Edwards, Frances L.

Edwards, Frances L.

Date Updated

8-4-2024

Department

Political Science

Academic Rank

Professor Emeritus

Year Retired from SJSU

2022

Educational Background

New York University, Ph.D. 1978

New York University, M.U.P. 1974

Drew University, M.A, 1971

Drew University, B.A., 1969

Teaching Experience

San Jose State University, Political Science, 2005-

Administrative and Professional Experience

Frances L. Edwards, MUP, PhD, CEM, is professor emeritus of political science at San José State University, following 17 years as the Director of the Master of Public Administration program. She is Deputy Director of the National Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute. A Certified Emergency Manager with over 20 years’ professional experience in California, she has served as acting assistant fire chief for the San José Fire Department, as Budget Analyst for the Irvine, California Police Department, and as Assistant to the City Manager in Florham Park, New Jersey.

Grants

  • National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Board, 2017-2018; National Academy of Sciences - Role: P.I; $150,000
  • Eager Grant, 2016-2018; National Science Foundation - Role: Co-P.I.Colleague(s): Liu, Park, Gao and Goodrich; $199,000
  • Special Travel Grant for participation in ASPA National Conference; College of Social Sciences Dean’s Office, 2017; $1,200
  • Emergency Training, 2016-2017; Mineta Transportation Institute - Role: P.I; $200,000
  • MTC Leadership Academy, 2016-2017; Mineta Transportation Institute - Role: P.I; $100,000
  • Special Travel Grant for participation in ASPA National Conference, College of Social Sciences Dean's Office, 2016; $1,000
  • Caltrans Plan Review/Update, Course Customization and Course Delivery, 2014-2016; SJSU Foundation; $577,000
  • Special Travel Grant for participation in ASPA National Conference, College of Social Sciences Dean’s Office, 2015; $1,000
  • National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Board, 2014-2015; National Academy of Sciences; $100,000
  • Special Travel Grant, 2014; College of Science Sciences Dean's Office; $1,000
  • Special Travel Grant, 2013; College of Social Sciences Dean's Office; $900
  • Exercise Handbook for Transit and Transportation Agencies, 2012-2013; Mineta Transportation Institute; $63,000
  • Seismic Sensor Systems for High Speed Rail, 2012-2013; Mineta Transportation Institute; $49,980
  • Research Director for DHS COE Competitive Grant on COOP/COG II, 2009-2010; Mineta Transportation Institute; $280,000

Service

Dr. Edwards chairs the Communications Committee of the American Society for Public Administration’s Section on Emergency and Crisis Management. She won the 2022 Silver Award for her Knight Foundation research from the International Association of Emergency Managers. She has provided ICS/SEMS/NIMS and Continuity of Operations (COOP) plan writing, review, and training for Caltrans and the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). She has been a commissioner on the California Seismic Safety Commission. Her honors include Governing Magazine's Public Official of the Year 2002, San José Magazine's Power 100, College of Social Sciences’ Austen D. Warburton Award of Merit for research, and the Devoted Service Award Class A from the San José Fire Department.

Professional Service and Affiliations

Member, Bay Area Council, Cyber Security Committee, 2014-

Member, National Academy of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, 2014-

Member, California Emergency Services Association, 1991-

Member, American Society for Public Administration, 1984-

Chair, ASPA Section on Emergency and Crisis Management, 2015-2018

Member, Transportation Research Board, 2011-2015

Member, Collaborative for Disaster Mitigation, SJSU, 1999-2014

Member, Committee on Emergency Management and Homeland Security, 1999-2014

Member, Urban Area Security Initiative, 2009-2011

Board Member, Emergency Information Infrastructure Project, 2004-2010

Board Member, California Earthquake Safety Foundation, 1998-2006

Member, Santa Clara County Emergency Managers Association, 1991-2006

Certified Emergency Manager, International Association of Emergency Managers, 1986-2006

Honors and Awards

  • 2010 - American Society for Public Administration, President’s Service Recognition Award
  • 2000 - California Emergency Services Association John Fetz Memorial Award
  • 1998 - California Emergency Services Association Gold Award
  • 1998 - California Emergency Services Association Platinum Award
  • 1991 - Southern California Emergency Services Association Outstanding Service
  • 1991 - Soroptimist International Woman of Distinction: Environment

Selected Publications

Refereed Articles

Frances L. Edwards and J. Steven Ott. "Lessons Learned, Opportunities Developed: Building Administrative and Governance Capacities Through the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Eras" Public Organization Review (2023)
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/3948/

