​Current and Upcoming Activities

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• In response to the devastating wildfires in southern California, Laurie Johnson and long-time research partner, Robert Olshansky, have teamed up to share best practices on planning and managing disaster recovery. Here are links to Laurie's interview on NPR and WBUR's "Here and Now" episode on January 22, 2025, and  Laurie and Rob's article for the California Planning and Development Report.

• Laurie Johnson will be a keynote speaker at the 2025 Annual Technical Conference of the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineers (NZSEE), to be held 8–10 April 2025. The theme for this year’s conference is "Harnessing Uncertainty: Driving Positive Change for a Sustainable and Resilient Future" which underscores the challenges that seismic resilience professionals and researchers face in navigating seismic uncertainty while building for a sustainable and resilient future.

Notable Recent Activities

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• The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI)'s Alfred E. Alquist Special Recognition Medal for 2024 has been awarded to Laurie Johnson in recognition of her extensive work and dedication in improving the seismic safety and resilience of urban environments and communities by reducing, managing, and communicating risks from earthquakes around the world. The Alquist Medal recognizes an individual, company, or organization that has made substantial contributions to the field of seismic safety and earthquake risk reduction, directly serving the public good. The medal will be presented at EERI's Annual Meeting in Seattle in April 2024.

• At the 50th anniversary celebration of the Applied Technology Council on December 8, 2023, Laurie received the ATC Award of Excellence for Extraordinary Achievement in Improving Multi-Hazard Assessment of Lifeline System Performance. She was honored for her leadership in the ATC-102 Project, which developed NIST GCR 14-917-33, Earthquake-Resilient Lifelines: NEHRP Research, Development and Implementation Roadmap. That roadmap report provided guidance to NIST and other National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) agencies for future investments in the development of guidelines, manuals, and standards for key lifeline systems and components.  Laurie also served in a leadership role in the ATC-126 project, which produced NIST GCR 16-917-39, Critical Assessment of Lifeline Performance: Understanding Societal Needs in Disaster Recovery. She also served as the FEMA subject matter expert for the ATC-150 Project, which developed FEMA P-2234, A Framework to Establish Lifeline Infrastructure System Service Recovery Objectives for Seismic Resilience (in publication), and a lead author of NIST Special Publication SP-1310, Initial Framework to Design Lifeline Infrastructure for Post-Earthquake Functional Recovery Volume 1. The award citation noted that in all these projects, Laurie demonstrated exceptional leadership in the formulation of reports and guidelines that have become the foundation for lifeline system performance evaluation.

• In January 2023, Laurie Johnson joined the Board of Trustees of GeoHazards International, an international not-for-profit working alongside at-risk, underserved communities threatened by earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and climate-related hazards. GHI's 30 years of work have spanned over 20 countries at local, regional, national, and international levels.

• Laurie Johnson was elected chair of the Advisory Board of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation in June 2023. The GEM Foundation is a non-profit, public-private partnership based in Pavia, Italy, working to create a world that is resilient to earthquakes. GEM is a global collaboration to develop scientific and high-quality resources for transparent assessment of earthquake risk and to facilitate their application for risk management globally.​

• Planning for Disaster-Induced Relocation of Communities,"  by Balakrishnan Balachandran, Robert B. Olshansky, and Laurie A. Johnson was published in the  Journal of the American Planning Association, in 2022 and covered in the APA blog post. Johnson and co-authors examined the dynamics of disaster-induced relocation processes through a conceptual framework consisting of five interrelated elements: 1) the natural science; 2) the risk decision; 3) the community’s relationship to place; 4) the relocation process, land, and money; and 5) the historical, social, and political context. This research draws from analyses of 53 cases of community relocation, including many that the authors directly researched or worked on. This framework is introduced as a way for planners to systematically approach the task of evaluating and implementing proposed disaster-induced relocations.

• Analysis of Communities at Risk in the HayWired Scenario, by Laurie A. Johnson, Jamie L. Jones, Anne M. Wein, and Jeff A. Peters was published in 2021 as Chapter U of The HayWired Earthquake Scenario —Societal Consequences, Volume 3 of the U.S. Geological Survey's multi-year, multidisciplinary analysis of the potential hazards, impacts and consequences of a M7 earthquake on the Hayward fault in the San Francisco Bay Area. Johnson is a featured presenter at the HayWired Volume 3 Rollout, October 21, 2021, and the seminar "HayWired: Where is home after a large earthquake in the Bay Area?" held on June 30, 2021. Links to the YouTube videos for both presentations can be found here.

• The March 21, 2020 edition of the San Francisco Examiner features an opinion piece by Laura Tam and Laurie Johnson on Improving hazard resilience in the Bay Area, which is the subject of the SPUR Safety First briefing paper that the two authored and recently released as part of SPUR's Regional Strategy, a 50-year vision for how the Bay Area of 2070 can be more equitable, sustainable and resilient. They propose 12 policy recommendations for how the Bay Area can improve data and information gathering, codes and standards, community planning and funding for resilience to multiple hazards.

• Election to Fellow is one of the highest honors that the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) bestows upon a member. Laurie Johnson was inducted into the 2018 Class of the AICP College of Fellows at the National Planning Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her nomination came from the Women and Planning division of the American Planning Association for her significant contributions in helping planners and communities address the complex urban challenges posed by natural disasters and changing climates.