Resilience

Resilience is often defined as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow, no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.

Shocks are typically considered disruptive, single event disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, terrorism, disease outbreak or extreme heat.

Stresses are factors that pressure a city on a daily or reoccurring basis, such as aging infrastructure, climate change, violent crime, homelessness or concentrated poverty. 

Further Reading and References

1. 100 Resilient Cities http://www.100resilientcities.org
2. Resiliency Florida http://resiliencyflorida.org/
3. National League of Cities - Resilience https://www.nlc.org/topics/environment-sustainability/resilience
4. National Institute of Standards & Technology Community Resilience Publications https://www.nist.gov/topics/community-resilience/community-resilience-publications
5. FEMA Resiliency Indicators https://www.fema.gov/community-resilience-indicators
6. Urban Sustainability Director’s Network Climate Resilience Resources https://www.usdn.org/public/page/18/Climate-Change-Preparedness
7. Florida Disaster Mitigation https://www.floridadisaster.org/dem/mitigation/ 

The Resilience Office partners across city government and stakeholders to build our community’s capacity to thrive in the face of acute shocks (disaster or climate events) and chronic stresses (socio-economic, infrastructure or institutional weaknesses).

Under the leadership of the City’s Chief Resilience Officer, the Resilience Office identifies, assesses and analyzes the greatest threats to the Tallahassee community and builds partnerships across agencies and community partners to create a more secure and sustainable future for Tallahassee.

The Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) develops a cohesive resilience strategy and oversees the integration of effective high-priority initiatives across city plans, programs, and policies. The CRO is the City’s ‘resilience point person’ ensuring that the City applies a resilience lens so that projects are planned and resources are used collaboratively for optimal impact. Abena Ojetayo is the first Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Tallahassee, taking on the role in October 2017.  She has researched and worked in various countries, including working as an energy and infrastructure planner of a town in Greece following a devastating earthquake, and managing an urban design team for the flood prone Anam New City, Nigeria, a project that was recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative as a promising approach to international sustainable development.

Before coming to Tallahassee, Abena worked on climate action planning at Cornell University and supported the green building and infrastructure design effort for its NYC Tech Campus in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. She moved to Tallahassee in 2014 to serve as FAMU’s first Chief Sustainability Officer and the founding Executive Director of their Sustainability Institute, tasked with building resilience across all academic and operational aspects of the university.

Abena has an interdisciplinary background, receiving a Bachelor’s degree in sustainable infrastructure and a Master’s in engineering management, both from Cornell University. She is a LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) accredited professional, and was named among the "10 New Faces of Civil Engineering" by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), highlighting her as one of the industry's next leaders.