The Engineer’s Role in Improving Housing Resilience

Build Change is an award winning non-profit social enterprise that has worked as a systems’ change catalyst in the housing sector in 24 countries, both to mitigate risk for future hazards and to recover and rebuild after a disaster, with a mission to prevent housing loss caused by disasters. Resilient housing can only be achieved at scale when the three main barriers: people, money and technology are addressed simultaneously to provide solutions. To best contribute, structural engineers must understand their role, not only in building the supply of resilient housing through technical solutions, but also how that work integrates with the larger resilient housing ecosystem. This webinar will introduce Build Change’s theory of change, addressing aspects of people, money and technology; provide examples of how technical solutions were brought together with financial, social and policy solutions to make housing more resilient in both preventive as well as post-disaster scenarios in Colombia, Haiti and the Caribbean, the Philippines, Nepal and Indonesia; and feature an introduction to the newly released Build Change Guide to Resilient Housing, an essential handbook for governments and practitioners seeking to plan and implement programs for more resilient housing.

• Course will award 1.5 hours of continuing education
• This course is Diamond Review approved in 49 states. New York does not accept hours from recordings.

Tim Hart, SE, LEED AP, has over 30 years of structural engineering and building construction experience, ranging from anchoring laser end stations, computer racks and equipment platforms to designing fire stations, office buildings, school campuses, and hospital towers. He has a degree with honors in architectural engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and is currently the Lead Civil/Structural Engineer for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Tim is also a Senior Advisor for engineering for Build Change, a non-profit organization that advocates for and facilitates resilient housing construction in several Asian and Latin American countries.

Lizzie Blaisdell Collins, P.E., S.E., LEED AP, is the Vice President of Engineering for Build Change, a non-profit social enterprise with a critical mission of preventing housing losses caused by disasters. After beginning her career with Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco, Lizzie joined Build Change’s Haiti team as Lead Structural Engineer, supporting the recovery from the 2010 earthquake. Lizzie later moved into a global oversight role across the engineering teams, working to provide technical assistance to communities rebuilding after disasters or preparing their homes to prevent the next disaster through the application of simplified evaluation and retrofit methodologies for vulnerable housing.  In 2016, Lizzie was awarded the Shah Family Innovation Prize through the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute for her work with Build Change.