Connecting research, communication, and human behaviour to disasters

Hello and welcome to Doing Disasters Differently, the podcast with Renee Handman, which is all about inspiring you to start thinking and doing disasters a little bit differently too.

Hello, I'm so excited because today's episode we're talking about connecting research, communication and human behaviour to disasters.

And I have Dr. Barbara Ryan, who is an award-winning disaster behaviour researcher, communicator and long-time leader in emergency management communication in Australia.

Barbara has spent more than 40 years working across journalism, public relations, research and teaching, With a strong focus on how people seek information, respond to risks and engage during disasters.

And as most of you know, I have a background of public relations and stakeholder engagement too.

So we are clearly two peas in a pod.

Now, she's the founder of Cicada Research and Communications and was a founding director of the Emergency Media and Public Affairs, which is also called EMPIRE.

And if you haven't checked that out, you need to.

The links are below.

She's been helping shape the emergency communication profession across Australia and New Zealand.

Now, Barb's work explores one of the biggest challenges in disaster resilience, how we better connect research and communication and human behaviour to real-world preparedness and recovery.

She's also a volunteer firefighter and community educator, bringing both academic insight and lived frontline experience into the conversation.

And Barbie's currently writing a book, which I can't wait to hear more about, on how to understand, motivate and support communities.

on the emergency preparation and recovery journey, which will be published by Rootledge, I think it is, next year.

And that's so, so, so critical because so many of our communities have obviously been greatly impacted.

So again, so much lived experience and research, et cetera, coming from Barb.