About the Author
Forrest Lanning, CPEng, P.E., has more than 17 years of experience focused on reducing earthquake risk around the world and in the U.S. By utilizing both his structural engineering and earthquake disaster-recovery experience, Lanning provides a highly needed, well-rounded expertise in working with governments, both foreign and domestic, on reducing their risk to an earthquake disaster.
Lanning previously worked for the United Nations, The World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, for-profit engineering companies, and not-for-profit organizations in Afghanistan, Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, New Zealand and the United States. He is a technical expert in seismically assessing and retrofitting buildings in both the developed and developing world while acknowledging and conforming to local construction methods, labor capabilities and available materials.
Lanning is a New Zealand Chartered Structural and Seismic Engineer (CPEng), a California licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) and is currently serving at the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as an earthquake response liaison and technical adviser for FEMA’s Region 9 (states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the U.S. Territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands). He was selected as a Housner Fellow with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute in 2014 for his dedication and leadership on reducing disaster risk internationally.