Betty Morrow
Betty Hearn Morrow is Professor Emerita in Sociology at Florida International University and former director of the Social and Behavioral Lab at the International Hurricane Research Center. With over 30 years experience studying hazard response with emphasis on social vulnerability and community resilience she has co-edited several related books, including Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender and the Sociology of Disaster, The Gendered Terrain of Disasters: Through Women’s Eyes, and Women and Disaster. She continues an active research agenda applying the tools of social science to assist state and federal agencies to better understand and address the needs of their constituencies related to hazard response and resiliency. She recently completed several projects for the National Weather Service (with Jeff Lazo at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and through Eastern Research Group) to improve hurricane forecast communication, particularly related to storm surge. Current projects include a National Science Foundation -funded project studying the Sandy forecast and response, a behavioral study to support hurricane response in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (both with Hugh Gladwin), as well as a project to “market” new storm surge forecast information.