![\"Gavin](\"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Gavin-Smith-Joins-NC-State.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe College of Design is pleased to announce that Gavin Smith, PhD, AICP<\/a> has joined the Department of Landscape Architecture faculty. Smith is an internationally recognized leader in planning for coastal resilience as well as hazard mitigation (risk reduction), disaster recovery and adapting to climate change. He will complement NC State faculty already working in these areas by creating connections within the university and outward at the state, national, and international level.<\/p>\n Smith will work with faculty across campus to initiate a cluster in coastal resilience and sustainability aimed at teaching, research and engagement to include developing resilience-focused curricula, preparing interdisciplinary research grants, and establishing applied outreach projects involving students, faculty and practitioners. The connections that Smith fosters between faculty, students, and engagement organizations will create an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to some of the biggest environmental issues of today.\u00a0 Additionally, Smith will develop a graduate certificate in natural hazards resilience that will prepare students for careers in this rapidly expanding field and expose them to global experts who are playing key roles in assisting nations, states, and communities become more resilient.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the first things I plan to do is learn more about what is happening here, and then find out what people\u2019s areas of expertise are\u2026 their passions and things they would like to do. I would like to think I\u2019m going to be a facilitator, a catalyst, and look to bring in money to help support their work,\u201d says Smith. Smith\u2019s ability to connect people stems largely from his extensive network. Throughout his career, Smith has worked directly with researchers, practitioners, governments, and agencies at the interface of hazard mitigation, disaster recovery and climate change adaptation including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Academies of Sciences.\u00a0 In addition to US partners, Smith has worked with government officials and academic colleagues in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Philippines, and South Korea, serving as a policy advisor on issues surrounding past disasters, risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the first things I plan to do is learn more about what is happening here, and then find out what people\u2019s areas of expertise are\u2026 their passions and things they would like to do. I would like to think I\u2019m going to be a facilitator, a catalyst, and look to bring in money to help support their work\u201d \u2014Gavin Smith<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Smith is thinking big\u2014\u201cthe idea of focusing on the coast is certainly a worthy topic and one that is critically important to North Carolina given the series of major storms that have devastated our barrier island communities and the larger coastal plain. That\u2019s a lot, but\u2026 I\u2019m thinking more broadly, and also thinking about not only North Carolina, not only the Southeast, not only the U.S., but also internationally.\u201d He has begun to address the big issues of climate change adaptation with the applied work and evidence-based policy that NC State stands for as a land-grant institution and by employing the three traditional elements of the university\u2014teaching, research, and engagement. All the while, Smith plans on \u201cgetting students deeply involved.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the era of climate change, the issues associated with natural hazards risk management, disaster recovery, and community engagement, are going to become more pressing and more challenging because, in many ways, we\u2019ve designed our communities to reflect a climate of the past,\u201d says Smith. The United States\u2019 approach to climate change has been \u201creally ad hoc,\u201d Smith says. \u201cWhile we do not have a clear national policy, communities around the country are recognizing [climate change] is happening, and they have begun to take action\u201d he says.\u00a0 One of many challenges involves fostering a greater role for the larger design community to play in this inherently interdisciplinary challenge.<\/p>\n Without a doubt, now is the time to be studying these issues in depth and breadth, and using these lessons to affect meaningful policy and design changes.\u00a0 Smith is doing just that. Together with colleagues at UNC-Chapel Hill, Smith has been creating an \u201cInternational Learning Lab,\u201d which currently consists of three \u201cnodes,\u201d\u2014the United States, Australia, and Vietnam. The aim of the lab is to study climate change adaptation issues and see how the lessons from one country may be applied to another. This lab is in its infancy, and Smith is looking to add more nodes, expand the conversation, and create lasting relationships.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much work to be done in this space,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI really think it\u2019s the pressing issue of the 21st century, and I think NC State is uniquely positioned to play a leadership role in it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Staci Kleinmaier is a professional writer and photographer in Apex, North Carolina. She uses words and images to tell stories. To see her work, visit www.stacikleinmaier.com.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":" Gavin Smith is an internationally recognized leader in planning for coastal resilience and hazard mitigation (risk reduction), disaster recovery and adapting to climate change and has joined NC State where he will complement and facilitate collaborations among faculty who are working in these areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-15973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newswire","category-research-innovation","tag-landscape-architecture"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGlobal Expert in Natural Hazards, Disasters and Climate Change Adaptation Joins NC State College of Design<\/h2>\n
