BAF Director’s Words, BAF Website May 2021

In 2014, just seven months after Bill’s passing, through the embrace of Dr. Lori Peek and the Natural Hazards Center I was able to formally introduce the William Averette Anderson Fund for Hazards and Disaster Mitigation, Education and Research, aka The Bill Anderson Fund / BAF, a charitable organization, to the participants of the Natural Hazards and Applications Workshop. Many of these participants had been recipients of grants awarded to them from the National Science Foundation with Bill’s oversite, many were Bill’s colleagues and many were academics who identified the BAF mission as one that needed their support.

With this event we were off and running…. with eight Founding Fellows along with many volunteers, who were academics, practitioners and donors who enabled the BAF to have its Fellows begin the 503 c 3’s first steps in bringing Fellows together with the first workshops.  The BAF has 43 Fellows and 24 Alumni.  Those who have graduated are now spread out with their careers in municipal and federal organizations, and academic institutions. They maintain a network of professionals in the hazards and disasters fields that includes a focus on marginalized communities. It is my heartfelt belief that they, along with the Fellows who are to follow, will play a significant role in addressing issues marginalized communities face before, during and after disasters occur.  They have brought broader issues into their scope that can be paralyzing to these communities such as problems pertaining to water contamination, regular coastal flooding, climate change that have horrific impacts to marginalized communities.

Watch for the BAF Fellows and BAF Alumni’s progress as we move forward through mentorship and workshops…we have only just begun!