About Us
The Center for Public Service Communications (CPSC) was founded in 1990. Its objectives are to provide guidance and expertise to individuals, communities and public sector organizations in the specialized field of applying telecommunications and information technologies to reduce health disparities, to improve health services, especially to underserved and disenfranchised individuals and communities, and to improve the collection and sharing of scientific, technical and community knowledge to reduce human vulnerability to natural hazards.
Since its founding CPSC has supported disaster reduction, humanitarian assistance and health policy initiatives, focusing primarily on underserved communities in the developing world. CPSC’s International working experience includes South East Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America, China, Western Europe, the Pacific and the former Soviet Union. CPSC is recognized as a world leader in the field of communications, information technology, information policy and programs for disaster management, humanitarian assistance and health and has worked regularly with international organizations including the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction/ International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Development Programme, Office of Outer Space Affairs, and International Telecommunication Union.
Within the United States CPSC is also engaged in providing support to private and public sector and non-governmental organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians, the Minority Health Professions Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the American Indian/Alaska Native Working Group on Climate Change, and numerous U.S. Government agencies including the National Library of Medicine, Office of Minority Health, Office for the Advancement of Telehealth/Office of Rural Health Policy, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Veterans Health Affairs, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Advanced Research Projects Agency, AID/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, Department of Defense and the State Department.
John C. Scott, M.S., President
John Carver Scott founded (1990) and directs the Center for Public Service Communications whose mission is to provide guidance and expertise to individuals, communities and public sector organizations in the specialized field of applying telecommunications and information technologies to reduce health disparities, to improve health services to underserved and disenfranchised individuals and communities and to improve the collection and sharing of scientific, technical and community knowledge to reduce human vulnerability to natural hazards. Mr. Scott’s International working experience includes the Americas, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, China, Western Europe, the Pacific, the Soviet Union and countries of the former Soviet Union.
Mr. Scott is currently focal point for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction International Campaign for Disaster Risk Reduction in Indigenous Communities that will be introduced at the Seventh Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, organized by UNDRR from 23 to 28 May 2022, in Bali, Indonesia, hosted by the Government of Indonesia.
In 2020, he completed a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded initiative to explore whether and to what extent Indigenous Knowledge reduces risk to natural hazards. He is currently co-coordinator of the recently formed Indigenous Knowledge and Disaster Risk Reduction Network, an initiative of the Pan American Health Organization/WHO.
Mr. Scott has coordinated initiatives to engage indigenous peoples in disaster risk reduction on behalf of the United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction, the Pan American Health Organization/WHO and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He was a principal co-author of the disaster risk reduction handbook for mayors on behalf of the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and its “Making Cities Resilient” campaign. He is executive director of the Refugee Health Information Network (RHIN) and is a member of the National Advisory Committee on Cultural Competency for Disaster Preparedness and Crisis Response (of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health). He has been a senior advisor on early warning and disaster health information to institutions including the Pan American Health Organization/WHO, ISDR, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). From 2001-2005 Mr. Scott established and was executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) President's Task Force on Health Information and Technology. He was also co-founder, in 1993, of the U.S. Congressional Steering Committee on Telehealth and Health Information Technology and coordinated that group for ten years.
Mr. Scott is an enrolled member of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. View complete CV.
Patricia Bittner, M.S., Disaster Risk Reduction Coordinator
Ms. Bittner enjoyed a 25-year career with the Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Program of the Pan American Health Organization (regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization). As the Program Management Officer, she led a team responsible for developing and maximizing the impact of strategic partnerships, mobilizing resources and engaging in advocacy for disaster preparedness, risk reduction and response. With a focus on the health sector in Latin America and the Caribbean, she had project management responsibilities, including multi-year humanitarian response, risk reduction and health development projects, and coordinated with a variety of organizations and agencies (bilateral and private sector) to ensure stable and consistent funding for all regional risk reduction and response initiatives. Since joining CPSC she has worked on a number of risk reduction initiatives with international and U.S.-based organizations and agencies. View complete CV.