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Resilience

Disaster and failure studies

NCST Advisory Committee Members

Committee Member	Title and Organization
José Izquierdo-Encarnación (Chair)	Principal, PORTICUS, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Term Expires: September 30, 2026 José Izquierdo-Encarnación has over 35 years of experience as a civil engineer specializing in structural engineering. Puerto Rico. For the past 25 years he has worked in the international field of engineering, becoming president of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) from 2003 to 2004. He has held several professional, civic, and public positions in Puerto Rico, including serving as Secretary of State and Secretary of Transportation and Public Works for the Commonwealth, as well as President and Board member of the Institute of Engineers and Land Surveyors. Mr. Izquierdo-Encarnación has also served as a Board member and Vice President of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and Trustee of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.
Donald Dusenberry (Vice Chair)	Consulting Engineer, Wakefield, MA Term Expires: August 31, 2028 Mr. Donald Dusenberry is a licensed professional engineer in over 15 states and owns his own engineering consulting firm. He has over 45 years of professional experience, and in 2021 retired from the engineering mechanics division of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. in Waltham, MA, where he served as Senior Principal. Additionally, Mr. Dusenberry volunteers much of his time with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), where he is a Fellow. During his time with ASCE, he has served on technical committees, standards committees, awards committees, the continuing education committee, and worked as an associate editor for one of the journals. Mr. Dusenberry served on SEI’s Board of Governors for seven years, including two years as President. Before his term on the Board of Governors, he served on the Executive Committee of SEI’s Technical Activities Division for five years.
Kurtis Gurley	Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Term Expires: August 31, 2027 Dr. Kurtis Gurley is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. His primary areas of research are wind effects on residential structures and stochastic modeling of extreme winds and structural resistance. Dr. Gurley has largely focused on modeling the vulnerability of residential structures to hurricane wind damage. Dr. Gurley is an Associate Editor for ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, the Associate Director of the UF Engineering School for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Environment (ESSIE – early faculty development), and the Associate Director of the shared-use UF NSF NHERI Wind Hazard Experimental Facility.
George Guszcza	President and CEO, National Institute of Building Sciences, Washington, D.C. Term Expires: August 31, 2029 Dr. George Guszcza is the President and CEO of the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). Prior to joining NIBS, he served as the Chief Transformation Officer of Michael Baker International, adjunct professor at The George Washington University, and as a strategic advisor to the Middle East Institute’s Board of Directors. He hass over 25 years of experience in the built environment spanning the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the US, UK, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Dr. Guszcza previously held executive roles as the COO (CRO) of the Neal Richards Group and the EVP for Finance and Administration (CFO/CIO) of Adams and Associates. As the founder/CEO of the Aedifos Group, he and his team led the restart of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital project on behalf of Project HOPE and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In 2003, as an active duty US Army Medical Service Corp officer and the National Director of Healthcare Facilities for Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraq Ministry of Health, Dr. Guszcza led a staff of 3000 architects and engineers to restart 240 hospitals, 10 specialty centers, and 1200 clinics across the country. He has served as the Chair of George Mason University’s Civil Engineering Institute Board of Directors, Treasurer of the Society of American Military Engineers Northern Virginia Post Board of Directors, and on the WiRED International Board of Directors.
John Osteraas	Corporate Vice President & Principal Engineer, Exponent Engineering & Scientific Consulting, Menlo Park, CA Term Expires: August 31, 2027 Dr. John Osteraas is a Corporate Vice President and Principal Engineer in Exponent's Buildings and Structures Practice. He specializes in the evaluation of the performance of buildings under extreme loads, including earthquake, wind, flood, landslide, explosion, high-energy impact, and construction failure. His research has focused on performance of structures under seismic loading and full-scale instrumentation and testing of structures under dynamic loading. Dr. Osteraas' expertise in structural and earthquake engineering includes structural safety and damage assessment; structural analysis; soil-structure interaction; seismic site response assessment; and analysis and design of wood, steel, concrete, masonry, and composite systems. His geotechnical engineering expertise extends to foundation and retaining structure analysis and design, slope stability analysis, and analysis of soil-structure interaction. Dr. Osteraas has also served as a Structures Specialist with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue program and has been deployed to New Orleans in 2005, the World Trade Center in 2001, and Oklahoma City in 1995 to assist with search and rescue activities. He was a founding Board Member and Corporate Secretary for Krawinkler Luth and Associates, Inc., and has held research and consulting positions with the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford University, the Counter Quake Corporation, Structural Research Inc., Engineering Research Inc., Marshall Erdman and Associates, and Fel-Pro Energy Systems.
Randall Poston	Senior Consultant, Pivot Engineers, Austin, TX Term Expires: August 31, 2029 Dr. Randall Poston is an internationally recognized expert in structural engineering and inductee to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has authored and delivered hundreds of papers and presentations related to the structural engineering industry and championed the repair of existing structures for upwards of 30 years. As past Chair of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 318 Structural Building Code (2008-2014), Dr. Poston oversaw a monumental effort to completely reorganize the concrete code, the first undertaking of its kind in the history of ACI. He has won numerous awards for his code leadership and repair projects. Dr. Poston was selected as a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering in 2014, following his election to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates at The University of Texas at Austin Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering in 2008.
Aspasia Zerva	Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA Term Expires: August 31, 2028 Dr. Aspasia Zerva is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. She previously held appointments as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, Visiting Associate under a National Science Foundation (NSF) Visiting Professorship Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education award in Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the California Institute of Technology, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. She also served as Program Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Centers in the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, Directorate for Engineering, at NSF. Her research interests span the areas of Engineering Seismology, with emphasis on the analysis of seismic spatial strong motion array data, modeling of spatially variable seismic ground motions, wave propagation techniques, and earthquake engineering.

