NATURAL DISASTERS
Katrina: the faith fallout

IN THE NORTHEAST
• John R. Logan is a sociology professor at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and director of the Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (S4) initiative there. He is leading a research project looking at which communities in New Orleans were most affected by Katrina and how they are being changed by the rebuilding effort. One report found that "the storm's impact was disproportionately borne by the region's African American community, by people who rented their homes, and by the poor and unemployed." Contact 401-863-2267, john_logan@brown.edu.
• Cheryl Townsend Gilkes is John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. She is a member of the Katrina National Justice Commission. Contact 207-859-4715, ctgilkes@colby.edu.
• Jennifer L. Hochschild is Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and a professor of African and African-American studies at Harvard University in Boston. She has written about issues of politics, race and class and can speak of their impact in how Katrina affected the Gulf Coast. Contact 617-496-0181, hochschild@gov.harvard.edu.

IN THE EAST
• The Rev. John H. Vaughn, an ordained American Baptist minister, is program director for The Twenty-First Century Foundation (21CF). The foundation, based in New York, works to support African-American philanthropy for groups involved with community organizing, advocacy and leadership development. Through its Hurricane Katrina Recovery Fund, 21CF has made grants to groups working for equality and racial justice in the recovery process. Vaughn also is a member of the Katrina National Justice Commission. Contact 212-662-3700 ext. 201, jvaughn@21cf.org.
• The Rev. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III is executive director for National Ministries for American Baptist Churches USA, based in Valley Forge, Pa. He also is a member of the Katrina National Justice Commission. Contact 800-ABC-3USA, ext. 2400, aidsand.wright-riggins@abc-usa.org.
• The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is an advocacy group of low- and moderate-income families, with national offices in Brooklyn, N.Y. ACORN has started a national Katrina relief campaign, helping to gut homes for people who want to renovate and creating the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association, which is pushing to give Katrina survivors a voice in the rebuilding efforts. Contact Charles Jackson, press coordinator, 504-994-4669, acorncomm@acorn.org.
• Henry P. "Hank" Sims is a professor of leadership and management at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. He has done research on leadership and teamwork and can speak about how relief organizations, including faith-based groups, have responded to Katrina - including what worked and what didn't. Contact 301-405-2258, hsims@rhsmith.umd.edu.
• Michael Eric Dyson is Avalon Foundation Professor of Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster (Basic Civitas Books, 2006). Read the transcript of a Tavis Smiley interview with Dyson on Feb. 8, 2006. Contact 215-746-7790, mdyson@sas.upenn.edu.
• Amy Liu is deputy director and co-founder of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Since the hurricane hit, she has been helping to write monthly "Katina Index" reports, tracking the recovery and what the storm has revealed about poverty, urban planning, redevelopment and public policy. Contact 202-797-6000, aliu@brookings.edu.
• Peter Gudaitis is executive director of New York Disaster Interfaith Services in New York City. This faith-based network provides training for clergy, religious leaders and faith-based groups, to help them plan for responding to disasters, and helps with recovery when a disaster does occur. The network has been involved in helping resettle Katrina evacuees in New York. Contact 212-669-6100, pgudaitis@nydis.org.
• Havidán Rodríguez is director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware in Newark. After the storm, the center sent researchers to Mississippi, Louisiana and Houston; those researchers now are working on a variety of follow-up reports. Contact 302-831-6618, havidan@udel.edu.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• The Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, N.C., has started a project called the Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, to chronicle and document the reconstruction work. Contact Chris Kromm, the institute's executive director, 919-419-8311, chris@southernstudies.org.
• Diana Jones Wilson is president of Faith Partnerships Inc., a network of congregations based in Raleigh, N.C., that works collaboratively to address issues of poverty. After Katrina, Faith Partnerships has helped train church leaders in how best to provide aid and has assisted congregations in the Gulf region. Contact 919-834-8335, fpiinfo@faithpartnerships.org.
• Andrew Billingsley is a professor of sociology and African-American studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and senior scholar-in-residence at the university's Institute for Families in Society. He is involved with a research project examining how African-American churches in the Gulf Coast are recovering after Katrina, what role they play in the community and how congregations (both black and white) from other communities are assisting them in coping with life after the storm. Contact 803-777-8760, abilling@gwm.sc.edu.