<\/a>\n\nThe College of Design is pleased to announce that Gavin Smith, PhD, AICP<\/a> has joined the Department of Landscape Architecture faculty. Smith is an internationally recognized leader in planning for coastal resilience as well as hazard mitigation (risk reduction), disaster recovery and adapting to climate change. He will complement NC State faculty already working in these areas by creating connections within the university and outward at the state, national, and international level.\n\nSmith will work with faculty across campus to initiate a cluster in coastal resilience and sustainability aimed at teaching, research and engagement to include developing resilience-focused curricula, preparing interdisciplinary research grants, and establishing applied outreach projects involving students, faculty and practitioners. The connections that Smith fosters between faculty, students, and engagement organizations will create an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to some of the biggest environmental issues of today.\u00a0 Additionally, Smith will develop a graduate certificate in natural hazards resilience that will prepare students for careers in this rapidly expanding field and expose them to global experts who are playing key roles in assisting nations, states, and communities become more resilient.\n\n\u201cOne of the first things I plan to do is learn more about what is happening here, and then find out what people\u2019s areas of expertise are\u2026 their passions and things they would like to do. I would like to think I\u2019m going to be a facilitator, a catalyst, and look to bring in money to help support their work,\u201d says Smith. Smith\u2019s ability to connect people stems largely from his extensive network. Throughout his career, Smith has worked directly with researchers, practitioners, governments, and agencies at the interface of hazard mitigation, disaster recovery and climate change adaptation including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Academies of Sciences.\u00a0 In addition to US partners, Smith has worked with government officials and academic colleagues in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Philippines, and South Korea, serving as a policy advisor on issues surrounding past disasters, risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.\n\u201cOne of the first things I plan to do is learn more about what is happening here, and then find out what people\u2019s areas of expertise are\u2026 their passions and things they would like to do. I would like to think I\u2019m going to be a facilitator, a catalyst, and look to bring in money to help support their work\u201d \u2014Gavin Smith<\/blockquote>\nSmith is thinking big\u2014\u201cthe idea of focusing on the coast is certainly a worthy topic and one that is critically important to North Carolina given the series of major storms that have devastated our barrier island communities and the larger coastal plain. That\u2019s a lot, but\u2026 I\u2019m thinking more broadly, and also thinking about not only North Carolina, not only the Southeast, not only the U.S., but also internationally.\u201d He has begun to address the big issues of climate change adaptation with the applied work and evidence-based policy that NC State stands for as a land-grant institution and by employing the three traditional elements of the university\u2014teaching, research, and engagement. All the while, Smith plans on \u201cgetting students deeply involved.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn the era of climate change, the issues associated with natural hazards risk management, disaster recovery, and community engagement, are going to become more pressing and more challenging because, in many ways, we\u2019ve designed our communities to reflect a climate of the past,\u201d says Smith. The United States\u2019 approach to climate change has been \u201creally ad hoc,\u201d Smith says. \u201cWhile we do not have a clear national policy, communities around the country are recognizing [climate change] is happening, and they have begun to take action\u201d he says.\u00a0 One of many challenges involves fostering a greater role for the larger design community to play in this inherently interdisciplinary challenge.\n\nWithout a doubt, now is the time to be studying these issues in depth and breadth, and using these lessons to affect meaningful policy and design changes.\u00a0 Smith is doing just that. Together with colleagues at UNC-Chapel Hill, Smith has been creating an \u201cInternational Learning Lab,\u201d which currently consists of three \u201cnodes,\u201d\u2014the United States, Australia, and Vietnam. The aim of the lab is to study climate change adaptation issues and see how the lessons from one country may be applied to another. This lab is in its infancy, and Smith is looking to add more nodes, expand the conversation, and create lasting relationships.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s so much work to be done in this space,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI really think it\u2019s the pressing issue of the 21st century, and I think NC State is uniquely positioned to play a leadership role in it.\u201d\n\n \n\n
\n\nStaci Kleinmaier is a professional writer and photographer in Apex, North Carolina. She uses words and images to tell stories. To see her work, visit www.stacikleinmaier.com.<\/em><\/span>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"