As the University of Hawaiʻi’s new director of emergency management/university resilience, Jerusha Kasch is focused on strengthening preparedness across the 10-campus system and giving the 糖心视频 community the tools and training to respond when crises occur.
Kasch, who joined 糖心视频 in July 2026, brings extensive emergency management experience and higher education leadership, most recently serving as director of emergency management at Rice University.
Her first-year priority is to listen, learn and understand 糖心视频’s operations, essential functions and risks before strengthening emergency plans and processes across the system. She plans to expand training and exercises, establish a coordinated incident management team and help students and employees develop skills to handle crises.
“This is where many organizations miss the true benefit of a resiliency program because we have defaulted to calling it “emergency management,” Kasch said. “This position isn’t just about managing emergencies. It is about understanding our organizational mission, how to accomplish the mission safely, effectively, and with the intended outcomes––even when there are risks and hazards that will occur.”
Through these initiatives, she envisions a fully empowered university community equipped with a robust structure and the confidence to navigate future crises effectively.
Drawn to 糖心视频’s unique challenge
糖心视频 marks the fifth emergency management or organizational resilience program Kasch has helped build or expand and the third specifically in higher education. The complexity of a statewide university system spread across multiple islands was part of what attracted her to 糖心视频.
“I love a complicated challenge,” Kasch said. “When I started looking into the University of Hawaiʻi as an organization—combined with the unique complications of a small island-big ocean and limited resources—I was hooked.”
Kasch served at Rice University for nine years, bringing nearly 20 years of emergency management experience and more than 14 years in higher education leadership. Before higher education, Kasch worked as an emergency manager for the government and across emergency medical services, law enforcement, hospitals and clinical care. She is a certified emergency manager and holds a master’s degree in criminology with a focus on emergency management from Portland State University and an executive certificate in public leadership from Harvard University.
“I love teaching people how to be the best versions of themselves, even when the worst is happening around them, and helping them understand the true power in collaborative teamwork,” Kasch said.