Publications

Online Publications

  • Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAPEM). WRAP-EM Regional Exercise After Action Report. 9 August 2021. https://wrap-em.org/index.php/table-view/27-regional-exercise-team/46-reg-ex-aar Acknowledgements: Report authors include Rita Burke, Karla Lavin Williams, David McCarthy, Irene Navis, Ellen Reibling, P. Brian Savino, Dustin Smith and Todd Williams. Our thanks to the WRAP-EM State Coordinators for facilitating small group discussions. INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND The Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAP-EM) was founded on the vision of creating a “coordinated, collaborative, and sustainable regional pediatric disaster planning and response capability.” The challenge that faced WRAP-EM was how to organize our regional partners into a coordinated response that would achieve this vision and how we would test these processes in our regional exercise. For most organizations, an exercise serves to test previously defined processes and provide insight into areas in which training needs to be strengthened. WRAP-EM faced a unique challenge, however, in that our organization was still in the development phase of creating the processes and procedures we aimed to test. Many of these processes were being developed organically in individual focus groups. As such, we designed our exercise with the intent of it being used to both identify best practices that were being developed within our organization, as well as identifying new systems and processes for a more efficient and targeted disaster response. Our driving question when developing this exercise was, “What should it look like when WRAP-EM activates for a disaster?”    (08/2021)
  • Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAP-EM). WRAP-EM Community Regional Response to COVID-19: Lessons Learned and Best Practices Intra-Action Report (IAR). 14 June 2020. Acknowledgements: Report authors include Rita Burke, Mary King, Karla Lavin Williams, Anna Lin, David McCarthy, Irene Navis, Ellen Reibling, P. Brian Savino, Dustin Smith and Todd Williams. Our thanks to the WRAP-EM State Coordinators for facilitating small group discussions. FUNDING SOURCE: WRAP-EM is supported by a grant from the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response. Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence CFDA# 93.889 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAP-EM) was founded with the goal of developing a “coordinated, collaborative and sustainable regional pediatric disaster planning and response capability.” In March 2020, the focus of WRAP-EM rapidly shifted from planning to execution. As the COVID-19 global pandemic began to rapidly spread in many regions of the United States, prompting local and state shutdowns as healthcare systems prepared for a potential surge of critically ill patients. The WRAP-EM response to COVID-19 was swift. Bi-weekly conference calls were initiated that connected some of the foremost subject matter experts (SMEs) in pediatric emergency care, disaster response, infectious disease, emergency planning and other critical fields as well as representatives from each alliance State. The calls were a primary method to provide rapid dissemination of constantly changing information to the regional alliance members, allowing for institutions to share critical knowledge for patient care. The focus groups of WRAP-EM, while making good progress on the initial intended objectives, also shifted their attention towards COVID-19. Focus groups were able to generate numerous deliverables including emergency patient surge plans, PPE management strategies, plans for management of obstetric patients and their newborns, pediatric mental health initiatives, novel use of telemedicine and other communication strategies for pediatric care, and just-in-time educational resources for management of COVID-19 respiratory failure. In addition to these projects, WRAP-EM identified resources that were made available through the external online portal, which served as an important vehicle for networking and dissemination of information. These projects were shared widely in our scheduled COVID-19 meetings and utilized across the entire WRAP-EM membership. The COVID-19 crisis exposed vulnerabilities across our healthcare system that WRAP-EM is uniquely positioned to address. WRAP-EM identified the need for legislative support as a primary concern. We noted that there is a need to change existing local, state, and federal regulations in order to support innovation across state lines, which is a primary goal of our consortium. Much of the success of our response relied on our technological solutions, specifically the WRAP-EM portal. Technologies such as the portal need to be expanded in use and scope to disseminate best practices and crisis communication. Additional opportunities for growth include leveraging medical trainees (medical, nursing, pharmacy, public health, etc.) in disaster situations as well as out-of-region representatives/experts who could serve in hot-spot operations centers to facilitate disaster “cross-pollination.” The WRAP-EM response to the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing. The emergence of the novel coronavirus pandemic provided an opportunity for the existing WRAP-EM focus groups to address some grant deliverables while simultaneously providing response to COVID-19. Several focus groups were able to produce real- time tools, methods, and outreach materials that met the intent of the grant deliverables while simultaneously providing operational support to the COVID-19 response. The projects developed to date have been vital for the COVID-19 response in our alliance regions, and we are committed to continuing to innovate with the goal of achieving the best outcomes for children and their families. (06/2020)

Books and Chapters

  • Davis, C., Alipoon, L., Lavin Williams, K., & Hopp Marshak, H. (2021). Measuring Emotional Intelligence in Undergraduate Populations. In Meuter, R. (Ed). Positive Psychology in Practice, Chapter 9. Kindle Book.  (01/2021)

Scholarly Journals--Accepted

  • Authors: Walters, Elizabeth Lea; Thomas, Tamara L; Corbett, Steven Wynn; Lavin Williams, Karla; Williams, Todd; Wittlake, William. Article Title: A Convertible Use Rapidly Expandable Model for Disaster Response. Journal Title: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment. Vol/Issue: vol: 4, iss: 2, 2012 (10/2012)