Disaster Resilience Leadership students travel to Los Angeles to study wildfire recovery
In early August, 11 students from Tulane School of Social Work traveled to Los Angeles to learn about community resilience and recovery in the wake of the wildfires that ravaged much of Southern California in 2025.
The trip was part of the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy (DRLA) Summer Institute, which centered themes of sustainable development, disaster management, governance, and community resilience. Ahead of the three-day intensive seminar, students spent 12 weeks reading about and reflecting on the response of community networks, nonprofits, local governments, and state agencies in the immediate aftermath of the Los Angeles fires – which claimed the lives of 31 people and displaced more than 180,000 more.
“The key takeaway from the institute is that involving community in any resilience and recovery efforts is essential. If we don’t have community, and trust within that community, then we really don’t have anything,” said Joe Jefferies, a dual Master of Social Work and Master of Science in Disaster Resilience Leadership student who flew to Los Angeles from his home state of Missouri to attend the institute.
Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy Fellows Mark Rogers and Corey Eide – both local to Los Angeles – designed the course to be an immersive look at still-unfolding recovery efforts just 18 months after the fires were contained. Students got to hear from a series of local guest speakers, including journalists from the Los Angeles Times, LA city and county government representatives, University of Southern California Public Exchange, a plant specialist from Palisades Forestry Committee, and an architectural historian conducting heritage mapping in partnership with California Preservation Foundation.
Students witnessed the impact of both the Palisades and Eaton fires up-close before heading to Community Organized Relief Effort’s hub to better understand what rebuilding resources are and are not available to affected residents. The students then finished their day at Eaton Fire Collaborative’s community center, which collaborates with dozens of local community organizations to provide coordinated recovery services including housing, insurance, rebuilding, education, and advocacy support.
The course culminated in each student presenting an Applied Resilience Project, a tangible action plan designed to address specific recovery or resilience challenges the students believe the Altadena and Palisades communities are currently facing following the wildfires. Projects ranged from leveraging indigenous knowledge for bioremediation and mitigation of future fires' impacts to rethinking land parcel development and governance.
For the students, many of whom have direct ties to California and Los Angeles, witnessing residents’ challenges firsthand and thinking strategically to develop community-based solutions hit close to home.
“Resilience is inherently local. You cannot fully understand how a community experiences disaster and recovery without spending time in that community, listening to the people who live there, and understanding the relationships and systems that shape their recovery,” said Regardt Ferreira, Professor and Director of DRLA. “Immersive experiences like the Summer Institute allow our students to connect what they learn in the classroom with the realities communities face on the ground.”