Crisis infrastructure: Building the system before the fire
The protocols, logic models, and training that help organizations distinguish between emergency, crisis, and rapid response.
Most organizations treat crisis, emergency, and rapid response as the same thing. They're not. Emergency response protects people and operations, and the duty-of-care liability that comes with them. Crisis communications protects reputation, and the revenue, partnerships, and talent that depend on it. Rapid response captures the moments that build thought leadership, drive earned media, and position your organization as the voice that matters when your sector is in the headlines. I build the systems that help organizations distinguish between them, respond systematically to all three, and keep strategic communications at the risk table where it belongs.
I've designed protocols that protected program participants across 135 countries, reducing organizational liability while expanding program reach. I've threaded the needle between funders demanding neutrality and beneficiaries demanding solidarity, preserving relationships on both sides. I've built logic models that score whether an event deserves organizational voice based on mission alignment, stakeholder impact, and risk profile, so leadership stops spending hours on decisions that should take minutes.
Developed a logic model that determines when, whether, and how the organization responds to world events, eliminating reactive decision-making and "whataboutism" paralysis.
Tap to enlarge. The decision tree that eliminates 90% of internal debate during a crisis.
Created a country-by-country security outlook grounded in live data, with risk tiers that inform which projects get green-lit.
Tap to enlarge. Dynamic risk matrix: Real-time country assessment filtering operational "green-lights" from high-risk zones.
Built a safety and security SOP with tiered response categories, templates, messaging, and activation protocols.
Ran regional training workshops to localize the model for Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and MENA contexts.
Integrated a risk assessment filter into the platform's project creation flow, catching high-risk situations before they become organizational liability.
If I can build crisis protocols for young activists in 135 countries, with risks ranging from government surveillance to civil unrest to kidnapping, I can build the playbook that protects your people, your reputation, and your market position before the fire starts.
The modern crisis stack (AI + human)
Enterprise platforms monitor social media and news but miss geopolitical intelligence, internal signals from staff on the ground, partner network intel, and regulatory shifts. Expensive AND incomplete.
Point solutions track mentions and sentiment but don't connect to your mission relevance, your stakeholder map, or your decision-making protocols.
Manual monitoring means staff scanning headlines and Slack channels full of "did you see this?": no triage system, no consistent escalation.
None answer the actual question: Does this require our response, and if so, what kind?
Where AI changes the equation
Comprehensive monitoring
Covers external AND internal signals: social, geopolitical, field intelligence, partner networks, filtered to what's relevant to YOUR mission and operating context.
Automated scoring
Separates signal from noise, so leadership sees what requires leadership.
Smart classification
Triggers the right response workflow to the right people with the right information.
Institutional memory
Compounds over time; pattern recognition across past responses informs current decisions.
What stays human
AI doesn't decide whether you speak. It doesn't write your CEO's statement. It doesn't manage your most sensitive stakeholder relationships. What it does: compress the time between "something happened" and "the right people have what they need to decide."
My process
Discovery
Understanding your mission, risk profile, and stakeholder map.
Architecture
Designing the logic model and response workflows.
Build
Creating the monitoring system and protocols.
Test
Running scenarios and refining the system.
I build with you, for you, based on your mission, your risk appetite, your team structure, your existing tools.
Faster decisions. Fewer fire drills. Leadership time back. The ROI isn't theoretical.
Prepared organizations don't move faster by accident. They move faster because the system is built before the crisis hits.