Sandra Maina
Sandra Maina is currently an Environmental Science Master’s student at Florida International University. The focus of her research is the creation of a land and cultural loss mobile application with the communities of southern Terrebonne Parish in Louisiana. Additional research involves an assessment of the application’s impact on climate change adaptation.
Sandra received her B.S. in Meteorology at Florida Institute of Technology in 2012. From 2010-2012, she has participated in a summer research internship program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research called the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS). During the first two summers, she completed two summers of hurricane risk modeling research.
In 2012, Sandra became interested in pursuing a career path that was interdisciplinary in nature that allowed her to assess risk at a community level. SOARS provided her with the opportunity to perform off-site research in the communities of southern Terrebonne Parish. During the summer of 2012, she worked closely with community members to build the foundations of a mobile application that could bring to light the consequences of land loss on the culture and livelihood of those at greatest risk. Presentation of this work at the 2012 Annual American Meteorological Society earned her a Best Presentation Award at the Eighth Symposium on Policy and Socio-Economic Research. Currently, Sandra is partnering with SOARS for her fourth summer to continue and further this work for her Master’s thesis.