Elizabeth Hardister had her eyes set on getting a master’s degree from the University of Georgia Institute for Disaster Management (IDM) before she had even declared an undergraduate major.
Her interest in emergency preparedness began when she was in high school, cheering on her father who was competing in the 2013 Boston Marathon where two homemade bombs detonated near the finish line injured hundreds of people and killed three.
Her father was OK, but Hardister remembers being struck by how quickly first responders mobilized resources to get people to safety.
“You hear sirens in the background as you’re going through your day, but before that, I had never taken notice of the infrastructure and the coordination that is required to respond to large emergencies like that,” she said.
This incident also sparked a desire to study international relations, intending to combine her interests to focus on international emergency response. As soon as she started at UGA, Hardister began conducting research with IDM. In four years, she received a bachelor’s in international affairs and a Master of Public Health, with a concentration in disaster management. In 2018, she was selected as a Schwarzman Scholar and continued her education in China, where she received a second master’s in Global Affairs.
After completing her degrees, Hardister was awarded the Presidential Management Fellowship, a leadership development program for those with advanced degrees, and she began working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Desk Officer. Her work initially supported staff on various topics, but by mid-2020, Hardister was working to support CDC programs and global health security related to COVID-19.
During her rotation for the Fellowship, Hardister worked in the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Affairs Officer and with the Bureau for Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism.
Ultimately, Hardister missed her public health roots and returned to the CDC in February 2023, where she currently serves as the Special Assistant to the Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Hardister said that her time at IDM greatly prepared her for the workforce through hands-on practice and interdisciplinary studies, specifically looking at hurricane and tropical storm planning in Georgia and learn what could be improved.
“One of the best things that I grabbed from my experience at IDM was being surrounded by professionals who really emphasized thinking critically and having a growth mindset,” she said.
Hardister says that her professors encouraged her to always search for ways to improve, to anticipate challenges and to learn from past experiences, which she carries with her into her work today building operational capacity to prepare for future infectious disease outbreaks.
Hardister says she likes the idea of taking on responsibility for some bigger challenges in disaster management. “It’s really rewarding to be able to serve the public.”
