Please read below messages from Ken Kornberg, Chair of the Board of Trustees of GeoHazards International, and from Brian Tucker, Founder.
On behalf of the entire Board of Trustees of GeoHazards International, I am excited to announce that Veronica Cedillos will become GeoHazards International’s next president. On January 2, she will take over from Brian Tucker, the founder who has guided this organization so brilliantly since 1991.
Veronica is a licensed professional civil engineer, with a B.S. in civil engineering from MIT and an M.S. in structural engineering from Stanford. She comes to us from her previous position as Director of Projects at the Applied Technology Council, where she managed teams in advancing topics in earthquake engineering and applying risk reduction measures in, among other countries, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. She has more than 10 years of experience directing international and multi-disciplinary groups from government, academia, nonprofit, and industry sectors.
Among the honors she has received are the American Society of Civil Engineers’ New Faces of Engineering Award and the Shah Family Innovation Prize through the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). MIT's Office of Minority Education recognized her academic excellence, and she is a former recipient of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. In 2017, EERI selected her as a Housner Fellow. She now serves as Co-Chair of the EERI School Earthquake Safety Initiative.
We are very lucky to have found in Veronica such a committed, experienced and talented new leader. We look forward to a new era, confident that she will strengthen and expand our mission. You can learn more about Veronica in this short bio.
Finally, I would like to salute Brian for his 27 years of remarkable work and for ensuring that GeoHazards International will sustain its success. It is stronger than ever and well positioned to expand into more vulnerable countries and communities.
Ken Kornberg Chair, GeoHazards International Board of Trustees
(Below is from Brian Tucker, Founder of GeoHazards International.)
What makes me so enthusiastic and optimistic about the Board’s unanimous choice of Veronica Cedillos as my successor, and her accepting to take over, is her commitment to GeoHazards International’s mission and her promise as a strong, charismatic leader.
Even before she learned about GeoHazards International, she volunteered to work in India researching what kind of structures survived the 1905 Kangra earthquake. While there, she learned of our work, which led her to join us in 2008.
Her passion for our mission was amply demonstrated during the subsequent six years when she led our challenging projects in Indonesia, Peru and Haiti. You can be assured—as the Board and I are—that Veronica has the vision, experience, and energy to take the organization in new directions consistent with our core values.
I’m not disappearing. I will help Veronica, the staff and Board during the transition in the coming months and in the future however I am needed.
At this time, I’d like to express my deep gratitude to all members of the staff and Board, past and present, and to all of you in the broad GeoHazards International community who, through your personal and financial investments, make our unique, invaluable work possible.
Brian E. Tucker Founder, GeoHazards International