Glossary
International Glossary for Resilience
Clear communication is essential, yet we all have had experiences in which the same terms are used to describe different situations. For example, which term do you use to describe a fire? Is it an emergency, an incident, an event, a disaster, or all of the above? Sometimes the discrepancies are subtle, sometimes not. In everyday situations, ambiguity can be comical, confusing, or at worst, annoying. In a crisis, unclear definitions can be dangerous.
As the oldest and largest nonprofit organization of its kind, DRI International is the industry thought leader and service is our mission. Our Certified Professionals and the greater resilience community look to us for guidance. When we were asked to offer a DRI glossary, we accepted the challenge. In keeping with the makeup of our Certified Professionals, the process had to be international, inclusive, and apolitical, so we established a volunteer committee of industry leaders to write and review the terms and definitions that would ultimately appear in this document.
We always expected that this would be a living document, subject to revisions and changes. There have been numerous additions and edits over the years as well as the introduction of versions in Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish. The objectives of maintaining a comprehensive glossary are:
- to promote a common set of universal terms
- to reduce confusion and remove inconsistencies between parties
- to facilitate coordination
- to provide a standard translation of technical terms specific to the profession
To access the glossary, please login to your DRI account or create one here. You can download the Glossary from the Resources section of your Dashboard. Check back frequently as we will upload revisions on a regular basis.
The International Glossary for Resilience and its translations are maintained by their respective committees
Glossary Committee
Andrea Abrams
MBCP, Committee Chair
Kathy Acevedo
ABCP, Coordinator
Rob Alaniz
MBCP
Gayle Anders
MBCI, CBCP
Kelvin Brim
CBCP
Sarah Gucciardo
CBCP
Steven Lei
CBCP
Susan Lounsbury
MBCP
Doniella McKoy
MBCI, CBCP
Gayle Mitcham
MBCP, MBCI, CCCP, CBCA, SCRA
Michelle Noah
CBCP
Kyle Shinn
ABCP
Sheila Starnes
CBCP
Chinese Glossary Committee
Gary Liu
MBCP
Song Bing Zhang
CBCP
Yue Song
CBCP
Li Li
CBCP
Arabic Glossary Committee
Waleed Aldakheel
CBCP
Waleed Al Dakheel
CBCP
Nabil Al Ofi
CBCP
Ahmed Riad Ali
CBCP
Spanish Glossary Committee
Norman Ramírez
MBCP, CRMP, CCRP, Presidente
Ana Terrada
CBCP
Mariana Quiros
CBCP
Hector Miguel Opazo
CBCP
Agustín López
DRI Spain
Mauricio Carvajal
MBCP
Juan Carlos Torres
MBCP
Karol Cordero
CBCP