Project Context 

Iowans are no strangers to the impacts of climate change, as they are currently experiencing its growing consequences such as blistering heat, extreme floods, and devastating storms that are growing more common each year. These events increasingly threaten Iowa’s farms, communities, economy, and public health. In 2024 alone, Iowans faced over $1 billion in damages from flooding, including catastrophic disaster declarations in northwest Iowa. While the frequency of these events have increased, the preparedness and resiliency of Iowa communities are variable, presenting an area of opportunity to introduce resilience-building efforts in areas that need additional support. Community preparedness and resilience not only strengthen capacity to minimize the impacts of hazards, but to help communities adapt and recover quicker when calamity strikes. 

Project Purpose

As climate change continues to impact Iowans, building community resilience is a major priority; however, community input is essential to ensure the community’s experiences, knowledge and desires are centralized. This approach requires a higher level of engagement and outreach beyond the standard method. Tabletop exercises are a scenario-based planning tool to simulate a disaster and assess strengths and areas of opportunity. To facilitate tabletop exercise development, the Bill Anderson Fund partnered with the Iowa Environmental Council and CDC Foundation to ground the development of tabletop exercises in the lived experiences of Iowans.  

Project Outcomes

This project focused on various aspects of developing the tabletop exercises to help Iowa decision makers and communities to prepare, respond and recover from disasters. It presented the opportunity to understand strengths, areas of improvement and establish/maintain partners in the work. 

• A survey was developed to collect data that shed light on data to understand decision makers’ and the communities’ perceptions, knowledge and desires to inform the tabletop exercises and future work. 
• Tailored tabletop exercises that simulated disasters and identified strengths, areas for improvement and potential collaborators were created for each target community.
• Information sheets were developed to inform future work by outlining community demographics and environmental risks. 

This collaboration supported efforts to build the capacity and resilience of Iowa communities using tools and information products that were designed to center the needs of Iowans and to prepare them to withstand hazards and disasters influenced by climate change.   

Project Team

Graduate Research Assistant: Jacquita Johnson, Ph.D., Texas A&M University, Bill Anderson Fund Fellow

External Project Collaborators: Sarah Howe, Iowa Environmental Council | Cody Smith, Iowa Environmental Council | Jessica Kelly, CDC Foundation 

Project Supervisor: Nnenia Campbell, Ph.D., Bill Anderson Fund

Professional Development Mentor: Linda Animashaun, Ph.D., Amammere Consulting