FIU experts are available for the 2021 hurricane season

We are now on the second half of the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane season, with 12 named storms and two major hurricanes so far. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) originally predicted an above-average season, estimating 13 to 20 named storms with possibly half of those being hurricanes. 

FIU experts are available to discuss various issues surrounding hurricanes and their aftermath.

For help contacting any of our hurricane experts, please call the Office of Media Relations:

• Maydel Santana, associate vice president: 305-348 -1555, santanam@fiu.edu
• Madeline Baro, director of media relations: 305-348-2234, mbaro@fiu.edu
• Dianne Fernandez, broadcast media manager: 305-698 4870, dfernad37@fiu.edu
• JoAnn Adkins, director of marketing & PR, College of Arts, Sciences & Education: 305-348-0398, jadkins@fiu.edu
• Ileana Varela, associate director of marketing and PR for the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine: 305-348-4926, ilvarela@fiu.edu
• Cynthia Corzo, assistant director of media relations & communications for the College of Business: 305-348-1664, ccorzo@fiu.edu
• Stephanie Rendon, senior account manager for Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, (305) 348-4670, srendon@fiu.edu
• Elizabeth Calzadilla, director of marketing and communications for the College of Engineering & Computing: 305-348-7511, ecalzadi@fiu.edu

The list below will be continuously updated.

Meteorology and Hurricane Intensification

Hugh E. Willoughby
Distinguished Research Professor
Department of Earth and Environment
Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Willoughby studies tropical cyclone structure, intensity, and impacts. He has flown more than 400 missions into the eyes of hurricanes and typhoons as a meteorologist for the federal government.  Willoughby was a research meteorologist at the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, where he worked since 1975 and served as director from 1995 until 2002. Willoughby also serves on the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology and has extensive knowledge of hurricane impacts and insurance.
A video on Willoughby can be viewed here.
Office: 305-348-0243
Email: hugh.willoughby@fiu.edu

Haiyan Jiang
Associate Professor of Meteorology
Department of Earth and Environment
Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Jiang is a meteorologist with research interests in hurricane intensity, intensity change and structures of inner-core convection and precipitation. Jiang’s expertise is in satellite remote sensing techniques that can detect various characteristics of weather systems. She successfully applied these technologies to study hurricane rainfall, convection, winds, and warm-core structures. A coherent theme of her research is to advance our understanding of hurricane intensity and intensity change. She developed long-term satellite-based tropical cyclone databases and used these tools to study the climatology of hurricanes and to develop algorithms for estimating current intensity and predicting rapid intensification of tropical cyclones. Her research on hurricane intensity estimation, rapid intensification prediction, and climatology of hurricane inner-core structures has been funded by federal agencies including NOAA and NASA.
More information on her research can be found here.  
Office: 305-348-2984
Email: haiyan.jiang@fiu.edu

Social and Political Impact

Richard S. Olson
Professor and Director
Extreme Events Institute 
Olson researches the political fallout from natural disasters and has been involved in more than 20 field responses and post-disaster investigations. He has served on the Climate Change and Social Stress panel of the National Academy of Science and has written extensively about urban vulnerability to disasters and the political ramifications of how governments respond. Olson is also featured in the independent documentary titled “Built to Last? Saving our Homes in the Age of Disasters.” The documentary communicates what ordinary people around the world can do to make their homes safe and hazard-resilient.
Click here to learn more about the documentary.
Olson is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Email: Richard.Olson@fiu.edu

Eduardo Gamarra
Political Science Professor
Department of Politics & International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Gamarra has done research on the regional dynamics of Latin America and the Caribbean, including Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He is well versed on political, social and infrastructure issues in Haiti. He is the author of more than half a dozen books and more than forty academic articles on Latin America. 
Gamarra available for English and Spanish interviews.
Cell: 786-253-4898
Email: Eduardo.Gamarra@fiu.edu

