Donald F. Kettl, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government and professor of political science at Penn will present "The Worst Is Yet to Come: Lessons from 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina," a Fels research report on policy proposals to improve FEMA and the nation's emergency response system, to approximately 75 senior government officials with homeland-security responsibilities at a special session of the Treasury Executive Institute, Thursday Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. at the U.S. Mint, 801 9th St, N.W., Washington D.C.

"Why have we failed to learn from 9/11 and why are we likely to fail to learn yet again from Katrina?  We have our instincts hard-wired for obsolete approaches, and that makes us hard-wired for failure.  We need to rewire our systems for success," Dr. Kettl writes in his just-released Fels Institute research report "The Worst is Yet to Come: Lessons from 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina."

The full report will be available Sept. 22 at www.sas.upenn.edu/fels/research_service.htm

Dr. Kettl will talk to members of the Treasury Executive Institute about the federal government's "obsolete strategies" and present five new approaches for emergency preparedness that include taking FEMA out of the Homeland Security Department to restore its autonomy as an independent government agency.

Dr. Kettl has served as a White House advisor during Republican and Democratic administrations and is author or editor of a dozen books and monographs, including "System under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics" and  "Leadership at the Fed."   He is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and has consulted for an array of public organizations.  A frequent media commentator, Dr. Kettl has contributed to op-ed pages in major newspapers and appeared on national television and radio programs.