FIU experts are available to discuss the 2023 hurricane season

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.

Office: 305-348-0243
Email:  hugh.willoughby@fiu.edu

Haiyan Jiang

Professor
Department of Earth and 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 NSF, NOAA and NASA.

View more information on Dr. Jiang's research

Office: 305-348-2984
Email:  haiyan.jiang@fiu.edu

Ping Zhu

Professor
Department of Earth and Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education

Zhu is a meteorologist whose research interests are in hurricanes, atmospheric convection, boundary layer, and numerical modeling. Using innovative numerical and observational methods, he characterizes the turbulence structure and quantifies turbulent transport in the hurricane boundary layer critical to the storm evolution. His research funded by NSF and NOAA addresses key issues on the representation of sub-grid-scale physical processes in numerical models and the improvement of forecasting skill by NOAA's operational models used for predicting hurricanes.

Office: 305-348-7096
Email:zhup@fiu.edu

Erik Salna

Associate Director for Education and Outreach
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 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 testified before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on the importance of storm preparedness, the forecasting workforce and fostering a Weather-Ready Nation (WRN).

Office: 305-348-1146
Email:  Erik.Salna@fiu.edu 

Maria Ilcheva

Associate Director
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: 954-438-8652
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

Joseph Fernandez

Senior Director
Division of Operations and Safety
Academy for International Disaster Preparedness

Fernandez’s career has focused on the discipline of emergency management and homeland security. Over his 35-year career, Fernandez has held numerous positions in local/regional government, public safety/emergency services and public administration. Fernandez recently retired as the Fire Chief for Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BSOFR) after 10 years of service which included serving as Deputy Fire Chief for 6 of those years. For more than 10 years he served as the City of Miami’s Emergency Manager and Chief of the Division of Emergency Management (DEM), which exposed him to all facets of the fire and emergency medical service delivery and training. He also served as Task Force Leader for FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) on two of the most significant natural disasters in modern history - Gulfport Mississippi and New Orleans Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath of the Earthquake in Port Au Prince, Haiti.
Cell: (305) 333-7818
Email:  jrfernan@fiu.edu

Amal Elawady

Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering and Computing

Elawady is a Fellow of FIU’s Extreme Event Institute and a co-PI of the NHERI Wall of Wind Experimental Facility (WOW) at FIU. Elawady’s expertise is in the area of wind effects on built environment. Her studies involve large-scale wind tunnel testing, wind effects analysis to examine structural response, and design of structures against extreme wind events including hurricanes and non-synoptic downburst winds. Elawady is the recipient of the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. She also received FIU College of Engineering Research award for excellence in research and creative activities.
Office: 305-348-0256
Email:aelawady@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
Interim Dean, College of Business
Knight Ridder Eminent Scholar, Tibor and Sheila Hollo Fellow
Eminent Scholar, Tibor and Sheila Hollo School of Real Estate

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

Dr. Aileen M. Marty

Distinguished University Professor
School of Integrated Science and Humanities, College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Department of Translational Medicine, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

Dr. Marty is a Miami-Dade County Medical Reserve Corps member and works with the county government on hurricane strategy and outbreak response. Marty has extensive experience in infectious disease, public health, outbreak response, & mass gatherings. She also works with the World Health Organization at the Health-Security Interphase and has responded to disease outbreaks worldwide. 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 is a member of the FIU Emergency Operations Committee. She has played a key role in the local COVID-19 response serving as clinical director for the FIU vaccination site and chair of 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. In addition, her vast experience in health care management can help address issues involving hurricane response in facilities including hospitals, nursing homes, and community shelters.
Roldan is available for interviews in English and Spanish.

Deanne Butchey

Teaching Professor
Department of Finance

Before joining FIU, Butchey worked as an Investment Banker and Financial Services Stock Research Analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in their Toronto offices. Prior to this, she was a stockbroker at Scotia McLeod and Merrill Lynch in Toronto. Butchey performs research in Environmental, Social, and Governance Investing and Analysis including CEO compensation and Sustainability issues.

Office: (305) 348-7238
Email:  butcheyd@fiu.edu

Mark del Pezzo

Associate Teaching Professor
Department of Finance
College of Business

Pezzo is a CFA and former investment banker and portfolio manager for numerous depository institutions and trust departments. The courses he teaches include advanced investments and financial management. He has worked as a portfolio manager at both Raymond James and Deutsch Bank.
Office: 305-348-8459
Email: mdelpezz@fiu.edu

Aileen Izquierdo

Associate Teaching Professor
Director, School of Communication
Program Director, Global Strategic Communications master’s degree program
College of Communication, Architecture & the Arts

Izquierdo is a communications professional with more than 25 years of strategic communications, branding and crisis communications experience in private and public sector organizations. She has held several executive and management positions throughout her career, including serving as vice president for communications and marketing at multiple institutions. Izquierdo is the Director of the School of Communication at Florida International University and is part of the faculty. She also oversees the Global Strategic Communications master’s degree program at FIU. Izquierdo is available for interviews in English and Spanish.

Email:aiizquie@fiu.edu