Committee Member

Title and Organization

José Izquierdo-Encarnación

(Chair)

Principal, PORTICUS, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico

Term Expires: September 30, 2026

José Izquierdo-Encarnación has over 35 years of experience as a civil engineer specializing in structural engineering. Puerto Rico. For the past 25 years he has worked in the international field of engineering, becoming president of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) from 2003 to 2004. He has held several professional, civic, and public positions in Puerto Rico, including serving as Secretary of State and Secretary of Transportation and Public Works for the Commonwealth, as well as President and Board member of the Institute of Engineers and Land Surveyors. Mr. Izquierdo-Encarnación has also served as a Board member and Vice President of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and Trustee of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.

Donald Dusenberry

(Vice Chair)

Consulting Engineer, Wakefield, MA

Term Expires: August 31, 2028

Mr. Donald Dusenberry is a licensed professional engineer in over 15 states and owns his own engineering consulting firm. He has over 45 years of professional experience, and in 2021 retired from the engineering mechanics division of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. in Waltham, MA, where he served as Senior Principal. Additionally, Mr. Dusenberry volunteers much of his time with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), where he is a Fellow. During his time with ASCE, he has served on technical committees, standards committees, awards committees, the continuing education committee, and worked as an associate editor for one of the journals. Mr. Dusenberry served on SEI’s Board of Governors for seven years, including two years as President. Before his term on the Board of Governors, he served on the Executive Committee of SEI’s Technical Activities Division for five years.

Kurtis Gurley

Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Term Expires: August 31, 2027

Dr. Kurtis Gurley is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. His primary areas of research are wind effects on residential structures and stochastic modeling of extreme winds and structural resistance. Dr. Gurley has largely focused on modeling the vulnerability of residential structures to hurricane wind damage. Dr. Gurley is an Associate Editor for ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, the Associate Director of the UF Engineering School for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Environment (ESSIE – early faculty development), and the Associate Director of the shared-use UF NSF NHERI Wind Hazard Experimental Facility.

George Guszcza

President and CEO, National Institute of Building Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Term Expires: August 31, 2029

Dr. George Guszcza is the President and CEO of the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). Prior to joining NIBS, he served as the Chief Transformation Officer of Michael
Baker International, adjunct professor at The George Washington University, and as a strategic advisor to the Middle East Institute’s Board of Directors. He hass over 25 years of experience in the built environment spanning the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the US, UK, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Dr. Guszcza previously held executive roles as the COO (CRO) of the Neal Richards Group and the EVP for Finance and Administration (CFO/CIO) of Adams and Associates. As the founder/CEO of the Aedifos Group, he and his team led the restart of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital project on behalf of Project HOPE and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In 2003, as an active duty US Army Medical Service Corp officer and the National Director of Healthcare Facilities for Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraq Ministry of Health, Dr. Guszcza led a staff of 3000 architects and engineers to restart 240 hospitals, 10 specialty centers, and 1200 clinics across the country. He has served as the Chair of George Mason University’s Civil Engineering Institute Board of Directors, Treasurer of the Society of American Military Engineers Northern Virginia Post Board of Directors, and on the WiRED International Board of Directors.

John Osteraas

Corporate Vice President & Principal Engineer, Exponent Engineering & Scientific Consulting, Menlo Park, CA

Term Expires: August 31, 2027

Dr. John Osteraas is a Corporate Vice President and Principal Engineer in Exponent's Buildings and Structures Practice. He specializes in the evaluation of the performance of buildings under extreme loads, including earthquake, wind, flood, landslide, explosion, high-energy impact, and construction failure. His research has focused on performance of structures under seismic loading and full-scale instrumentation and testing of structures under dynamic loading. Dr. Osteraas' expertise in structural and earthquake engineering includes structural safety and damage assessment; structural analysis; soil-structure interaction; seismic site response assessment; and analysis and design of wood, steel, concrete, masonry, and composite systems. His geotechnical engineering expertise extends to foundation and retaining structure analysis and design, slope stability analysis, and analysis of soil-structure interaction. Dr. Osteraas has also served as a Structures Specialist with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue program and has been deployed to New Orleans in 2005, the World Trade Center in 2001, and Oklahoma City in 1995 to assist with search and rescue activities. He was a founding Board Member and Corporate Secretary for Krawinkler Luth and Associates, Inc., and has held research and consulting positions with the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford University, the Counter Quake Corporation, Structural Research Inc., Engineering Research Inc., Marshall Erdman and Associates, and Fel-Pro Energy Systems.

Randall Poston

Senior Consultant, Pivot Engineers, Austin, TX

Term Expires: August 31, 2029

Dr. Randall Poston is an internationally recognized expert in structural engineering and inductee to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has authored and delivered hundreds of papers and presentations related to the structural engineering industry and championed the repair of existing structures for upwards of 30 years. As past Chair of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 318 Structural Building Code (2008-2014), Dr. Poston oversaw a monumental effort to completely reorganize the concrete code, the first undertaking of its kind in the history of ACI. He has won numerous awards for his code leadership and repair projects. Dr. Poston was selected as a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering in 2014, following his election to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates at The University of Texas at Austin Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering in 2008.

Aspasia Zerva

Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

Term Expires: August 31, 2028

Dr. Aspasia Zerva is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. She previously held appointments as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, Visiting Associate under a National Science Foundation (NSF) Visiting Professorship Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education award in Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the California Institute of Technology, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. She also served as Program Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Centers in the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, Directorate for Engineering, at NSF. Her research interests span the areas of Engineering Seismology, with emphasis on the analysis of seismic spatial strong motion array data, modeling of spatially variable seismic ground motions, wave propagation techniques, and earthquake engineering.

Resilience and Disaster and failure studies

Created October 26, 2011, Updated September 22, 2026

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