ARISE Webinar Series

ARISE Webinar speaker Amanda Sharma

December 5, 2024

3:30 - 4:30 PM | Registration no longer available

Have You Thought of Everything? ​ Minimize the Impact of a Changing Climate Through Planning ​

Speaker: Amanda Sharma
Project Associate
Environmental Finance Center
Wichita State University

The presentation addresses the importance of planning to minimize the impact of climate change on water systems. ​ It covers various hazards, risks, vulnerabilities, and capabilities, emphasizing the need for comprehensive risk and resilience assessments. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of planning to minimize the impact of climate change on water systems. ​ It covers various hazards, risks, vulnerabilities, and capabilities, emphasizing the need for comprehensive evaluation of risk.

About the Speaker: Amanda Sharma is a seasoned community resilience professional with over 20 years of experience in public service leadership, community planning, emergency management, hazard mitigation, and environmental compliance. She collaborates with governments and organizations to develop strategies that enhance resilience in response to natural hazards. Amanda specializes in aligning natural hazard risk data to support disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts, applying systems-thinking and comprehensive solutions to prepare and recover from natural disasters.

In her role as a part-time Project Associate at the Environmental Finance Center at Wichita State University, Amanda helps build capacity to address environmental challenges and community preparedness across Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri. Her projects include co-investigating public health communication related to adverse heat events affecting older adults in Wichita; Adaptive and Resilient Infrastructures driven by Social Equity (ARISE), and Kansas Emission Reduction and Mitigation Plan (ERAMP). Outside of her professional life, Amanda enjoys hiking, pilates, and exploring local coffee roasteries. She volunteers as a coach for Stand Beside Them, a not-for-profit organization that supports returning veterans by providing free coaching and has recently contributed a chapter on “Current and Emerging Rural Health Issues: Natural Disasters” for an upcoming book.

Amanda holds an Executive MBA and a Master of Resource Law Studies from the University of Denver, and a BA in English with a minor in biology. She is a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM), an Associate Certified Coach (ACC), and a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner.