Dr. Jamie Aten is a disaster psychologist, author, and speaker. He is the Founder and Co-Director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute and Dr. Arthur P. Rech and Mrs. Jean May Rech Associate Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College. He helped launch and now directs the Disaster Ministry Conference; an annual national event that equips church leaders and congregations for disaster service including refugee care.
Dr. Aten first became involved in disaster ministry after moving to South Mississippi just six days before Hurricane Katrina struck. He started studying disaster spiritual and emotional care and supporting church recovery efforts just weeks after the storm.
Since that time he has gone onto research, train, or mobilize church leaders after numerous disasters around the globe, including: Hurricanes Rita and Gustav, H1N1 pandemic and Ebola crisis, 2010 Mississippi Delta and 2011 Alabama Tuscaloosa Tornadoes, Civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia, Kenyan refugee crisis, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Upper Big Branch Mining Explosion, Japan Tsunami and Earthquake, Philippines typhoon, Haiti Earthquake, and 2015 South Carolina Flood.
His current research on the intersection of faith and resilience amid disasters and humanitarian crises is being supported by a $1.9 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation. His publications have appeared in The Washington Post, Christianity Today, and some of the top scholarly journals in the field of psychology. He is the co-author of the forthcoming Disaster Ministry Handbook and co-editor of 6 scholarly books. He was awarded the Margaret Gorman Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association (Division 36) for his research on the psychology of religion/spirituality and disasters. Follow him on Twitter: @drjamieaten.
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