Kathleen Tierney
Kathleen Tierney is professor of sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center. With more than 25 years of experience in the disaster field, Tierney has been involved in research on the social aspects and impacts of major earthquakes in California and Japan, floods in the Midwest, Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew, and many other major natural and technological disaster events.
Since September 11, 2001, she has been directing a study on the organizational and community response in New York following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Her other recent research projects include studies on public perceptions of the earthquake threat in the Northern California Bay Area, sociobehavioral aspects of real-time warning systems for earthquakes, risk communication, and the business impacts of disasters. Tierney is the author of dozens of articles, book chapters, and technical reports on the social aspects of hazards, disasters, and risk.
Tierney is a member of the National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee, which is overseeing the official federal investigation of the World Trade Center disaster, and serves on the Leaders Working Group on Biodefense of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on Biosecurity/Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies and the executive committee of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.