhD Examiner (University College London)
Invited and fully funded Conference, Seminar and Workshop attendance is frequent. A selection is listed below:
· Invited presenter: ActionAid "Women’s Leadership in Humanitarian Crises – DRR, preparedness, response and recovery" 13th of January 2011, London.
· Invited presenter: Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, Parma, Italy 10-12 March 2010.
· Invited presenter: “Children, Families and Disasters Workshop” Wellington, New Zealand, 31 July 2009.
· Invited presenter: “Gender and Disasters Workshop” and “The Role of NGOs in Disaster Risk Reduction”`, 3rd Australasian Hazards Management Workshop Series 2009.
· Invited member: IPCC Working Group II Scoping Meeting: Possible Special Report on “Extreme Events and Disasters: Managing the Risks”. Oslo, Norway 23-26 March 2009
· Invited Keynote Speaker: 2nd Australasian Hazards Conference: From warnings to effective response and recovery, Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand, 29-30 July 2008 “‘Women and children first’: intervention and change in disaster vulnerability.”
· Invited Keynote Speaker: 2nd Australasian Hazards Conference: From warnings to effective response and recovery, Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand, Workshop 9: “Gendering disasters. Reaching out for active involvement: the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN)” 31 July 2008
· Invited Keynote Speaker: International Disaster Management Symposium 2008 “Towards Sustainable Communities”, and Chair of the Expert meeting on Gender in Community Based Disaster Management, 18th of January, 2008, Yomiuri Kobe Hall, Kobe, Japan.
· Invited member of the 2nd Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (7-8 November 2007, New Delhi, India) also Joint Chair of the session: “Addressing the Issues of Women and Children in Disaster Risk Reduction”. This meeting was organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India assisted by other agencies
· Head of Delegation, Gender and Disaster Network, UNISDR Global Partnership for Disaster Reduction, Geneva, 5-7 June 2007
· Invited expert and UNISDR representative for the partnership for gendering disaster risk reduction, “Mainstreaming Gender in Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction” World Bank Institute Expert meeting, Istanbul, 29 May 2007
· Invited member: Expert Consultation on Standards and Norms for Assessing Human and Physical Losses in Mass Emergencies. Workshop on Improving Compilation of Reliable Data on Disaster Occurrence and Impact. Co-organized by EU-RELEX, UNDP and CRED, 19-20 March 2007, Brussels - Belgium
· Invited expert UNDP BCPR Gender Strategy Meeting, London School of Economics 12-15 September 2006
· Invited Keynote speaker on Gender Issues in Risk Management: ““Sometimes we women don’t know about our strength.” Disaster risk reduction through a gendered lens.” INTERNATIONAL DISASTER REDUCTION CONFERENCE, August 27th – September 1st, 2006, Davos, Switzerland.
· Invited Keynote speaker: 7thNEW ZEALAND NATURAL HAZARDS MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE 2006: GENDER AND DISASTERS WORKSHOP, Friday, 25 August 2006, Convention Centre, Christchurch Christchurch
· Invited presentation at the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Environmental Management, Wellington New Zealand, 22 August 2006
· Invited member: Workshop on Social Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis, organized by ProVention Consortium, Geneva 25-26 May 2004
· Advisory Board member: Second International Conference on Early Warning (ISDR, German Federal Foreign Office) Bonn, 15-19 October 2003
· Invited keynote presenter to Emergency Management Australia (EMA), Department of Human Services Victoria (DHS) and RMIT University Workshop 'Social Perspectives on Disaster' 30 June - 5 July 2002 at the Emergency Management Australia Institute at Mount Macedon, Victoria
· Invited member and Working Group Chair International Symposium on Disaster Reduction and Global Environmental Change. Organised by Federal Foreign Office, Berlin; German Committee for Disaster Reduction, Bonn German National Committee on Global Change Research, Bonn. Federal Foreign Office, Berlin 20-21 June 2002
· Invited keynote presenter Mitigation of Climate Induced Natural Hazards (MITCH) EU Concerted Action) Workshop II: Advances in Flood Forecasting, Flood Warning and Emergency Management: Translating Research Advances into Practical Benefits. 10-12 June 2002, Barcelona
· Invited expert: United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, Expert Group Meeting, Ankara, "Environmental management and the mitigation of natural disasters: a gender perspective" Ankara, Turkey, 6-9 November 2001
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY
Areas of interest and expertise include:
§ Sustainable hazard and disaster policy and management
§ Gender and disaster risk reduction
§ Children and disaster risk reduction
§ Vulnerability and capacity analysis
§ Community-based disaster risk reduction
§ (Flood) warning systems
§ Environmental perception, management and policy analysis
I am committed to interdisciplinary and applied research and have developed strong links with a number of international, UK and other agencies (e.g. UN (various), Environment Agency of England and Wales, DEFRA, Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Emergency Management Australia, New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management) and individual professionals (e.g. humanitarian agencies, emergency planners, social workers, engineers, NGOs, etc.). My research has often included interdisciplinary work linking human and physical geographers, sociologists, engineers, and others.
The main foci of my recent research activity are in the development of work on gender and disaster, children and disaster, vulnerability analysis, and linking development and disaster through community-based approaches in the context of sustainable livelihoods.
