Chris Lucero

Chris Lucero is the Scholarship Coordinator for the Appalachian Medical Reserve Corps (APP MRC) and a graduate student at Appalachian State University in the Department of Geography and Planning. Within APP MRC, Chris primarily focuses on the visualization and analysis of public health data within Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The objectives of this work are to raise awareness of public health disparities and help inform response decisions for community-wide crises. Current projects include state-wide mapping of the Social Determinants of Health, documenting resource and service distribution centers assisting the public following Hurricane Helene, and assisting county-level Emergency Managers in Western North Carolina with visualization of emergency preparedness/response data. Outside of APP MRC, Chris has previously conducted research on clustering of mental health outcomes among children and young adults and is currently working to model the precipitation and flooding from Hurricane Helene.