Leonard Lira and Frances Edwards. "Police Budgeting: Using Overtime as a Management Tool" Public Organization Review (2022)
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/667/

John Steven Ott, Frances L. Edwards and Pitima Boonyarak. "Global Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic" Public Organization Review Vol. 21 Iss. 4 (2021) p. 619 - 627
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/2312/

Frances L. Edwards and J. Steven Ott. "Governments’ Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic" International Journal of Public Administration Vol. 44 Iss. 2021-11-12 (2021) p. 879 - 884
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/365/

Darius Brown and Frances L. Edwards. "Sheltering the Homeless during COVID-19 in San Jose, California" International Journal of Public Administration Vol. 44 Iss. 2021-11-12 (2021) p. 952 - 962
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/366/

Joseph Yu, Anurag Pande, N. Nezamuddin, Vinayak Dixit, et al.. "Routing Strategies for Emergency Management Decision Support Systems During Evacuation" Journal of Transportation Safety & Security Vol. 6 Iss. 3 (2014) p. 257 - 273
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1312&context=cenv_fac

Frances Edwards and F. McCormick. "Greener Transportation: Mitigating Climate Change" The Public Manager Vol. 40 Iss. 1 (2011)

Frances Edwards. "Homes Wiped Away by Natural Disasters" The Public Manager Vol. 40 Iss. 4 (2011)

Frances Edwards. "State and Local Governments Prepare for Climate Change" The Public Manager Vol. 40 Iss. 1 (2011)

Frances Edwards. "Wiped Away by Nature: Post Disaster Homelessness" The Public Manager Vol. 40 Iss. 3 (2011)

Frances Edwards. "Effective Disaster Response in Cross-Border Events" Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management Vol. 17 Iss. 4 (2010)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2009.00584.x/

Frances Edwards, P. Haas and N. Rohlich. "Exploring the Effectiveness of Transit Security Awareness Campaigns in the San Francisco Bay Area" Transportation Research RecordVol. 2146 (2010)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3141/2146-12

Frances Edwards. "Recovery or Resilience: What Is The End State for the Post-Katrina Gulf Coast?" The Public Manager Vol. 39 Iss. 3 (2010)

Frances Edwards. "New Orleans: The Rising Sun?" The Public Manager Vol. 38 Iss. 3 (2009)

Frances Edwards. "The Challenges of Donations Management" The Public Manager Vol. 38 Iss. 3 (2009)

Frances Edwards. "The Four Phases: Money and Politics" Administration and Society Vol. 41 Iss. 7 (2009)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0095399709348780

Frances Edwards, F. Turner, W. Medigovich and D. Goodrich. "The Workshop Fellows' Legacy: Commentary from Emergency Management Practitioners - Local, State, Federal and Private Sector" Public Administration Review (2009)

Frances Edwards. "Why Look for the FEMA Guy?" Administration and Society Vol. 41 Iss. 6 (2009) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0095399709346724

M. L Brandeau, G. S Zaric, J. Freiesleben, Frances Edwards, et al.. "An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure: Improving Communication to Reduce Mortality During Bioterrorism Responses" American Journal of Disaster Medicine Vol. 3 Iss. 2 (2008) p. 65 - 78.
https://wmpllc.org/ojs/index.php/ajdm/article/view/1874

Frances Edwards. "Obstacles to Disaster Recovery" The Public Manager Vol. 37 Iss. 4 (2008)

Frances Edwards and I. Afawubo. "Show Me the Money: Financial Recovery after Disaster" The Public Manager Vol. 37 Iss. 4 (2008)

Frances Edwards. "Federal Intervention in Local Emergency Planning: Nightmare on Main Street" State and Local Government Review Vol. 39 Iss. 1 (2007)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0160323X0703900104

Frances Edwards. "Recovering from Katrina: A Work in Progress 2007" The Public Manager Vol. 36 Iss. 4 (2007)

Frances Edwards. "Businesses Prepare Their Employees for Disaster Recovery" The Public Manager Vol. 35 Iss. 4 (2006)

Frances Edwards. "Law Enforcement Response to Biological Terrorism: Lessons Learned from New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina" Law Enforcement Executive Forum (2006)

Frances Edwards. "Moving Forward: ASPA Katrina Task Force" The Public Manager Vol. 35 Iss. 4 (2006)

