Resilient American Communities

Elements of the Resilient American Communities Initiative have been emerging over the past four decades since Dr. Jonas Salk (the first inventor of the polio vaccine) was an honors thesis advisor to Michael D. McDonald.  RAC’s fiscal agent is Health initiatives Foundation, Inc. (HIFI) which was founded in 1995 by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop (HIFI’s founding chairmen), LtGen (ret.) Alexander Sloan (former Air Force Surgeon General), David Taylor, Esq. (former general counsel of Howard Hughes Foundation), and Dr. Michael D. McDonald (HIFI’s Executive Director).  RAC’s Resilience Systems have been developed and refined over the past 20 years working in many of the largest disasters in the United States and around the world including in many public health and biosecurity crises.  RAC’s relationship with MPHISE (Medical and Public Health Information Sharing Environment) began in an MPHISE pilot in the White House during the H1N1 pandemic.  Many of the RAC’s current tools were further refined during work within the Florida Disaster Resilience Initiative and AGRR sites overseas, with the Bay County, Florida RAC site being the first U.S. model for how the RAC is addressing COVID-19 pandemic and syndemic conditions. 

The RAC is a civil society public / private multi-organizational enterprise.  The RAC is dedicated to collapsing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and reducing the devastating COVID-19 syndemic impacts on American communities, with a special focus on the most vulnerable communities.

By using RAC tools and methods you can organize a unity of effort amongst the key institutions (e.g. community-based organizations, public health services, health care facilities, emergency management organizations, and other organizations addressing resilience) in your community. In this way, you can help your community significantly reduce SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 syndemic deaths in community.   COVID-19 Nonprofit community organizations can enroll in the RAC network and access their tools at the bottom of this page. Partner organizations, such as health departments, health care groups including federally qualified health centers, and disaster preparedness organizations are also welcome to enroll, and are encouraged to partner with one or more community organizations.

There is no charge for participation or use of the core RAC tools. Additional tools are available from a wide variety of organizations, some of which require fees. These listings are provided as a courtesy to RAC members, who are free to engage them (or not) in their work.