For most people, a morning check of the weather means grabbing a jacket or an umbrella on the way out the door. For Chad Priest, J.D., M.S.N., R.N., F.A.A.N., who oversees humanitarian and disaster response operations in twelve states for the American Red Cross, early morning weather reports can change the course of an entire day. Tracking a tropical storm off the coast or addressing a critical blood shortage is all in a day’s work for Priest, who works—and thrives—in a state of impending disaster.
“I'm really at my best when things around me are at their worst,” said Priest, who leads the Red Cross’ largest division—an area that stretches across the entire southern border of the U.S. and includes the Florida Gulf Coast. “When things get chaotic, I get more clarity, and my ability to compartmentalize and focus sharpens. As a nurse, it’s been extremely helpful, and it certainly goes well with disaster work.”
A graduate of IU School of Nursing’s (IUSON) B.S.N. and M.S.N. programs, Priest, who grew up in Indianapolis, has spent his career honing the skills it takes to weather disasters. Unlike others in the field, however, he possesses a unique multidimensional view of disaster response. It’s a perspective attributable not only to his background in nursing, but also his education and experience as a lawyer and nonprofit executive. After graduating from IUSON in 1999, Priest served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force with the 89th Medical Group at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. On 9/11, he was working as a nurse and in his second week of law school at George Washington University. Within an hour of reporting to work that September morning, he was called to the Pentagon. For the next four weeks, he was assisting victims’ families at the family reunification and disaster care center in Virginia, near the Pentagon.
Priest stayed with the Air Force for two years following 9/11 before moving back to Indiana to practice public health and health care law at Baker & Daniels, LLP, (now Faegre Drinker). It was during that time that he completed a master’s degree in community health nursing at IUSON.
“I couldn’t do my job today without the education I received from the IU School of Nursing,” Priest said. “I’m still applying the foundational principles of community health nursing every single day in my work. It’s been a huge influence.”
Before joining the Red Cross first as the CEO of the Indiana region in 2015, Priest served as assistant dean for operations and community partnerships at the IU School of Nursing. He taught ethics and community health at IU Bloomington and co-founded the Disaster Medicine Fellowship Program at the IU School of Medicine, where he still serves as an adjunct assistant professor. His career in disaster preparedness and response also included a turn as chief executive officer of the MESH (Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare) Coalition, an innovative public-private partnership enabling healthcare providers to effectively respond to emergencies and stay viable through recovery.
“Our work in disaster response is fundamentally about building the resilience of communities so they can bounce back when bad things happen,” Priest explained. “And a lot of what we’re doing in our work at the Red Cross is returning to the rudimentary principles of social cohesion—encouraging neighbors to reach out and get to know one another.”
With the pace of disasters increasing dramatically—one about every four minutes, Priest said—the only way to mitigate the effect is to empower neighbors to help each other.
“When we’re able to transfer power away from systems and bureaucracies to neighbors, we know—and the data shows—that people recover pretty well from disasters,” he said. “Empowering neighbors to help one another is the beauty of what the Red Cross does. And my role is to try and inspire others to look at communities through that very specific lens of empowerment.”
Priest was honored with IUPUI’s Maynard K. Hine Award earlier this year. Named for the first chancellor of the Indianapolis campus, the award recognizes alumni who have made significant contributions to the university.
“IUPUI has been a huge part of our lives—my wife earned her M.P.H. here, and it’s been like family for me all these years,” Priest said. “People will sometimes ask me where my academic allegiance lies, and I can tell you that I have a top-notch legal education at an outstanding law school, and I rarely mention it because my heart is here at Indiana.”