Maria Ilcheva
Senior Research Associate
Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Ilcheva is investigating how prepared Floridians are to face hurricanes and how they use information toward their preparations. Ilcheva is examining the measures residents, businesses and public officials are taking to mitigate the effect of hurricanes and what barriers exist to implement optimal preparedness. Ilcheva’s hurricane research focuses on the real and perceptual changes in homeowners insurance. Ilcheva specializes in the administration of surveys, polls and interviews, data analysis and reporting.
Cell: 305-779-7872
Email: milcheva@fiu.edu

Pallab Mozumder
Professor
Department of Earth and Environment & Department of Economics
Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Mozumder is an environmental economist with expertise in socio-economic aspects of natural hazards. His research on hurricane risk mitigation and evacuation behavior has been funded by federal and state agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Department of Community Affairs and Florida Sea Grant.
Office: 305-348-7146
Email: mozumder@fiu.edu

Erik Salna
Associate Director
Extreme Events Institute (EEI) & International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC)
Salna works with the Wall of Wind research team and coordinates education and outreach activities. He has experience as a broadcast meteorologist and within both non-profit and for-profit environments in meteorology, mitigation, preparedness, education, media and EOC activations.  Before EEI & IHRC, he worked at America’s Emergency Network, which focused on live video streaming technology. He also served as project coordinator for the non-profit Hurricane Warning at the Disaster Survival House, located in Deerfield Beach.  He also recently served as hazard mitigation manager for the City of Deerfield Beach, was on the city’s crisis activation team and participated in all activations of the emergency operations center.
Salna recently wrote about preparing for severe weather hazards in The Conversation.
Office: 305-348-1146
Email: Erik.Salna@fiu.edu

Arindam Gan Chowdhury
Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering and Computing
Chowdhury is a professor and director of the NSF NHERI Wall of Wind (WOW) Experimental Facility (EF) managed by the Extreme Events Institute (EEI). Under Chowdhury’s direction, the WOW research team has had a significant impact on mitigating hurricane damage by enhancing building codes and patenting innovative mitigation technologies. Chowdhury is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award and a Research to Applicant Award from the Florida Sea Grant Program. FIU honored Chowdhury by naming him a Top Scholar. He's also received the FIU Service and Recognition Award and the President’s Council Worlds Ahead Faculty Award.
Office: 305-348-0518
E-mail: chowdhur@fiu.edu

Shu-Ching Chen
Professor
Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences
College of Engineering and Computing
Chen’s team has developed the Storm Surge Simulator that simulates the storm-surge flooding along key South Florida coastal areas. As the head of FIU’s Distributed Multimedia Information Systems Laboratory, Chen uses topographical data from LIDAR, wind speed and direction, tides and other factors to create 3D visualizations of a surge. In addition, a 3D Hurricane Storm Surge Animation project has been created to visually simulate the impacts of storm surge in the coastal area. This helps the viewers to better understand the dangers of storms by allowing them to visually experience the potential storm surge effects. Another project that has been successfully developed by Chen’s team is the FIU’s Disaster Response Tracker (DRT) tool. This web and mobile friendly tool has been adopted by Miami-Dade County Emergency Management’s Business Recovery Program (ESF-18).
Office: 305-348-3480
Email: Shu.Chen@fiu.edu

Aris Papadopoulos
Distinguished Expert in Resilience
Extreme Events Institute
Aris has more than 35 years experience in the construction and energy industries and is founder of the Resilience Action Fund, a non-profit advancing greater awareness, transparency and education for resilience in the built environment. He is author of Resilience–The Ultimate Sustainability: Lessons from Failing to Develop a Stronger and Safer Built Environment, which inspired the one-hour documentary, Built to Last? Saving Our Homes in the Age of Disasters, now showing on PBS. Aris serves on the board of the UN Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE.)
Office: 305-348-1607
Email:apapadop@fiu.edu

Pete Gomez
Senior Director
Academy for International Disaster Preparedness
Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work
Gomez is a member of the executive board for the State of Florida’s Domestic Oversight Council, co-chair of the Special Response Teams Coordinating Group, and belongs to the Regional Domestic Security Task Force. Gomez was a founding member of the City of Miami’s Sea Level Rise Committee. With over 35 years of experience in just about every aspect of the Fire Service, Gomez brings a well-rounded perspective and wealth of experience to emergency management. Gomez led the City of Miami’s response to Hurricanes Irma and Dorian as well as the recovery from both disasters. He served as a liaison in the State EOC in support of the State’s efforts for Hurricane Michael.
Phone: (786) 367-7746
Email: pegomez@fiu.edu

