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Letters & CommentsAmy Donahue
Amy K. Donahue is associate professor of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the performance of emergency services agencies and citizen preferences for public safety. Since 2002, Dr. Donahue has served as a technical advisor to the Office and Department of Homeland Security, helping develop programs to meet the technology needs of emergency responders. From 2002-2004, Dr. Donahue served as Senior Advisor to the NASA administrator, and she now sits on NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. Dr. Donahue has many years of training and field experience as an emergency responder, including managing a 911 communications center, and working as a firefighter and medic. She served in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of Captain. Dr. Donahue holds her Ph.D. in Public Administration and her M.P.A. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Her B.A. from Princeton University is in Geological and Geophysical Sciences.
AUTHOR:Robert Tuohy
Robert V. Tuohy is vice president for Strategic Planning at Hicks & Associates, Inc. where he focuses on Homeland Security policy and has led Project Responder for four years. Besides leading the development of Project Responder’s National Technology Plan for Responding to Catastrophic Terrorism, he is also assisting the Department of Homeland Security in assessing emergency response preparedness and addressing the nation’s Border & Transportation Security technology needs. Prior to joining Hicks & Associates, Mr. Tuohy served as the director of Science and Technology Plans & Programs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he was responsible for developing and coordinating the Department’s science and technology strategic planning and program assessment activities. Mr. Tuohy has a B.A. in Applied Behavioral Sciences from the National-Louis University, and an M.S. in Science and Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas at Austin.
Lessons We Don't Learn: A Study of the Lessons of Disasters, Why We Repeat Them, and How We Can Learn Them
ABSTRACT:
Emergency responders intervene before and during disasters to save lives and property.
The uncertainty and infrequency of disasters make it hard for responders to validate that their response strategies will be effective,
however. As a result, emergency response organizations use processes for identifying and disseminating lessons
in hopes that they and others will be able to learn from past experience and improve future responses.
But the term “lessons learned” may be a misnomer.
Anecdotal evidence suggests mistakes are repeated incident after incident.
It appears that while identifying lessons is relatively straightforward, true learning is much harder
– lessons tend to be isolated and perishable, rather than generalized and institutionalized.
That we see problems persist is a serious concern; as emergency response missions expand
to include broader homeland security responsibilities, the ability to capitalize on experience is ever more important.
This article reports the results of a qualitative study of both the lessons themselves
and the efficacy of the processes by which responders hope to learn them.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
This paper is based on research sponsored by the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Portfolio.
We are grateful to the incident managers who participated in this project, to Michelle Royal for her extensive research support,
and to Tempril Moore for her administrative support.
SUGGESTED CITATION:
Donahue, Amy K. and Robert V. Tuohy. “Lessons We Don't Learn: A Study of the Lessons of Disasters, Why We Repeat Them, and How We Can Learn Them.” Homeland Security Affairs II, no. 2 (July 2006)http://www.hsaj.org/?article=2.2.4