Book on the impacts of climate change named a Best Book of 2021 by USA Today

Buzzards Bay, MA: Accolades are mounting for Disaster ology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis by Samantha L. Montano, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Emergency Management Department at Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA), a top-ranked state university with seven undergraduate degree programs focusing on science, engineering, technology, math, and business that blend academics and experiential learning.

The 384-page book published by Park Row Books and described as “part memoir, part expert analysis” is a timely and cautionary narrative on the environmental disasters of today and those looming in the future in large part due to climate change and the disruption of ecosystems.

In Disasterology, Montano brings readers through some of the nation’s worst disasters, providing explanation of what really happened from an emergency management perspective. The critically acclaimed volume, named “One of the Best Books of 2021” by both USA Today and National Public Radio’s “Science Friday,” addresses lapses in prevention and preparedness during past crises, the critical role of the media, and how the approach to recovery was not designed to serve marginalized communities. A section of the book is devoted to the COVID-19 pandemic, inarguably this generation’s most deadly disaster.

Montano holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Loyola University and received both her Master of Science and doctorate in emergency management from North Dakota State University.  Her current courses include Introduction to Emergency Management and Emergency Management Policy and Procedure, both part of the curriculum requirements for the Academy’s Bachelor of Science in emergency management.  (The Academy also offers a Master of Science in emergency management.)

 “The entire MMA community congratulates Dr. Montano on the publication of Disasterology,” said Rear Admiral Francis X. McDonald, USMS, president of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. “It is a deeply moving account and essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand how our country handles disasters and what we must do to better face them.”