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Humanitarian Disaster Institute

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute is the first faith-based academic disaster research center in the country. Our mission is to help the church prepare and care for a disaster-filled world. We use our research to create resources and events geared toward students, survivors, helpers, and researchers. 

Humanitarian Disaster Institute

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute is the first faith-based academic disaster research center in the country. Our mission is to help the church prepare and care for a disaster-filled world. We use our research to create resources and events geared toward students, survivors, helpers, and researchers. 

Educating the Next Generation of Humanitarian and Nonprofit Leaders

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute is a trailblazing academic center and the first faith-based institute of its kind devoted to the study of humanitarian action and disaster response. HDI houses distinctive undergraduate and graduate programs that examine complex global challenges through a Christian academic lens. Grounded in rigorous research and informed by practice, HDI prepares students to translate scholarship into meaningful service and leadership across faith-based, nonprofit, humanitarian, and disaster contexts worldwide.

Learn More & Enroll
HDL Students at Accord Conference

Research Into Action

Humanitarian Disaster Institute Resources

Research

HDI’s pioneering research has helped tens of thousands of people live more faithfully and resiliently worldwide by translating scientific advances into training, tools, resources, and interventions for equipping the church to prepare and care amidst disasters.

Spiritual First Aid

Founded by HDI’s co-directors, Spiritual First Aid translates scientific research into innovative trainings and tools to equip everyday helpers, churches, and organizations to provide effective peer support for everything from mild stress to mass trauma.

The Better Samaritan

The Better Samaritans Podcast explores what it means to humbly do good, better, from everyday acts of kindness to complex humanitarian challenges. Conversations with practitioners, leaders, and scholars offer insights for loving our neighbors more faithfully and effectively.

Dr. Jamie Aten, Founder and Executive Director

Dr. Jamie Aten, founder and executive director of Humanitarian Disaster Institute, is a disaster psychologist, author, and speaker. His books include Disaster Ministry Handbook and Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy for Trauma, and he has been published in outlets like The Washington Post, Christianity Today, and Psychology Today as well as various scholarly journals in the field of psychology. In 2016, he received the FEMA Community Preparedness Champion Award at the White House.
Dr. Jamie Aten Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College

Our Team

Our faculty and staff advance HDI's mission and interdisciplinary programming through their teaching, research, and writing. Get to know our team.

Our Contributing Scholars

HDI Contributing Scholars are respected psychologists at institutions across the country working with HDI as co-investigators on research projects. Get to know our contributing scholars.

Our Students

With our new MA in Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership at Wheaton College Graduate School, there are many opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to work with HDI. Learn more about student and alumni stories.

Invest in the Humanitarian Disaster Institute

Your gift to HDI will position Wheaton College as the global hub for Christian education and thought-leadership navigating humanity’s most complex and catastrophic challenges.

Give to HDI today!