Casey Davidson is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University with broad interests in the areas of the environment, natural resource use, disasters and education. His past research focused on issues within the area of environmental management and natural resource use, and examined how governmental agencies, non-profit organizations and citizens collaborated on divergent management goals in a case study of the Rocky Mountain National Park (CO). Most recently, his research has shifted to examine cultural risk perceptions and its relationship to disaster education and mitigation. After teaching four sections of Disaster and Society, Casey relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana to explore—for his dissertation— the levee system’s place within the local culture, public consciousness and political dialogue with respect to flood mitigation. Casey is also currently a research associate for the Women and their Children’s Health (WATCH) project at Louisiana State University’s Health and Science Center. The WATCH project is an effort to document the social and health outcomes that female heads of household and their children have faced as a result of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in southeastern Louisiana. Email: davidcp@rams.colostate.edu
Julie Demuth is a doctoral student in the Department of Journalism and Technical Communication at Colorado State University and an Associate Scientist III with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Societal Impacts Program (SIP). Her research interests pertain to the communication and use of weather forecast and warning information by forecasters, broadcast meteorologists, public officials, and members of the public. Julie is a co-PI on two National Science Foundation funded projects. One project is examining the content, channels, and comprehension of hurricane information in Miami and Houston. The other project is using the mental model approach to risk communication to understand how warning decisions are made during hurricanes and flash floods. Julie is also a co-PI on a National Weather Service (NWS) funded project to improve the communication of the NWS forecast web page in ways that better meet users’ needs and preferences. She has her BS and MS in atmospheric science. Needless to say, Julie loves weather! Email: julie.demuth@colostate.edu
Sara Gill is a Master’s student in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University and a graduate research assistant for the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis. She is also pursuing the Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies for her interest in gender, race, and ethnicity, and the experiences of vulnerable populations. She has worked with Dr. Peek, who currently serves as her master’s thesis advisor, since 2007. In 2008, Sara helped to create the “Children and Disasters Annotated Resource List” for a special issue on children and disasters for the journal Children, Youth, and Environments. Sara is currently working on her thesis research, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, on disaster preparedness among childcare centers in Colorado. Her thesis work involves developing and analyzing an online survey of over 4,000 licensed childcare providers. Following graduation, she plans to continue similar research with the goal of spreading awareness regarding issues of children's safety and resilience. Email: saraanng@mail.colostate.edu
Sejin (Sage) Kim is a doctoral student in the Department of Journalism and Technical Communication at Colorado State University. Sage has a bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in Communication from the University of Louisiana. He served in the Korean Army and worked as an actuarial consultant in a Seoul-based American company. His master's thesis research focused on the relationship between personality attributes and opinion leadership on the issue of climate change from a Diffusion of Innovations perspective. Sage's current research interests are related to environmental and risk communication, in particular, the role of affect and affective images on th
e issue of climate change (CC). Since his thesis found that need for cognition was a salient personality attribute to opinion leadership on the issue, he would like to explore how need for affect might also play a role into it. Ultimately, Sage would like to contribute to more effectively creating messages as well as identifying messengers for current and future environmental (and CC) communication. Email: sejin.kim@colostate.edu
Rich Kluckow is a second year Masters student in the Sociology Department at Colorado State University. He is a Zimbabwean national studying land tenure and agrarian change a s they pertain to livelihoods and social protection in Southern Africa and post-disaster contexts. His current research is a mixed methods case study that focuses on ‘heir property,’ a historically vulnerable form of communal land tenure, and it's impact on the reconstruction efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans. Email: richard.kluckow@colostate.edu
Holly Marlatt is a doctoral student in the Department of Journalism and Technical Communication at Colorado State University. She is also a research assistant on a National Science Foundation funded project on hurricane risk perception along the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. Holly’s master’s thesis research focused on how social psychological influences affect health behaviors. Her current research interests pertain to environmental and risk communication and involve the use of behavioral models of decision making in regards to natural disasters and climate change, as well as audience segmentation as a means for more effective climate change communication and message design. Email: holly.marlatt@colostate.edu
Phoenix Mourning-Star is a graduate of Mathematics (BS), Biostatistics (Msc), International Environmental and Human Rights Laws (LLM/MLS), Environmental and Public Health Epidemiology (MS), and is now completing his PhD in Bioenergy and Ecology at Colorado State University focusing on energy for rural/developing and post-disaster areas in Afghanistan. Phoenix is also the head of the Colorado State University Center for Experiential Leadership, Action and Beyond
(E-LAB) and Coordinator for the Undergraduate Research in the CSU Office of Undergraduate Research and Artistry.
He utilizes his skills, networks and lifelong knowledge to help create and implement research programs as well as recruiting students and education leaders from K-12 through higher education to collaborate on the education goals for future leaders. As the founder of the Society of Global Health Researchers in Action (SOGHR), Phoenix empowers the future stewards of health, environment, interventionists and peace builders. Email: phoenix.mourning-star@colostate.edu
Beth Plombon is a Master’s student in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University. She is also a research assistant for Colorado Water Institute where she is investigating collaborative, community-based resource management on the Poudre River. Through CDRA, Beth is involved with a project focused on emergency preparedness for vulnerable populations during natural disasters; as well as a project focused on the decision making process for cities in drought management. Beth’s research interests include water and resource management and accessibility issues and community collaboration processes. Email: elizabeth.plombon@colostate.edu
Stacia Sydoriak is a research assistant at the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis. She received her B.A. from Washington and Jefferson College in Psychology and Sociology in 2007. Stacia is a second year M.A. student in the Sociology Department at Colorado State University. She is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies at CSU. Her current research examines inequality within communities in the Yucatan Peninsula,where devastation from Hurricane Wilma negatively impacted the tourist industry and local economy in 2005. Stacia is a member and a volunteer for the Gender and Disaster Resilience Alliance, and is working with other members to improve and expand the organization. She has also assisted her colleagues who are involved with the Global Earthquake Model and GeoHazards International-funded project regarding earthquake risk communication. In the future, she hopes to undertake an analysis of the social and health implications surrounding drilling and fracking in rural Pennsylvania. In general, Stacia is interested in intersectional social justice, or the way in which race, gender and class impact social relations and access to resources in society, particularly in times of crisis. Email: stacia.sydoriak@colostate.edu
Jennifer Tobin-Gurley is a research assistant at the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis and a third year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University (CSU). She earned her B.A. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from CSU in 2005 and went on to complete a M.A. in Sociology in 2008. Her master’s thesis research drew on qualitative interviews with local disaster recovery workers and single mothers who were displaced to Colorado after Hurricane Katrina. Her research received first-place in both the 2011 Hazards and Disasters Student Paper Competition and the 2011 U.S. Gender and Disaster Resilience Alliance Paper Competition. Jennifer’s work has been published in the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Children, Youth, and Environment, and Criminal Justice Studies. She recently co-authored the "Gender" chapter in the second edition of Social Vulnerability to Disasters. Jennifer is currently the Field Report Assistant Editor for Children, Youth, and Environments and is involved in a participatory project focusing on the recovery of youth following the Joplin Tornado and the Slave Lake Wildfires. Email: jennifer.tobin-gurley@colostate.edu