Master your Disaster

Leann Hackman-Carty has been the CEO of Economic Developers Alberta since 2009. In 2014, Leann completed a project with 11 Southern Alberta flood impacted communities. In 2016-17, she worked with the Fort McMurray region on business and economic recovery by setting up and operating the business hotline; validating businesses for Red Cross emergency relief; and leading a 10-member economic recovery assessment team to the region. In 2019 she updated the Community Toolkit for Economic Recovery and Resiliency (Canadian Version)' to help communities prepare for and recover from economic disruptions, and brought this resiliency training program to Canada in 2017.

In addition to her work at EDA, she heads up MYD Global, which is focused on community capacity building, resilience and recovery. She has also authored the “Master Your Disaster” series of guidebooks on Amazon, designed to help individuals, businesses and communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. Leann has received a number of awards for her work, including Public Safety Canada’s Emergency Management Exemplary Service Award-Resilient Communities. In her capacity as the Canadian President of the Institute for Sustainable Development (www.isdus.org) and member of the International Economic Development Council Leann continues to work with a range of international experts on innovative long term community recovery and resiliency programs—including projects in California, Puerto Rico, North Carolina, Florida, Ukraine and the U.S. Eastern Tribes.