Environmental and Ecological Storm Impacts

Jayantha Obeysekera
Research Professor, Director of Sea Level Solutions
Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Obeysekera can talk about hurricanes as they relate to sea level rise, climate change, flooding and water management. He previously served as chief modeler at the South Florida Water Management District, where he had a leading role in modeling of the Everglades and Kissimmee River and Everglades restoration projects. He was co-author of the sea level rise projections report published by NOAA for the National Climate Assessment. He also co-authored a report on regional sea level projections for Department of Defense facilities across the globe. He has extensive media experience, including print and broadcast.
To schedule an interview, contact JoAnn Adkins: 305-348-0398, jadkins@fiu.edu.

Henry Briceño
Research Professor
Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Briceño can talk about hurricane impacts regarding waters in coastal and estuarine areas. For over 15 years, Briceño has been leading water quality monitoring efforts at FIU. He focuses on how our changing climate is impacting our waterways and the impacts that people and nature have on our ecological systems. Briceño leads the institute’s Water Quality Monitoring Network. He is fluent in Spanish.
Office: 305-348-1269
Email: bricenoh@fiu.edu

Stephen Leatherman
Professor
Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Leatherman can comment on this year’s season and the last few years being marked by a huge influx of Sargassum seaweed and another invasion is expected this summer. Known as "Dr. Beach" for his annual rankings of U.S. beaches, Leatherman’s major research focuses on storm impacts, including beach erosion and rip currents. He has given expert testimony to U.S. Congressional committees more than a dozen times on issues such as coastal storm impacts and federal disaster response. He was the review coordinator for the National Academy of Sciences & Engineering for the federal study of the breaching of the New Orleans levees and flooding by Hurricane Katrina. Leatherman recently worked and researched the impacted areas by Hurricane Ida.
Phone: 305-238-5888.
Email: leatherm@fiu.edu

Shimon Wdowinski
Professor
FIU Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Wdowinski is an expert in space geodesy, natural hazards and sea level rise. His research has focused on the development and usage of space geodetic techniques that can detect very precisely small movements of the Earth's surface. Wdowinski has successfully applied these techniques to study tectonic plate motion, earthquakes, land subsidence, sinkhole activities, wetland hydrology, climate change, and sea level rise. He is currently spearheading research supported by NASA examining whether powerful hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones can trigger earthquakes.  
Office: 305-348-6826
Email: swdowins@fiu.edu

Randall Parkinson
Research Associate Professor
FIU Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Parkinson spent the past 35 years researching the effects of climate change and urbanization on the resiliency of the human, built and natural environments of the Northern Gulf of Mexico, Peninsular Florida, and the Georgia Bight. He has focused on ensuring the results of his research are conveyed in a way that can be understood and applied by the broadest array of stakeholder and practitioners who are responsible for the management of our coastal resources. Parkinson has conducted numerous vulnerability assessments to quantify the effects of climate change, including rising temperature, changes in precipitation, increasing storminess, acidification, and sea-level rise, on the coastal zone and has developed adaptation action plans designed specifically to reduce climate-related risks to the human, built and natural environment. 
Phone: 321-373-0976
Email: rparkins@fiu.edu

Insurance and Finance

Shahid Hamid
Chair & Professor
Department of Finance
College of Business
Hamid works primarily on the financial and insurance consequences of hurricanes. He heads the development and operation of the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model that forecasts the insurance losses caused by hurricanes. As the director of the FIU International Hurricane Research Center’s Laboratory for Insurance, Financial and Economic Research, Hamid leads a multi-disciplinary team of more than 15 professors and experts, and a dozen graduate students, who work on the model.
Cell: 305-807-0451
Office: 305-348-2727
Email: Shahid.Hamid@fiu.edu

