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Hazards Planning Center

Planning Information Exchange

Project Overview

With a new award agreement granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the successful Planning Information Exchange (PIE) webinar series has been extended for two additional years, starting October 1, 2022. APA will continue to lead in an agreement with FEMA, with the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) as a partner. The quarterly webinars will continue to revolve around four central themes:

  • The information exchange focuses on all hazards.
  • The information exchange focuses on mitigation planning and its connections with recovery planning and preparedness.
  • APA and ASFPM act as co-conveners of all planning exchange webinars. This means both will use their respective web-based meeting platforms to set up, register, drive, facilitate, record, and provide technical support for all webinar meetings.
  • Planning exchange hosts select topics and commit to moderating, presenting, and leading the planning exchange webinars.

Recent Webinar

State-Level Approaches to Hazard Mitigation Funding and Implementation

February 20, 2026, 11:00 AM CST

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CM | 1

The past year has brought a series of challenges for resilience planners across the U.S. as the federal government has stepped back from funding and involvement in the sector. This doesn't mean, though, that hazard mitigation progress has stalled. States are stepping up to fill in these broadening gaps in hazard mitigation funding and resilience planning, utilizing different approaches to do so. This PIE webinar will highlight two such approaches, one from Minnesota and one in Massachusetts. Practitioners will discuss how their respective states developed their hazards programs over time, as well as recent adaptations that they've had to make in light of evolving federal policies.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Learn about disparate state resilience programs and how they've achieved successful outcomes in their work.
  • Understand how these programs have adapted to prevailing hazards funding and policies.
  • Gain insight into how these strategies can be applied in other localities and contexts to build off of existing progress in the field.

Marybeth Groff is the Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Coordinator for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Matthew Bauman is the Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant Assistance Program Manager at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Kevin Currie is a Training Coordinator at the Association for State Floodplain Managers.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Marybeth Groff

Marybeth Groff, CFM, is the State Hazard Mitigation & Climate Adaptation Coordinator at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). Her primary role is co-lead of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Climate Adaptation Program, in partnership with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. In this role, she is the co-chair of the ResilientMass Action Team. She is responsible for the implementation, maintenance, and update of the ResilientMass Plan, the State's Hazard Mitigation & Climate Adaptation Plan. Ms. Groff also serves as State Coordinator for the USACE MA Silver Jackets Team and is Co-Chair of the ASFPM Flood Mitigation Committee. She holds a Master of Science in Planning from Florida State University and a Bachelor of Science in Coastal Marine Management and Policy from the University of Rhode Island.
Presenter

Matthew Bauman

Matt Bauman manages the Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant Program with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and has been with the agency for 10 years. Prior to his current position, he was in a regulatory role with the agency, working with both the floodplain and shoreland management programs. Before joining the DNR, he worked as a local planner in Iowa.
Moderator

Kevin Currie

Kevin Currie, ASFPM's training coordinator since July 2018, works with staff, volunteer leadership, members, and chapters to identify training needs. He is responsible for managing, developing, and deploying ASFPM's comprehensive training program. This is his second term of employment with ASFPM, having previously worked for the association from 2012-2015 as their membership coordinator. He received his BA in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire in 2010.

Past Webinars

View Presentations from Past Webinars

Previous webinars are available to be viewed anytime and from any place shortly after their debut.

  • 25 Years of the Disaster Mitigation Act: Now What? (October 20, 2025) CM | 1.5
  • Sourcing and Utilizing Data for Hazard Mitigation Planning (July 17, 2025) CM | 1
  • The Role of Community Foundations in Disaster Mitigation (September 18, 2024) CM | 1
  • National Risk Index Applications in Hazard Mitigation Planning: Practitioner Case Studies (May 15, 2024) CM | 1
  • Cross-Agency Coordination for Effective Hazard Mitigation and Recovery (December 15, 2023) CM | 1.5
  • The Only Constant is Change: Hazard Mitigation Updates (May 18, 2023) CM | 1.5
  • Foresight and Scenario Planning for Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation (October 31, 2022) CM | 1
  • Lost In Planning: Interdependent Vulnerabilities And Compounding Climate Threats (September 27, 2022) CM | 1
  • Equitable Hazard Mitigation: Practice-Informed Recommendations for Change (July 25, 2022) CM | 1
  • New Research on State Resilience Planning Practices (May 26, 2022) CM | 1
  • The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: A Primer for Planners and Floodplain Managers (December 15, 2021) 
  • Addressing Urban Heat at Regional and Local Scales (October 15, 2021) 
  • The Law's the Limit: Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Local Government (September 3, 2021) 
  • Linking Conservation and the FEMA Community Rating System: Tools to Protect Habitat, Enhance Coastal Resilience and Reduce Flood (April 15, 2021)
  • USACE Inundation Mapping (December 18, 2020)
  • Planning for Wildfire: From Assessing Risk to Long-Term Mitigation (November 20, 2020)
  • Visualization and Datasets for Flood Loss Reduction (October 27, 2020)
  • Increasing Our Resiliency to Urban Flooding (November 21, 2019)
  • Planning for Drought and Cascading Hazards (August 15, 2019)
  • Go Green with GASB62! (April 25, 2019)
  • Flood Economics (February 13, 2019)
  • Current Research Topics in Disasters, Hazard Mitigation, and Resilience (October 9, 2018)
  • Flood Risk Reduction: Putting Planning Into Practice (July 18, 2018)
  • The Fire/Flood Dynamic: Linkages, Tools, and Actions (May 15, 2018)
  • Flood Hazard Mitigation in Historic Districts (January 31, 2018)
  • Planning Integration for Resilience Scorecard (October 4, 2017)
  • Naturally Resilient Communities (May 30, 2017)
  • Post-Disaster Temporary Housing: Urban Planning Considerations (March 23, 2017)
  • Subdivision Design and Flood Hazard Areas (December 2, 2016)
  • State Resiliency Initiatives: From Issue to Action! (September 22, 2016)
  • Combining Climate Adaptation and Hazard Mitigation Plans (July 7, 2016)
  • Know Your Dam Risk! (May 6, 2016)
  • Adapting Urban Vacant Land to Mitigate Hazards (February 26, 2016)
  • Hazard Mitigation Implementation (December 10, 2015)
  • Hazards Planning and Resilience: The Elected Official's Perspective (October 19, 2015)
  • Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience (June 30, 2015)
  • The Role of Hazard Mitigation in Post-Disaster Recovery (May 6, 2015)