WIU Emergency Management Professor Jack Rozdilsky can provide first-hand insight about Washington, IL, recovery at one-year anniversary (Nov. 17) of tornado disaster.
MACBOMB, IL — Western Illinois University Assistant Professor and Emergency Management Program Coordinator Jack Rozdilsky is available to serve as an expert source regarding the recovery efforts from tornado outbreaks that struck Illinois in November 2013, particularly the EF-4 level tornado that struck Washington (IL) Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013.
In Spring 2014, Rozdilsky and students in his EM 461 course ("Business and Industry in Emergency Management"), with the help of Washington City Administrator Tim Gleason, began an economic-recovery data-gathering project for the city. Through the EM 461 course project, the students examined and explored factors that influenced the Tazewell County-based municipality's long-term economic recovery. In May this year, Rozdilsky's students, based on the information they gathered in their project, provided economic-recovery recommendations to Washington city officials.
Rozdilsky's areas of expertise include tornado disasters in the Midwest (U.S.), near earth object (asteroid) threats, long-term disaster recovery, community betterment after crisis, disaster field research, emergency management higher education, disasters in arts and culture and various emergency management practice-related topics. He teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate levels for such classes as Foundations of Emergency Management, Hazards and Disasters in Emergency Management, Principles of Emergency Management, Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery, Disaster Preparedness and Response, Dimensions of Disaster (disaster social science), Business Continuity and Disaster Film.
Rozdilsky is active in post-disaster field studies and he has done research in communities stricken by floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic hazards and technological/environmental disasters. He is a member of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the Illinois Emergency Services Management Association (IESMA).
Learn more about WIU's emergency management bachelor's degree program — one of only 15 of its type in the U.S. — at www.wiu.edu/coehs/health_sciences/undergraduate_programs/em/index.php.
Contact Rozdilsky at (309) 298-1621 or via email at [email protected].
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