About Paul C. Bell

Paul C. Bell, Jr., a pioneer in the area of disaster risk management. Few people have left such a clear fingerprint not only in the region to which he dedicated his life, the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, but in other regions worldwide that he influenced, thanks to his enthusiasm, passion, professionalism, and humanitarian character.

Paul began his professional life as a missionary, then continued his work in the U.S. Peace Corps, the Inter-American Foundation, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Refugee Programs, the U.N. Disaster Relief Office, and finally, he dedicated more than 20 years to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) as a Senior Regional Advisor based in Costa Rica.

Paul was the driving force behind two particularly important accomplishments for disaster risk management in the region: the LAC region training program implemented in the late 1980s, and the hemispheric conference on disaster risk reduction in 2001, two years before he passed away.