Not every crisis becomes a disaster, but every crisis does need to be managed in order to reduce real or perceived risk and promote capacity building and resilience. Effective communication before, during, and after a crisis event is critical for influencing policy and processes, coordinating and safeguarding stakeholders, informing decision-making, and engaging with the public. In this course, students will gain insights into the tools, strategies, messages, mechanisms of delivery, and best practices related to disaster and crisis communications, including how to engage with internal and external audiences and the role of social media in communications to enable information gathering and dissemination. Students will also learn how to develop a disaster/crisis communication strategy and plan that could be integrated into an emergency response plan.