Lucia
Velotti
Drector of the M.S in Emergency Management & Associate Professor of Emergency Management
Education
Ph.D., Public Policy and Administration, University of Delaware, 2016. Dissertation: “Accountability in Decision-Making Processes for Vertical Evacuation Adoption.”
Ph.D., Public Management and Governance, University of Salerno, Italy, 2011. Dissertation: “Network Performance: The Italian Waste Management Crisis.”
Postgraduate Diploma in Leadership, Emeritus Institute of Management, Singapore, 2021.
M.A., School of Marketing, Management, and E-Commerce, CESCOT, Benevento, Italy, 2004.
B.S., Sociology, University of Salerno, Italy, 2002.
Bio
Lucia Velotti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Management and Director of the M.S. in Emergency Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines how people, organizations, and communities make decisions and adapt to changing conditions before, during, and after disasters. Her work brings together public management, network governance, accountability, social vulnerability, technology adoption, and community resilience.
Her research addresses earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding—including urban inland flooding—and pandemics and other public health emergencies. She has conducted disaster field research in the United States, Haiti, Japan, and the Netherlands, examining humanitarian response and recovery, warning systems, vertical evacuation, and community preparedness.
Dr. Velotti holds a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware, where she studied accountability in decisions about vertical evacuation, and a Ph.D. from the University of Salerno, Italy, where she studied network performance during the Italian waste management crisis. She previously held a postdoctoral appointment at Rutgers University–Newark and was a graduate research assistant at the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center.
Courses Taught
PMT 711- Introduction to Emergency Management
PMT 760 - Mitigation and Recovery
PMT 763 - Preparedness
PMT 764 - Response to Large Scale Disaster
ESA 101 - Introduction to Emergency Management
FIS 401- Seminar in Fire Problem
SEC 310 - Emergency Planning
Languages
Scholarly Work
Books:
Velotti, L., Brenner, R. M., & Dunn, E. A. (Eds.). (2022). Service-learning for disaster resilience: partnerships for social good. Taylor & Francis.
Velotti, L., Punziano, G., & Addeo, F. (2022). COVID-19 in Italy: Social Behavior and Governmental Policies. Routledge.
Selected articles:
Wernstedt, K., Velotti, L., & Roberts, P. S. (2025). Values From the Frontlines: Planners and Other Local Public Officials on Loss of Life and Equity in Flood Risk Mitigation. Journal of the American Planning Association, 1-17.
Paret, K., Rodriguez, S. A., Mayorga, M. E., Velotti, L., & Lodree, E. J. (2023). Agent-based simulation of spontaneous volunteer convergence to improve disaster planning. Natural hazards review, 24(2), 04023016.
Roberts, P. S., Velotti, L., & Wernstedt, K. (2020). How Public Managers Make Tradeoffs Regarding Lives: Evidence from a Flood Planning Survey Experiment. Administration & Society.
Velotti, L., & Murphy, P. (2020). Service and value co-production and co-creation in emergency services and emergency management. International Journal of Emergency Services.
Shapiro, L.R., Maras, M-H., Velotti, L., Pickman, S., Wei, H-L., & Till, R. (2018). Trojan horse risks in the maritime transportation sector. Journal of Transportation Security, 14(3), 65-83.
Velotti, L. & Justice, J. (2016, October 19). Operationalizing Giddens’s Recursive Model of Accountability. Public Performance & Management Review, 40(2), 310-335.
Velotti, L., Botti, A., & Vesci, M. (2014). Public Private Partnerships and Network governance: what are the challenges? Public Performance Management Review, 36(2), 340-365.
DOI: 10.2753/PMR1530-9576360209
Engel., K, Frerk, G., Velotti, L., Warner, J., & Weijs, B. (2014, September). Flood Disaster Subcultures: the case of the parishes of Borgharen and Itteren. Natural Hazards, 73(2), 859-882.
Trainor, J.E. & Velotti, L. (2013). Leadership in crisis, disasters, and catastrophes. Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(3), 38-40.
DOI:10.1002/jls.21295
Velotti, L., Trainor, J., Engel, K., Torres, M., Myamoto, T., (2013, March). Beyond vertical evacuation: Research considerations for a comprehensive “Vertical protection Strategy.” International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 31(1), 60-77.
Kolen, B., Velotti, L., Trainor, J.E., & van Ruiten, K. (2011). Case study: US experience to define safety standards for flood response planning in The Netherlands. International Journal of Water Governance, 3, 53-59.
Kolen, B., Velotti, L., Trainor, J., & van Ruiten, K. (2011, December 3). Flood response: US experience in the Netherlands to define safety standards for flood response planning. Water governance.
Research Summary
Governance, accountability, and cross-sector partnerships. Public-private partnerships, network governance, nonprofit organizations, public value, co-production, and decision-making under uncertainty. Her work explores how institutional relationships enable or constrain effective disaster management.
Hazards, preparedness, and disaster decision-making. Urban inland flooding, tsunami risk and vertical evacuation, tornado warnings, earthquakes and recovery, hurricanes, and pandemic governance. Her comparative research investigates how social and organizational contexts shape preparedness, risk reduction, response, and recovery.
Social vulnerability, equity, and community resilience. Gender, social capital, disability, changing circumstances, and the ways that community relationships shape exposure, access to resources, and preparedness.
Technology adoption and organizational change. Adoption of emergency management and rescue technologies, institutional accountability, risk communication, and emerging applications of artificial intelligence.
Volunteer management, service-learning, and experiential education. Spontaneous volunteer coordination, community-engaged education, online and in-person service-learning, and low-technology serious games for disaster preparedness.