Disaster Response
career inspired by a monster movie
DM was born in New York City but his family moved to California when he was a child; his father was a jeweler who opened his own shop.
As a child, he saw the movie “Godzilla” featuring a huge monster (20 times the size of a human) who terrorized people; instead of being scared of the monster on the movie screen, he was fascinated more by the way small herds of people moved when the monster appeared.
Following college graduation, DM earned his Master’s degree at Cal State, then PHD in sociology at U Colorado, studying under a professor who had founded the Natural Hazards Center, which DM joined and eventually led; he wrote a pivotal book in the field, “Disasters by Design” and was often quoted and retained by government agencies for input on dealing with such natural disasters as Hurricane Katrina, the tsuami of 2004 and even the potential impact of the temporary closing of a Los Angeles freeway.
Long before the covid pandemic of 2020, DM preached the importance of consistent messaging in the face of calamity; otherwise, he said, “people can choose to follow whatever advice they like and efforts to mitigate loss will fail.”
Editor’s note: See also within BUSINESS – PUBLIC RELATIONS