IN THE SOUTH
• The Rev. Jennifer Jones-Bridgett is executive director the Louisiana chapter of People Improving Communities through Organizing, also known as PICO Louisiana or PICO LIFT (Louisiana Interfaith Together). This network of more than 100 faith communities has developed a "Covenant to Rebuild Louisiana," which calls for clergy to work together with government leaders. Contact 866-747-7426, jjalenj@aol.com.
• Jim Pate is executive director of New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, which is working to clean up homes damaged by Katrina and to build hundreds of new houses. Contact 504-861-2077, JimP@Habitat-NOLA.org.
• Catholic Charities of New Orleans - the health and human services arm of the Archdiocese of New Orleans - remains deeply involved in recovery work, including providing long-term case management. Contact Margaret Dubuisson, 504-592-5691, mdubuisson@archdiocese-no.org.
• The Rev. Dana "Dan" Krutz is executive director of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference, based in Baton Rouge. The conference is helping to coordinate the religious response to Katrina and is involved with the Louisiana Interreligious Disaster Recovery Network. Contact 225-344-0134, lainterchurch@aol.com.
• Roberta Avila is executive director of the Interfaith Disaster Task Force of South Mississippi. The task force has helped to coordinate the response to Katrina along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi. Contact 228-868-0961, ravila@msidtf.org.

IN THE MIDWEST
• john a. powell (who prefers that his name be written all lowercase) is executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University in Columbus. He also holds the Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the university's Moritz College of Law. The Kirwan Institute is mapping Katrina's impact on New Orleans' racially segregated and impoverished neighborhoods. Contact powell through Tara McCoy, 614-688-5571, mccoy.266.osu.edu.
• The Rev. Otis Moss Jr. is pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland. He is a member of the Katrina National Justice Commission. Contact through Beverly J. Gaffney, 216-721-3585, bgaffney@oibc.org.
• Melissa Harris Lacewell is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago. She is an investigator in a research study examining the differences in views among various racial groups regarding rebuilding after Katrina. Listen to a Jan. 23, 2006, "News & Notes with Ed Gordon" show on NPR that includes an interview with Lacewell about that research project. Contact 773-702-8059, info@melissaharrislacewell.com.
• Mark R. Rank is a professor of social welfare at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All (Oxford University Press, 2004). Rank can speak about Katrina's impact on the poor, the importance of having a safety net of social services and the role faith-based groups play in helping those in need. Contact 314-935-5694, markr@wustl.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Amy Elder is executive director of Texas Interfaith Disaster Response. That agency was formed in fall 2005 to coordinate the work of faith-based groups, local government agencies and other organizations in response to Katrina. Contact 512-342-8732, aelder@tidr.org.
• Janis Leibs Dworkis is coordinator of marketing and communications at Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas. This agency continues to provide case management services and counseling for survivors displaced by the storm. Dworkin said her agency has learned important lessons from Katrina - among them, let each agency specialize in what it does best, and go to where the affected people are to offer services, don't wait for them to come to you. She says the needs for job placement and for mental health treatment for adults and children are ongoing; many people are just beginning to realize how much they have lost. Contact 972-437-9950, jdworkis@jfsdallas.org.
• Katherine Kerr is vice president for public relations for Lutheran Social Services and is based in Austin, Texas. Lutheran Social Services also has been involved with humanitarian assistance. Contact 512-459-1000, kkerr@lsss.org.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Gilbert Reyes is a professor of clinical psychology at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara. He has done research on the psychological impact of disasters on adults and children. Contact 805-898-2907, greyes@fielding.edu.
• Salvatore R. Maddi is a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine. He is the co-author of Resilience at Work: How to Succeed No Matter What Life Throws at You (Amacom, 2004) and has studied the quality of "personality hardiness" that allows some people to thrive even in stressful circumstances, such as natural disasters. He also is the founder of the Hardiness Institute. Contact 949-824-7045, srmaddi@uci.edu at the university or 949-252-0589, hardiness1@aol.com at the Hardiness Institute.