Author Event | Rising from Ground Zero

Rising from Ground Zero comes to the Parkway Central Library on Monday, November 9, for a presentation and discussion about the FDNY's path through crisis to transformation. The talk is hosted by the Free Library of Philadelphia's Social Science and History Department, and it centers on the book Rising from Ground Zero, which compiles never-before-published interviews with FDNY firefighters and other 9/11 responders. Those interviews focus on how they processed organizational change in the decades following the attacks—a challenge the authors argue continues today.

The evening brings together three very different perspectives. Gregory P. Shea is a PhD and senior fellow at the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management and the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Implementation Science. Paul Brown is a retired New York City Fire captain and third-generation firefighter who spent more than thirty years as a first responder. And André Kotzé is the founder of AirtimeBA and principal consultant at Teamworks Training and Development, a veteran with 30 years of field experience. Between them, they cover the academic, the operational, and the strategic sides of how an organization changes after a catastrophe.

It's a conversation that looks at the FDNY's trajectory from the immediate aftermath of 9/11 through the long years of restructuring that followed. The authors trace that path from crisis to transformation, and the discussion opens it up to the room. If you've ever wondered how a massive public institution actually evolves when its world is turned upside down, this is exactly that conversation.

The talk runs from 6:00 to 7:30 PM in the Montgomery Auditorium on the ground floor of the Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street. Admission is free.