Our Work

EPICenter LA (The Emergency Preparedness Information Center Los Angeles) was created to provide a disaster resilience resource for multiple audiences. We'd like to be a destination and platform for the local community, policy profesionals, first responders, and students doing research. 

This site is one initiative in a multi-track policy project, the Los Angeles Health Care Systems Security Project. Funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation, the Project seeks to assess weaknesses in the Los Angeles region's response infrastructure. Other initiatives include developing technology to protect hospital patient records from a cyber attack, hosting a conference series on current topics in terror and disaster resilience, implementing a pilot program to use text messaging for disease surveillance in primary schools, and assessing best practices in other cities.

EPICenter LA exists to centralize a diverse range of curated content and, eventually, provide a bidirecitonal platform on which all can communicate questions, experiences, challenges, and expertise in the three phases of natural and manmade disaster, i.e. terrorism. The three phases are prepare, respond, and recover. The site is sectioned by those three phases, plus additional resources and a blog.

For additional information about the Los Angeles Health Care Systems Security Project and EPICenter LA, contact Catherine Nguyen via email at epicenterla.media@gmail.com.

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Quick Facts

Mission: Maintain a resource for multiple audiences to prepare for, respond to, recover from, and learn about disaster and terrorism.

Inception: 2011, when Project Director Dr. Peter Katona was teaching at, and researching in, Louisiana State University's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training. He recognized that the most resilient medical community would not compensate for a citizenry that did not know what resources were available. He decided to seek funding to create one repository of information available to all, with a focus on Los Angeles. The project began operation in 2012, with the first wave of funding from the Annenberg Foundation.

Founding team: Niall O'Kelly designed the site based on Dr. Katona's information design suggestions. The RAND Corporation and the Pacific Council on International Policy maintain auxiliary roles. More about the complete team is here.

Funding: Annenberg Foundation, Wallis Foundation, and CIBER, with administration by COMMET.