Dr. J. Steven Picou
Dr. J. Steven Picou has given over 250 presentations over the last forty years to various professional organizations, agencies, organizations and groups. Known as an interesting and dynamic speaker, he has given keynote addresses and invited presentations to organizations such as the National Council Executives Group, Louisiana Governor's Oil Spill Conference, National Science Foundation Global Environmental Education Workshop, Environmental Education Association of Alabama, International Risk and Society Workshop (Oxford, England), Groves Conference on Marriage and the Family, the 2002 Earth Charter Summit, Alaska Peoples Forum, National Press Club, USA Dean's Lecture and the Alaska Environmental Forum.
Speaker's
Forum
Topics of these lectures include "Catastrophes in the Twenty-First Century," "The Chronic Social Impacts of Hurricane Katrina", "The Never-ÂEnding Alaska Disaster", "Toxic Contamination and Human Health", "The Human Toll of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill", "Climate Change as Catastrophe", "Terrorism in the Modem World," "Will New Orleans Ever Recover?", "Building Neighborhood Resiliency", "The Failure of our Legal System for Preventing Toxic Contamination", among others. Dr. Picou presented a three-day visiting scholar lecture series at Southeastern Louisiana University and over the years, has been extensively quoted in major newspapers, in leading magazines and has appeared in numerous documentaries, such as the Sierra Club production of "The Day the Water Died." Most recently he served as a lecturer for the Portland State University Executive Leadership Seminar held in Anchorage and Valdez, Alaska.
Dr. Picou has served as an expert witness in numerous legal cases involving disasters and the toxic contamination of neighborhoods, communities, and biophysical regions. He served as a court-appointed expert for the 23rd District Court of the State of Louisiana for evaluating the community impacts of the Livingston Train Derailment and Toxic Spill. Dr. Picou was an expert witness for plaintiffs in the Southbend subdivision (Friendswood, TX) class-action litigation against the Monsanto Corporation concerning the Brio Superfund Site. He was also an expert-witness for the plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and was the lead expert for the preparation of an Amicus Brief received by the U.S. Supreme Court. Other expert-witness cases included the Kentec-Dupont litigation where Dr. Picou testified in state court in Greenville, North Carolina and a class-action lawsuit involving plaintiffs for the Eunice (LA) train derailment. Most recently, he worked closely with noted attorney Jan Schlichtmann (A Civil Action) to collect data on health and psychological well-being of residents of the Wingate Incinerator and Superfund Site in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
In 2001, Dr. Picou received the Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association section on Environment and Technology for his research and work on survivors of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Over the last twenty years, Dr. Picou has spent over twenty months in the field in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska, collecting data, directing community intervention programs and giving lectures on the chronic community impacts of this disaster. In 2008, he received the William Foote Whyte Distinguished Career Award from the American Sociological Association section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology. This award acknowledged Dr. Picou's history of producing innovative applied programs in the areas of education, organizations and disasters, as well as, his translational sociological activities which include the development of peer-listener training workshops for mitigating collective trauma and improving neighborhood and community social capital. In 2008 he was also the recipient of the Olivia Rambo McGlothern National Alumni Outstanding Scholar Award for his research on Hurricane Katrina and other disasters.
