Rice Crisis Management Team honored by Board of Trustees

The Rice Board of Trustees honored the university’s Crisis Management Team (CMT) for its extraordinary work during the last year. Jerusha Kasch, director of institutional crisis management, received the honor on behalf of the team.

Kasch, who was hired in 2017 as the university’s first trained crisis management professional, has also led the crisis management team through Hurricane Harvey, the COVID-19 pandemic and, most recently, last month’s arctic weather. At any given time, CMT membership ranges anywhere from 8 to over 200 Rice employees who play critical roles during crises while also managing their usual day-to-day jobs and responsibilities.

The Board of Trustees commended the CMT for keeping the Rice campus safe and productive. Over the past year there were nearly 800 calls to the COVID-19 call center, more than 70,000 COVID-19 tests performed on campus, more than 10,000 daily contact tracing check-ins, nearly 80,000 items of personal protective equipment delivered, more than 5,500 cleaning items distributed and more than 450,000 Zoom meetings conducted to coordinate those efforts.

“What we have accomplished is unimaginable” Kasch said to the CMT. “It is not just one person or one group of people, but a whole group effort.”