The Never-Ending Stream: Disaster Response in New York City from 9/11 to COVID-19

In the early morning after the 9/11 attacks, as the Associate Commissioner for Environmental Health at the New York City Department of Health, Kelly McKinney was assigned to the makeshift Emergency Operations Center in the second-floor library of the city’s Police Academy on East 20th Street, six blocks above the evacuated city—the so-called “Red Zone.”

He has spent the two decades since in leadership roles in every major emergency in New York City, first as the Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Office of Emergency Management and then as the Chief Disaster Officer for the American Red Cross in Greater New York. 

This session will focus on some of his key insights, those lessons learned, from twenty years in the disaster business in New York. These include the immediate challenge of grief management and the essential role of disaster mental health services; the needs imperative of the children and families trapped by the crisis, and the continuing challenges of leadership and change management in a post-COVID-19 world.