Dr. Michele Wood is a full professor and chair of Cal State Fullerton’s Department of Public Health. Her research interests include disaster preparedness, risk communication, HIV/AIDS among high-risk populations, and program evaluation. Dr. Wood has served as a subject matter expert for the National Academies of Science in a series of workshops examining mobile alerts and warnings, and has helped several agencies study, develop, and test mobile alert and warning messages, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS), National Fire Protection Research Foundation, and the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES). She is currently a subject matter expert for the USGS ShakeAlert Joint Committee for Communication, Education, and Outreach and for the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). She has recently been awarded funding by the USGS to conduct research on public response to ShakeAlert, the new earthquake early warning system for the US West coast.

Dr. Kristi Kanel is a two-time CSUF alumna and a full professor and chair of the university’s Department of Human Services. She has served the Titan Family as an educator, mentor, researcher, and academic leader for more than 35 years, and quite literally wrote the book on crisis intervention (A Guide to Crisis Intervention). As a practicing psychotherapist, she served as a counselor in myriad settings, including non-profits, public agencies, and in private practice. All of her research — from crisis intervention theory to skill building for crisis workers — makes her ideally suited to join her colleague, Dr. Michele Wood, in maintaining healthy shared community experiences during in the COVID-19 pandemic.