Directors - Center for Risk and Crisis Management

Coordinating Director

Shari Veil
B.S., Communication, University of Mary
MBA, Marketing, University of Mary
Ph.D., Communication, North Dakota State University

Shari Veil is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma where she teaches crisis communication and public relations. Dr. Veil was previously a research fellow with the Risk and Crisis Communication Project investigating agrosecurity concerns for the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Homeland Security National Center for Food Protection and Defense. Her research focuses on organizational learning in high-risk environments, community preparedness, and communication strategies for crisis management

Associate Directors

Harold Brooks
B.S., Physics and Mathematics, William Jewell College
Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
M.A., Columbia University
Ph.D., University of Illinois

Harold Brooks is a research meteorologist and Head of the Mesoscale Applications Group at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma. He was a National Research Council Research Associate at NSSL and joined the permanent staff there in 1992. During his career, his interests have focused on why, when, and where severe thunderstorms occur and what their effects are, and on how to evaluate weather forecasts. In 2002, he received the United States Department of Commerce’s Silver Medal for his work on the distribution of severe thunderstorms in the United States. He is a lead author on the US Climate Change Science Program report on extreme weather and climate change, contributed to the IPCC Third and Fourth Assessment Reports, and is a member of the World Meteorological Organization’s Joint Working Group on Verification.

Hank Jenkins-Smith
B.A., Political Science and Economics, Linfield College
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Rochester

Hank Jenkins-Smith is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and an Associate Director of the Center for Applied Social Research at the University of Oklahoma. Most recently, his research interests include the evolving public opinion on nuclear weapons, security, and terrorism. Previously, Dr. Jenkins-Smith served as the editor for the Policy Studies Journal, a scholarly journal of the Policy Studies Organization and the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association.

Kevin Kloesel
B.S., Engineering Science, University of Texas at Austin
M.S. and Ph.D., Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University

Kevin Kloesel is the Associate Dean for Public Service and Outreach in the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma as well as an Associate Professor in the OU School of Meteorology. His teaching and research interests range from synoptic meteorology to societal impacts and decision making in weather-impacted situations. He led the team that won the Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard University and the Ford Foundation for their work with the emergency management community in Oklahoma. Currently, he works directly with thousands of K-12 students and teachers, as well as hundreds of emergency management agencies in finding appropriate applications for weather data in local education and decision making. Previously, he was Director of Outreach for the largest state climate office in the country, the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, and served as director of the Florida Climate Center in Tallahassee, FL.

Aondover Tarhule
B.S., Geography, University of Jos, Nigeria
M.S., Environmental and Resources Planning, University of Jos, Nigeria
M.S., Geography, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Ph.D., Geography, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Aondover Tarhule is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Oklahoma. His expertise is in physical hydrology (specifically the analysis of extreme events such as floods and droughts). His research interests include hydro-climatic reconstruction and rural water issues particularly in the Sahel Savanna zone of West Africa. Dr. Tarhule applies geo-electric techniques to investigate various water issues in shallow alluvial aquifers. An on-going project is exploring the feasibility of using tree-ring analysis to reconstruct floods and droughts in the Sahel.

Kevin Wright
B.A., Broadcast Communication Arts, San Francisco State University
M.A., Communication, California State University
Ph. D., Communication, University of Oklahoma

Kevin Wright is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. His research interests include health communication, social support and health, new technologies in health communication, computer-mediated communication, and interpersonal communication. Dr. Wright has received numerous accolades for his research in interpersonal communication, mass communication, and health communication. In addition, he is a dedicated servant to the communication research community acting as a member on numerous panels as well as participating in a variety of communication interest group activities.