Eli Beracha
Director
Tibor and Sheila Hollo School of Real Estate Faculty
College of Business
Beracha conducts empirical research in the areas of real estate and finance. Among the courses he teaches are: Real Estate Invest, Real Estate Market Analysis, and Real Estate Markets, Institutions and Practices. He has years of practical experience in real estate investments and has served as a consultant for real estate development projects.  He’s also managing editor of the Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education and is an elected member of the board of directors of the American Real Estate Society.
Cell: 785-841-4470
Email: eberacha@fiu.edu

William Hardin
Associate Dean, Chapman Graduate School of Business
Director, Jerome Bain Real Estate Institute
Interim Dean, College of Business
Hardin is a recognized expert on commercial real estate markets, financial markets and securitized real estate. A member of the board of directors of the American Real Estate Society, he has authored or co-authored some 40 papers on varied topics in commercial real estate investment, including REIT governance and financial structure. Hardin is co-editor of Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education and is an elected member of the board of directors of the American Real Estate Society.
Cell: 954-298-8675 
Email: hardinw@fiu.edu

Health

Dr. Aileen M. Marty
Professor, Department of Translational Medicine
Director, FIU Health Travel Medicine Program and Vaccine Clinic
Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Dr. Marty currently serves on a working group for Miami-Dade County on hurricane strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Marty served as a Naval officer for 25 years and has more than 40 years of clinical and research work in the fields of infectious disease, public health, outbreak response, & mass gatherings. She also works with the World Health Organization and has responded to disease outbreaks around the world. Marty is co-editor-in-chief of One Health, the official journal of the International Federation for Tropical Medicine.
Marty is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-0377
Email: amarty@fiu.edu

Dr. Eneida O. Roldan
Professor
Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Chief Executive Officer, FIU HealthCare Network
Dr. Roldan has played at key role in the local COVID-19 response. She is the clinical director for the FIU COVID-19 vaccination site and chairs the University Health Care Task Force. She also helped launch and served as clinical director and operations chief of the Miami-Dade County COVID-19 testing site adjacent to FIU (from April 8, 2020 to May 22, 2021).
Roldanis available for interviews in English and Spanish.
To schedule an interview contact Ileana Varela: 305-348-4926, ilvarela@fiu.edu

Dr. Cheryl Holder 
Interim Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Community Initiative
Associate Professor, Department of Humanities, Health, and Society
Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Dr. Holder is a board-certified internist and HIV specialist who has dedicated her medical career to serving underserved populations. As president of the Florida State Medical Association she has spearheaded efforts to address the risk of COVID-19 among African-Americans. She also co-chairs Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, where she works to increase climate literacy and enhance awareness of the impact of climate change on vulnerable populations. Holder can speak to the socioeconomic impact of storms on vulnerable populations.
Phone: 305-348-0698
Email: clholder@fiu.edu

Mark J. Macgowan
Associate Dean
Academic Affairs and Professor of Social Work
Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work
Macgowan’s teaching, research, and clinical experience are in disaster mental health. He is a licensed psychotherapist and an EMDR therapist, an efficacious trauma-based therapy. He has served as a Disaster Mental Health Worker with the American Red Cross and currently serves as an intermittent behavioral health specialist on a federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT). Macgowan teaches FIU’s only graduate course dedicated to disaster behavioral health. In addition, he teaches live and remote-delivered workshops on Psychosocial First Aid. Macgowan can discuss mental health-related to natural disasters, whether it is disaster responders or survivors (adults). He can also share tips for preparing for and dealing with the psychosocial aftermath of a hurricane.
Office: 305-348-0427
Email:Macgowan@fiu.edu

Juan Pablo Sarmiento
Research Professor
Associate Director for Research
Extreme Events Institute
Sarmiento’s professional and research experience spans 33 years and includes working in Colombia for the Civil Defense, Central Military Hospital, Ministry of Health, Colombian Red Cross, and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Additionally, he worked as a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); he was member of United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams, and, for ten years worked as the technical manager of the regional risk management program that the International Resources Group (IRG) implemented in Latin American and the Caribbean for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA).
Office: 305-348-0346
Email: jsarmien@fiu.edu