Irmak Renda-Tanali, D.Sc., MBA

Dr. Irmak Renda-Tanali is a crisis and disaster risk management analyst with over 20 years of combined experience and knowledge in assessing the readiness and mitigation postures of organizations, nations and regions’ worldwide decision-making in anticipation of crises caused by natural hazards and human-caused events. Her experience includes working with C-suite and Senior Executive Service to provide data-driven decision support recommendations and leading projects and research studies and methods that apply qualitative and quantitative analyses in continuity and contingency management, as well as risk reduction and situational analyses to strengthen resilience capacity. Her research covers an array of posture indicators from organizational and legislative infrastructure to resourcing and technology. Her solutions include a methodology for ranking priorities and cost modeling for hypothetical scenarios. At University of Maryland Global Campus, Dr. Renda-Tanali led the conception, design, and execution of multiple educational and training programs that have trained hundreds of students in emergency management and homeland security discipline. She is the recipient of the Faculty Excellence Award in Public Service by the University of Maryland Board of Regents. A MOOC course she created and developed on drones and autonomous systems was completed by 10,000 students in 150 countries. For more than a decade, she served as an Assistant Editor and later as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the first online journal that serves as a communication platform between Emergency Management and Homeland Security policy communities. She also served on the Maryland Governor’s Emergency Management Advisory Committee. Dr. Renda-Tanali currently works for a technology firm focusing on cyber and technical capacity building for organizations and jurisdictions worldwide.