I have designed and manage a number of Internet sites as part of a commitment to disseminating research-based knowledge to wider audiences. I am the co-founder and co-editor (with Ben Wisner) of a disaster website, stimulated by the 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador and Gujarat: Radix – Radical Interpretations of Disaster (www.radixonline.org). I am a founder member (1997) and manager/coordinator of the Gender and Disaster Network (www.gdnonline.org ).
TRAINING
I have 20 years experience of delivering training on various aspects of disaster and environmental management.
2010
Coordinator of (5) expert gender training team for materials design and piloting: “Training Manual on Gender and DRR for UNDP BCPR”
2009
Lead Trainer and designer of materials, Mainstreaming Gender into DRR for UNDP Indonesia in Banda Aceh, December 2009
2008
Lead Trainer and designer of materials, “National Training on Mainstreaming Gender into Disaster Risk Reduction”. 21-26 December, 2008, Dhulikhel, Kavre, Nepal. Organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nepal in partnership with Disaster Preparedness Network Nepal; supported by European Commission through its Humanitarian Aid department (DG-ECHO)
Sole researcher, UNDP/BCPR “Developing UNDP BCPR’s capacity in disaster risk reduction training” January – March 2008
2007
Lead Consultant, Designer and Facilitator for UNDP Sri Lanka, Training of Trainers on Gender Mainstreaming in Disaster Risk Reduction, Colombo, 3-7 December 2007
2006
Trainings for Plan International (El Salvador, Bangkok and London). This involved delivering training for Plan staff and for other international development organization personnel on disaster risk reduction with an emphasis on child protection and gender equity
Training on water management issues for Chinese delegates from Ministry of Water, visiting University of Northumbria
2000
One of a team of trainers convened by Middlesex University Flood Hazard Research Centre for a training course for new Environment Agency flood defence staff. Contributed material on consultation and participation.
1989-1995
Regular presenter of training for Ministry personnel and Environment Agency staff at annual Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food sponsored course at Middlesex University Flood Hazard Research Centre.
RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY PROJECTS AND MANAGEMENT
2010
Principal Investigator, UNDP BCPR Mainstreaming Gender into Disaster Risk Reduction, Training Materials Design and Delivery. Leading team of international gender and disaster risk reduction experts across the 5 UN Regions (Africa, Arab States, Asia & Pacific, Europe/CIS, Latin America & Caribbean).
2009
Principal Investigator, evaluation for Practical Action: “Evaluation of Mainstreaming Livelihood Centred Approaches to DRR Project Implemented by Practical Action” (with Andrew Collins)
Guest Editor, Special Issue UNCRD Regional Development Dialogue “Gendering Disaster Risk Reduction: Global and Regional Contexts” forthcoming
Principal Editor, publication for GROOTS International and UNDP, selected GROOTS case studies (with Supriya Akerkar and Manuela Scharf)
2008
Partnership contract with the Environment Agency to contribute to the Microdis project (see below)
Sole researcher, Plan UK “Plan UK’s DRR Programme: Elaborating a process for testing or validating the Characteristics of Resilience, as a tool for Monitoring & Evaluation” January – April 2008
2007
2007-2011: EU Sixth Framework Programme, Integrated Project: MICRODIS - Integrated Health, Social and Economic Impacts of Extreme Events: Evidence, Methods and Tools. This is a 4-year project involving 19 partners across Europe and Asia. Maureen Fordham is Coordinator of the Social Impacts research theme and European Coordinator
2007-2008: Grant awarded to Maureen Fordham for the further development of the Gender and Disaster Network (www.gdnonline.org) from the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development
2006
Member of three-person consultancy team (led by H R Wallingford) “Review of Methods of Assessing Flood Warning” (Phase 1) for the Scottish and Northern Ireland Forum For Environmental Research (SNIFFER)
Lead Consultant for one chapter in the 2006 World Disasters Report International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
2004-5
Lead Consultant for Plan International: “Developing Plan’s capacity to assist communities to prepare for and respond to disasters” (2004-2005)
External reviewer for UNEP research project
2002
Sub-contractor to Middlesex University Flood Hazard Research Centre: DEFRA/Environment Agency: updating the Yellow, Blue and Red Manuals for appraising coastal defence and flood alleviation works
2001-2002
Sub-contractor to Middlesex University Flood Hazard Research Centre: DEFRA/Environment Agency “The Appraisal of Human-Related Intangible Impacts of Flooding”
2001-2002
APU Fellowship in Learning and Teaching
2001
One of a team of three in APU Geography on a jointly funded (from landfill tax, Cambridgeshire County Council, Waste Recycling Environmental (WREN) and Anglia Environmental Ltd) project on “Understanding Public Attitudes To Waste-Related Issues In Cambridgeshire: Exploring The Prospects For Sustainable Strategies”.
2000
Various small consultancy projects for the Environment Agency (e.g. contributing to a training course for new flood defence staff; invited member of a joint EA/MAFF workshop on ‘The Intangible Benefits of Flood Defence’).
1999-2000
APU Teaching Fellowship for the development of web-based teaching materials.