David Abramson
As deputy director and director of research at Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Abramson's areas of study include disaster recovery and resiliency, the social ecology of vulnerability, risk communication targeted at high-risk or elusive communities, and survey research on preparedness attitudes and behaviors. He is the principal investigator of the longitudinal Gulf Coast Child & Family Health Study, an examination of need and recovery among 1,000+ randomly sampled displaced and impacted families in Louisiana and Mississippi. He is also PI on a recently-funded NIH study of the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on children's health.
Other current or recent disaster-related research activities include a study of "elusive communities" and how hidden populations such as undocumented immigrants hear and respond to public health emergency messaging; the American Hotspots project, which focuses on the measurement and mapping of social vulnerability and hazard; and a CDC-funded evaluation of risk messaging and community engagement, and the identification of appropriate mechanisms for two-way communication. From 2007-2010, Abramson served as an associate editor of the American Medical Association's peer-reviewed journal, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
Before entering public health in 1990, Dr. Abramson worked for a decade as a national magazine journalist, writing for Rolling Stone, Esquire, Outside, and the San Francisco Examiner, among other publications. A former paramedic, Abramson holds a doctorate in sociomedical sciences with a specialization in political science, and a masters of public health degree, both from Columbia University.
Workshop Abstracts
Child Impact Study: A Research Project of the Women and Their Children’s Health (WATCH) Consortium
With Virginia Rauh, Robin Whyatt, and Lori Peek
Related Resources from David Abramson
Children as Bellwethers of Recovery: Dysfunctional Systems and the Effects of Parents, Households, and Neighborhoods on Serious Emotional Disturbance in Children After Hurricane Katrina
with Yoon Soo Park, Tasha Stehling-Ariza, and Irwin Redlener
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2010