Regional Chapter EERI Citizen Advocate Guidelines Released!
| June 2021
A companion document to EERI’s Citizen Advocate Toolkit specifically for EERI Regional Chapter seismic safety advocacy has been released! Check out the full guide here and the Toolkit on EERI’s Citizen Advocate page.
Graphic courtesy of EERI.
Advocating for Functional Recovery
| May 2021
This week AB 1329 (Nazarian) will be heard on the Assembly floor. EERI, SEAOC, and other related organizations have submitted letters of support for the bill. You can learn more about functional recovery in the following links. Scyma has been supporting this effort over the past several years and is looking forward to a favorable outcome in California with this important piece of legislation.
New Report Charts Path Toward Superior Earthquake Recovery (Jan. 2021)
Scyma participates in CA Legislative Visit Week
| May 2021
The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) organized a Legislative Visit Week with the Amreican Public Works Association (APWA), The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the California Geotechnical Engineering Association (CalGeo), and the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC). Thank you to Representatives Lee, Quirk, and Rivas and Senators Wieckowski and Cortese (along with many others) for allowing us the opportunity to discuss our infrastructure and resilience priorities.
Advocating for Earthquake Safety in Alaska
| April 2021
The EERI Alaska chapter hosted an informative discussion that covered the history of seismicity and resilience planning in Alaska. Zahraa Saiyed discussed advocacy actions that technical constituents may consider when enhancing seismic safety in Alaska. Thank you to Jessica Feenstra (Golder Associates, EERI Alaska Chapter Chair) for hosting, Sterling Straight (Alaska Seismic Hazards Safety Commission), and Mike West (State Seismologist) for contributing to this important topic.
Webinar: Advocating for Seismic Safety in Washington State
| November 2020
Kyle Steuck and Stacy Bartoletti of Degenkolb Seattle along with Zahraa Saiyed deliver a webinar for EERI’s Washington State Chapter on the history of seismic safety, current legislation, and how to activate membership on seismic risk reduction in Washington.
Image courtesy of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
Natural Hazards Workshop 2020: Public Policy and Advocacy Training Session
| July 2020
With a stellar set of panelists, Zahraa @ Scyma facilitated a discussion on advocating for natural disaster risk reduction policy for the first ever virtual Natural Hazards Workshop.
This years workshop theme is Active Hope in an Era of Environmental Extremes. You can read more about the goals of the workshop on the Natural Hazards Center website here.
©Natural Hazards Workshop
2019 Natural Hazards Workshop
| July 2019
Presenting on behalf of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Scyma shared concepts of citizen advocacy and learned from researchers and practitioners the needs of science-to-policy capacity building at the 44th Annual Natural Hazards Workshop.
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Citizen Advocacy: Creating Seismic Safety Public Policy Champions
The theme for this year’s Workshop is Convergence: Coming Together to Improve Hazards and Disaster Research, Practice, and Policy. Click here to learn more about Convergence.
©Natural Hazards Workshop
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Public Policy Panel
| April 2019
Kevin Moore of the Structural Engineers Association of California, Danielle Mieler of the EERI California Policy Committee and Zahraa Saiyed of the EERI National Policy Committee were invited panelists to the EERI Northern California April monthly meeting to discuss recent legislative efforts by both professional organizations. Thank you to the NorCal chapter for hosting the panelists and local chapter students as well!
Click here to read more about the event.
SCYMA visiting Congress with the American Society of Civil Engineers
| March 2019
Zahraa Saiyed, co-founder of Scyma Consulting, joined fellow engineers on The Hill with the American Society of Civil Engineers discussing infrastructure deficits, NEHRP authorization levels and effective advocacy on a federal level. Kudos to ASCE Region 9 (California) for ASCE’s Advocate of the Year Award! Check out the ASCE Legislative Fly-In for more information.
SCYMA @ EERI 2019 Annual Meeting, Vancouver BC
| March 2019
Zahraa Saiyed of Scyma Consulting presented on a panel focused on Recent Legislative Policy Outcomes in Support of Earthquake Risk Reduction, along with Emellia Zamani, the Legislative Director for Assmblymember Nazarian (CA-46), David Bonowitz, SE, and Chris Poland, SE. Learn more about the Annual Meeting and our panel here. Zahraa also led a discussion on identity and values at the Women in Structural Engineering Happy Hour and launched a new initiative through the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute entitled, “EERI Citizen Advocate.” Stay tuned for more information on the program!