Books

Frances L. Edwards. "Practical considerations for ethical research in post-disaster communities" Disaster and Emergency Management Methods: Social Science Approaches in Application (2021) p. 11 - 30
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/2893/

Frances Edwards. "Cultural Competence and Disaster Management" Cultural Competency for Emergency and Crisis Management: Concepts, Theories and Case Studies (2020) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/4308/

Frances Edwards. Housing Recovery after Disasters. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books (2019)
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/264/

Frannie Edwards and Dan Goodrich. "Using Manipulatives in the Higher Ed Classroom" PROCEEDINGS of the 21st Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Symposium (2019). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/376/

Frances L. Edwards. "Long-Term Recovery and Housing: Public Policy and Household Impacts" Housing Recovery after Disasters (2019): 3-34. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/362/

Frances L. Edwards, Daniel C. Goodrich, Margaret Hellweg, and Jennifer A. Strauss. "Earthquake early warning systems: International experience" Risk Communication and Community Resilience (2019): 139-164. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/363/

Frances L. Edwards. "Emergency Management for Radiological Events: Lessons Learned from Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Reactor Accidents" Global Cases in Best and Worst Practice in Crisis and Emergency Management (2016): 89-108. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/364/

Frances L. Edwards, Daniel C. Goodrich and James Griffith. Incident Command System (ICS) Training for Field-Level Supervisors and Staff. (2016)
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/361/

Frances Edwards and D. Goodrich. Introduction to Transportation Security. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (2012). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/23/

Frances L. Edwards and Friedrich Steinhausler (Eds). NATO and Terrorism: On Scene! Emergency Management After a Major Terror Attack.Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer (2007) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6277-3

Frances Edwards and F. Steinhausler (Eds.) Nato And Terrorism Catastrophic Terrorism and First Responders: Threats and Mitigation. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer (2005)
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3585-3

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Evaluation of the Metropolitan Medical Response System Program, Manning, F. J., & Goldfrank, L. (Eds.). (2002). Preparing for Terrorism: Tools for Evaluating the Metropolitan Medical Response System Program. National Academies Press (US). Frances Edwards contributed as a Committee member.

Encyclopedia Articles

Frances L. Edwards. "Emergency Response Systems" International Encyclopedia of Transportation (2021) p. 240 - 246
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/367/

Frances L. Edwards. "Crisis, Emergency, Disaster, and Catastrophe Defined" Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance (2017) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/368/

Daniel C. Goodrich and Frances L. Edwards. "Exercises in Crisis Management Training" Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance (2016)
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/371/

Frances L. Edwards. "Critical Infrastructure and Crisis Management" Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance (2016) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/370/

Frances L. Edwards. "Disaster Response Management" Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance (2016) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/369/

Reports

Presentations

Frances L. Edwards. "Fire Science, Emergency Planning & Community Resilience: Insights from Researchers" California Planning Roundtable(2021).

Frances L. Edwards. "Sheltering the Homeless during COVID-19 in San Jose, California" American Society for Public Administration Annual Conference (2021).

Frances L. Edwards. "Building Public Health Emergency Resilient Communities" 2021 Bay Area Biomedical Device Conference (2021)

Frannie Edwards. "The Ethics of Bearing Witness" ASPA SECM Virtual Conference (2020). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/375/

Frannie Edwards. "State Spending and Local Financial Impacts from California 2017 Wildfires in Napa and Sonoma Counties" American Society for Public Administration 2019 Annual Conference (2019). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/377/

Frances L. Edwards. "Emergency Planning: Evacuations" Cal COG Taking it to the Streets Conference (2018).

Frannie Edwards. "Seismic Early Warning Systems in Japan & Mexico: Expectations and Reality" American Society for Public Administration 2018 Annual Conference (2018). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/379/

Frannie Edwards. "Community Accountability in Land Use Planning: Using Mitigation Strategies" American Society for Public Administration 2018 Annual Conference (2018). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/380/

Personal Commentary

Personal Connections to Research

I lived for two years in Yokohama, Japan where I experienced numerous earthquakes, two of which were quite damaging. I was fascinated by the way my Japanese neighbors calmly dealt with the shaking and its aftermath, with each household being prepared to independently deal with the event, as well as being organized on a neighborhood basis for response. I was able to apply the lessons I learned in Japan to my ancillary job of helping with community outreach when I worked for the Irvine Police Department. This led to my interest in and study of emergency preparedness in general.

Edwards, Frances L.

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