Master's in Emergency & Disaster Management
Monica Sanders

Monica Sanders is the founder of "The Undivide Project", an organization dedicated to addressing the legal and policy changes needed to address the intersections between digital and climate equity. She is faculty at the Georgetown Law Center and the Earth Commons at Georgetown University. Her previous academic experience includes being an administrator and Associate Professor at the University of Delaware and a Professor of Practice at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. Professor Sanders was also a Senior Fellow at Tulane University's Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, where she designed first-in-the-nation programs on disaster equity and the "Climate X JEDI" Institute. Her research interests reflect her commitment to policy strategy and community engagement related to internet governance, data in disasters, and how to use technology to reach vulnerable populations.

Professor Sanders is an internationally recognized expert in the field, serving on National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Committees, UN Agency advisory groups, and as part of the inaugural class of the FEMA Vanguard Fellows Program. She is a contributor to Forbes.com and the Illuminem thought leadership community.

Professor Sanders’ practical experience includes serving as a Senior Committee Counsel for both the House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Homeland Security, at times for either political party. In those roles, she focused on oversight of disaster response and recovery programs, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure protection. She also served as the Senior Legal Advisor for International Response and Programs at the American Red Cross, as a judicial trainer, and as an attorney for the Small Business Administration during the Hurricane Maria and Western wildfire responses. Professor Sanders also studied security and defense–civilian coordination in emergencies as part of the European Union Visitor’s Program and remains actively involved in crisis and resilience work as part of GNDR, Red de Mujeres en Desastres, and several other networks.

Ms. Sanders’ background includes seven years of television and online journalism experience. She worked in the Miami and Atlanta markets prior to joining CNN, where she received a 2002 Emmy award for her work covering the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks and the military engagement in Afghanistan that followed. Before departing the network, she contributed to an online newscast concept for CNN.com and cultural programming for CNN International. Her work has been featured in the MIT Tech Review, Forbes, Essence, El Observador and Le Monde.

Professor Sanders received her degrees from the University of Miami, the Catholic University of America, Harvard Law School, and University College London.