FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
Join SpokaneFāVS today for a Coffee Talk discussion on “Faith, Resiliency and Natural Disasters” with columnists Rev. Liv Larson Andrews, Samantha Briggs, and two special guest panelists.
During last year’s wind storm, Larson wrote about the community coming together and how America should do the same for refugees. For Coffee Talk she wrote, “Stormy Weather & Blankets.”
Briggs will be speaking about the resiliency she’s seen in the people of Uganda, where she’s worked alongside local leaders of both religious and community organizations to initiate programs in education, business, and public health. For Coffee Talk she wrote, “Natural Disasters: We Have To Do Our Part.”
Guest panelist Frank E. Hutchison, PhD, is currently a partner at the business consulting and crisis management firm Me^2 Solutions, and has worked for the Air Force, Missile Defense Agency, Department of Justice, White House and Homeland Security. He’s writing a series for the Coffee Talk on emergency preparedness.
Guest panelist Rev. Dr. L. George Abrams has served eight years as United Methodist disaster response coordinator for Pacific Northwest Conference, has been FEMA Voluntary Agency Specialist for 10 years working with faith based and voluntary agencies, and three years as Washington state Delegate to National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD).
Coffee Talk will take place in the foyer of the Community Building, 35 W. Main Ave. at 10 a.m. Guests who buy a pastry at Boots Bakery across the street can get a free coffee, if they say they’re part of the SpokaneFāVS Coffee Talk.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
