Last year, when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston and other communities in Texas, “resilience” was a hot topic. For those of us interested in transforming how communities promote mental health, resilience is more than just a catch-word, but a phenomenon that needs rigorous study and nuanced understanding. What do we need to know about resilience, how is it fostered, and what does fostering resilience commit us to doing?

Helping us to answer these questions is Wendy Ellis, the project director of the Building Community Resilience collaborative at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. She is joined by Lourdes Rodriguez, director of the Center for Place-Based Initiatives at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.