About the Guest:

Sonny S. Patel, MPH, MPhil, is an award-winning researcher and a former National Institutes of Health Fogarty Global Health Scholar. He is a Presidential Fellow in Transcultural Conflict Violence Initiative at Georgia State University and a Visiting Scientist at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

He has received his Bachelors from University of California, Berkeley, his Masters from University of Southern California (Public Health and Global Health Leadership) and King’s College London (Psychological Medicine). He has developed protocols, programs, and training to build capacity and knowledge in communities worldwide from subject matters in Public Health, Community Health, and Mental Health to specialized topics in Emergency Management, Community Resilience, and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Patel was recently bestowed in 2021 with the Emerald Publishing Literati Award for Outstanding Research Paper by the Journal of Disaster Prevention and Management. He was named by USAID in India as one of the top DevDisruptors in Mental Health (2020) and by NATO peers in Ukraine as a rising star in Environmental Health and Security in Conflict Zones (2018). Sonny serves as a Public Health and Global Health Executive on advisory committees and board of directors of organizations creating positive social and community impacts, such as The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Community Resilience When Disaster Strikes: Security and Community Health in UK Flood Zones” published by Springer Nature.

About this course:

If you are interested in emergencies, disasters, conflicts --or seeking a foundation to build community resilience or disaster risk reduction -- this course is for you! Sonny S. Patel, a fellow with the Transcultural Conflict Violence Initiative and a visiting scientist of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, discusses both direct and indirect effects of emergencies and post-disaster scenarios that heightens already existent inequities in communities.

He mentions multiple types of preventable disasters. Patel details the challenges that confront emergency management and disaster preparedness teams and leaders. He further delineates how to create inter-sectoral collaboration and community engagement utilizing past experiences to influence the present and impact the future -- all whilst maintaining an equity focus. Sonny further explores the contours of the barriers as well as facilitators of health equity whilst describing its three dimensions.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding how to build community resilience
• Discussing disaster risk reduction techniques and preventable disasters
• Exploring how health inequities are heightened by post-disaster scenarios and emergencies
• Designing inter-sectoral collaborations and community engagement for disaster preparation and response

Public Health and Social Justice Skills Covered:

• Emergency Preparedness