I study disasters and natural hazards with four interconnected areas of focus: Disaster Recovery, Hazard Mitigation, Flood Risk, and Disaster Analytics.

Disaster Recovery. I examine post-disaster recovery processes and examine the physical, social, economic, and institutional factors that explain recovery outcomes across communities.

Hazard Mitigation. I investigate the adoption and diffusion of hazard mitigation policies, with a particular focus on the institutional, political, and socioeconomic factors that enable or constrain policy action.

Flood Risk. My research explores the science-policy interface, knowledge co-production, and the social mediation of expert knowledge. Specifically, I examine how flood hazard modeling and mapping shape local flood hazard governance.

Disaster Analytics. Disaster analytics is the methodological foundation of my research. By integrating quantitative and qualitative data, spatial and non-spatial information, computational modeling, statistical analysis, and spatial reasoning, I seek to produce rigorous, systematic, and cross-validated empirical evidence to inform disaster policy and practice.

My work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of the Planning Education & Research, Journal of Planning History, Natural Hazards Review, Disasters, Sustainable Cities & Society, among others.  

My research has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Virginia Sea Grant, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the Natural Hazard Center.

I am a founding member of Virginia Tech’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Disaster Resilience (IGEP-DR). 

At Virginia Tech, I have also served as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Architecture & Urban Studies (now College of Architecture, Arts and Design), and as Associate Director of the School of Public & International Affairs.

My scholarship,  teaching, and service have been recognized through several honors and awards, including: 

The NSF Next Generation Disaster Researcher Fellowship

The UT Prosim (“That I May Serve”) Award

The Virginia Tech Teaching Excellence Award

The American Planning Association (APA) Virginia Chapter Teaching Excellence Award