David Manheim: Building a Resilient Future
“We’re trying to encourage cities to become more resilient to the impacts of future natural disasters.”
At LCM, Manheim studied abstract mathematics and financial modeling, earning his B.S. in Mathematics.
Now, the 2007 alumnus is an Assistant Policy Analyst at the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit think tank that researches solutions to public policy challenges. Simultaneously, he’s a Ph.D. candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, America’s largest public policy Ph.D. program.
Manheim, who works from the organization's Santa Monica, California office, is currently working on building community resilience and flood insurance in the wake of catastrophes by conducting extensive research and creating quantitative models. His responsibilities also include informing decision-makers on different policy options in managing catastrophic risk.
After Hurricane Sandy, for example, Manheim worked on a project that evaluated the planning processes of federal, state and local governments on recovery efforts and planning for future resiliency. “The work that I do is intended to make the impact of these hurricanes less problematic, make communities more able to withstand those types of natural disasters, and help find ways for cities, states and countries to better protect their citizens.”
And Manheim thanks LCM for providing him with the education that helped secure this position.
“LCM gave me a solid background in math, science—and how I can use them in modeling risk in finance and insurance.
"It’s wonderful,” he adds, “knowing that this type of work could potentially save lives.”
This is David Manheim’s story.
