Dr Kate Brady

Dr. Kate Brady has had a distinguished career in disaster recovery operations, programming and research.

Kate is the Senior Research Fellow for the UNSW How We Survive initiative, is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and is the Technical Adviser to Australian Red Cross Emergency Services, where she established and led the disaster recovery program for 12 years.

Most of Kate’s work focuses on what people find helpful and unhelpful after disasters. Throughout her career, Kate has had significant influence on State and National emergency management policy and has an international profile in collective trauma, resilience and in disaster recovery programming and policy.

Kate is a co-author on the Australian Disaster Recovery Framework, the Australian Community Recovery Handbook and was an advisor in the development of the National Disaster Mental Health Framework. In 2021, she became the host for ABC’s podcast ‘After the Disaster’ and in 2025 was invited to do a TEDx talk.