Division Awards

The inaugural Distinguished Service Award was given to its namesake, Jennifer Ellison. Jennifer is a planner at the Polk County, IA Public Works Department. Jennie was our first secretary-treasurer. In this role, she was instrumental to standing the Division up and developing processes and procedures that set us up for long-term success. 

Rich Roths is a leading player in our professional development committee. When we lost our podcast host, Rich stepped up to lead the effort. Rich is also heading up an effort to develop a program of outreach from the division to university planning schools. In his semi-retirement, he has carved out a meaningful role that has made the rest of us proud. He is a model of productive volunteerism in retirement.

Allison Hardin is a founding member - and leader - of the Division. She was among our first Executive Committee Members, leading us in our formative years as our Chair. Allison also advocated for our involvement in the NOAA Digital Coast Project, which won a Divisions Council Award.

Kelly has been a member of the Professional Development Committee and a committed volunteer for years. Through job and role changes, she's steadfastly made time to help support all HMDR members in her spare time. Kelly is the Division's webinar coordinator, a role she originated and has helped institutionalize over the past few years. Kelly challenges us to provide high-quality, diverse educational opportunities to bring our members. She's helped us be thoughtful about what content we showcase and helped us document our processes so that anyone can lead a webinar.

This first-of-its-kind preparedness plan sets a bold state-level vision for preparing for extreme heat. The plan recognizes the complexity of extreme heat hazards up front, tying together increases in temperatures with affordable, safe housing and the built environment’s impact on heat events. The effort also consolidated data on heat to support decision making. Supported by collaborations from Arizona State University, the plan not only has specific recommendations to mitigate, respond, and recover from extreme heat, but also conducted a nearly year-long stakeholder collaboration effort around a topic that does not have formal planning or policy frameworks. The Plan has already been used at the federal level as an example for how best to address extreme heat.

Jim is truly one of the founders of the field, pushing planners to get involved and understand their role in the disaster space for his entire career. Jim has steadily bent the focus of the profession towards hazard mitigation and disaster recovery, helping realize the critical function of planners in addressing threats to their communities from hazards and climate change. Jim quite literally wrote the book(s) on the field, including 1992’s planning for Post Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction (updated and refreshed in 2014!) and Hazard Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into Planning (2017). Jim’s commitment to teaching the next generation is evident, with 16 years of teaching on hazard mitigation and disaster recovery at the University of Iowa. And, beyond that, Jim’s service to this division is significant. He’s dedicated much of his retirement to helping us, whether as a board member or as the producer on our video project, Planning to Turn the Tide.