Rapid Resilience is a deployable emergency response program that was formed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as a platform for grassroots emergency response initiatives. Rapid Resilience empowers grassroots aid efforts in disenfranchised communities and since its initiation in March, has delivered personal protective equipment (PPE) to medical workers across the country.

Additionally, the program provided COVID-protection in vulnerable low-income communities including, prisons and Native American communities, and built urban cooling infrastructure for heat waves. Rapid Resilience’s model has and continues to support and amplify local end-to-end emergency response and recovery efforts.

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Isil Akgul is a designer at Cooper Robertson with a Bachelor of Architecture Degree and a Master of Science in Sustainable Environmental Systems. During her time in New York, she has worked with several non-profits on Climate Change mitigation and adaptation. In addition to working at Cooper Robertson, she is also working with the RETI (Resilience, Education, Training, Innovation) Center as their Director of Operations on their newly initiated Rapid Resilience program. She is a fellow at the Urban Design Forum and a PAD Fellow at the Center for Urban Pedagogy.