August 19, 2004
New program dedicated to helping after emergencies
In days past, it was unlikely that UW students Justin Gale from public affairs and Kate Hulpke from the College of Engineering would cross paths during their graduate studies, yet recently they drove together through the upland savanna of northern Mozambique. The two were seeking out remote clinics to study how health supplies are delivered to rural people, many of whom routinely walk miles through difficult terrain to receive health care.
Gale and Hulpke are among the first wave of students from a new UW program dedicated to reducing human suffering from disasters and emergencies around the globe by developing tools and techniques to help international relief workers.
To accomplish this, the project combines talents from two very different worlds: public administration and engineering.
Students and faculty from the two fields have joined forces in the new UW Interdisciplinary Program in Humanitarian Relief to figure out how to break the logistical logjams faced by international organizations such as CARE, World Vision and Mercy Corps.
The goal is to adapt the latest techniques in information technology and logistics to more quickly get medical and food supplies to victims in disaster and war zones, said Sandra Archibald, dean of the UW’s Evans School of Public Affairs.
“It is very exciting to be able to apply these new techniques to the critical problem of emergency delivery of goods and supplies to people in need,” she said.
The project was launched with the help of a $175,000 Innovation and Redesign Award from the UW Provost’s Office. The Marc Lindenberg Center for Humanitarian Action, International Development and Global Citizenship at the Evans School directs the program, in collaboration with the Center for Internet Studies and departments of Technical Communication and Industrial Engineering in the College of Engineering.
The new program also blends academic expertise with the on-the-ground experience of relief practitioners to advance knowledge at the intersection of logistics, information technology and organizational management, said Denice Denton, dean of the UW College of Engineering.
“I am hopeful,” Denton said, “that through innovations developed here we may minimize human suffering caused by natural and man-made disasters throughout the world.”
This summer, teams of specially trained graduate students are conducting field research with local relief agencies in Kenya, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
Gale and Hulpke are hosted by Seattle-based VillageReach.
In Kenya, Christina Maiers (Evans School) and Steve Kotleba (Industrial Engineering) are working in the Great Lakes and East Africa region on humanitarian supply chain management. They are hosted by World Vision, whose U.S. headquarters is in Federal Way, and are working closely with a recently formed interagency working group involving 16 major humanitarian organizations.
In Ethiopia, Dara Ayres (Evans School) and Margaret Reynolds (Evans School and Global Trade & Transportation Logistics) work on logistics, information and coordinated relief efforts. They are hosted by USAID and John Snow Inc. and are working with a host of non-governmental organizations in the region.
All this support is necessary because the students are working in some of the most needy areas of the world. In the East Africa and Great Lakes region, for example, there are more than 8 million displaced persons and epidemics account for about 90 percent of deaths.
Before heading to Africa, each of the students completed a course in Electronic Information and Supporting Systems in Humanitarian Relief.
All this will enable the UW to start offering an interdisciplinary graduate certificate next year in International Humanitarian Relief and Development, designed to equip students from a variety of academic backgrounds with the theory and practical tools needed to become effective professionals.
The Marc Lindenberg Center for Humanitarian Action, International Development and Global Citizenship was named in honor of the late dean and professor of the Evans School.
