On July 26 and 27, the U.S. Chamber Foundation hosted the 12th annual Building Resilience Conference. This event gathered professionals with resilience- or crisis-related roles in their business, government agency, or NGO and dedicated sessions to dialogue and best practices that will improve resilience locally and strengthen communities globally.

Disasters of all kinds are occurring more frequently in both familiar and novel forms. Many of the systems bolstering our communities, such as transportation, public communication, and emergency response, are already stressed, underfunded, or untested in crisis.

At the same time: 

  • As of late, incidents requiring rapid response are causing resource constraints and fatigue for the people on the response and recovery front lines.
  • There are continued concerns about inclusively serving underserved populations, especially in the context of crisis response requiring pre-established community networks and trust.
  • Community-, state-, and federal-level processes and bonds forged during the pandemic may not be sustainable as that global challenge wanes.
  • When existential threats and compounded risks meet these above realities, systems and people become more stressed – and more susceptible to failure. 

The opportunity ahead? Establishing and testing partnerships now to improve community-level capabilities for the day they are needed most. 


The 12th Annual Building Resilience Conference ignited conversations and brought together the brightest minds on how to improve resilience locally and strengthen all of us globally.

Introducing the Great Hall 

This year's conference was hosted in the newly designed Great Hall - where historical meets state-of-the art, innovative, and cutting-edge collaboration. Our Great Hall is the heartbeat of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation programs, designed to be technologically adaptive to business or programming needs in a hybrid world of in-person and virtual convenings.

 

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Cindy Allen
Cindy Allen
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance
FedEx
Administrator Deanne Criswell
Administrator Deanne Criswell
Administrator
FEMA
René Deida
René Deida
Director, Corporate and Community Engagement, Office of Corporate Social Responsibility
Prudential
Daniel Kaniewski
Daniel Kaniewski
Managing Director, Public Sector
Marsh McLennan
Pepper Natonski
Pepper Natonski
Vice President, Federal Government Affairs
Duke Energy
Trevor Riggen
Trevor Riggen
President, Humanitarian Services
American Red Cross
Joe Ruiz
Joe Ruiz
Vice-President
The UPS Foundation
Deputy Administrator Victoria Salinas
Deputy Administrator Victoria Salinas
Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Administrator for Resilience
FEMA
Vidya Sampath
Vidya Sampath
Senior Product Manager, Disaster Relief
Amazon
Francisco Sánchez, Jr.
Francisco Sánchez, Jr.
Associate Administrator, Office of Disaster Recovery & Resilience
Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Recovery & Resilience
Kevin Sligh
Kevin Sligh
Director
Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
Beverley Stinson
Beverley Stinson
Executive Vice President, Global Business Line Chief Executive, Water
AECOM
Prachi Sukhatankar
Prachi Sukhatankar
Vice President
Booz Allen Hamilton
Jeff Terry
Jeff Terry
Vice President, CSR & Sustainability
GAF
Thomas Tighe
Thomas Tighe
CEO
Direct Relief