Tanveer Islam is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Management and Public Administration at Jacksonville State University, where he teaches hazard mitigation, community resilience and GIS courses. He received a PhD in land use planning from Texas Tech University and did postdoctoral research at Texas A&M marine branch in Galveston and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Environmental Cooperative Science Center. He is also a certified floodplain manager.