PATRICIA MARTEL, Ph.D
Dr. Patricia Martel’s career spans more than 17 years as a practitioner and academic in disaster and emergency management. She has worked with provincial regional, municipal governments, Indigenous communities, academic institutions, and the private sector on building effective and resilient emergency management programs.
She is widely recognized as an expert in Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA). Some of her past work includes the role of the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Officer at Emergency Management Ontario for close to 10 years. During this time, Patricia led the development of the 2012 Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Program which won international acclaim for its proactive and innovative methodology. She has also developed a variety of HIRAs for municipalities and Indigenous communities including methodologies that account for cultural impacts.
To better understand the challenges faced by the local level in emergency management, Patricia left the province to work for Niagara Region to support the Region and the 12 local area municipalities as the Community Emergency Management Coordinator (CEMC). During this time, she worked to modernize the regional program and align it with best practices to better build capacity and resourcing.
Patricia has served in a range of positions in different Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) for many large-scale emergencies triggered by hazards including multiple large scale forest fire and spring breakup flooding responses, Toronto G8/G20, Goderich tornado, Pan Am Games, Hurricane Sandy, COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 Niagara Blizzard, the solar eclipse, and many others. In addition to the response, Patricia has also played a significant role in the planning efforts for various emergency management organizations during several large scale complex emergencies including G8/20, Pan AM Games, the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 Niagara Blizzard, and the solar eclipse.
Committed to bridging the gap between theory and practice, Patricia completed a PhD focused on effective operational emergency planning for vulnerable populations. Her research focused on the social science of emergency management and complemented her strong background in the physical sciences focused on natural hazards. Patricia has served as an Instructor at the Graduate level for several academic institutions within Canada. Patricia is a Past President of the Canadian Risk and Hazards Network (CRHNet) and is a member of the Editorial Board for the Canadian Journal of Emergency Management.