Joshua Behr

 

Biography

Joshua G. Behr PhD is Research Associate Professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) at Old Dominion University and a professor within the School of Health Professions at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS).

Dr. Behr has conducted studies, modeled, and published insights related to community resilience, catastrophic events, evacuation behavior, recurrent flooding, and the disposition of medically fragile and vulnerable populations in the post-event recovery process. Much of this involves connecting both modeling and data from several systems to produce actionable, policy-relevant knowledge and forecasts. For example, bridging the connections among leveraging natural systems data to model storms and flooding, built environment data to characterize the physical structures in our communities, and social-behavioral data related to population perceptions and behavioral responses are integrated by Dr. Behr to forecast storm damage, displaced populations, recovery times, well-being of populations, and cost pressure on health systems. Dr. Behr has developed indicators of household and community vulnerability, in the modeled recovery processes. In addition, Dr. Behr has studied the dependencies among critical infrastructures. His work is of much interest to housing officials, emergency planners, city planners, and homeland security officials. Of interest to clinicians and public health officials,
Dr. Behr has published articles addressing drivers of emergency department utilization, asthma, and health service utilization.

Dr. Behr is the Governor’s appointee to the Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the Chesapeake Bay Program and has a particular interest in relationships among regulation, public policy, health of natural ecosystems, and human populations.

Education

Ph. D. in Urban and Minority Politics, University of New Orleans
Masters in Political Science, California State University, Fullerton
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, California State University, Fullerton