The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship selection committee chose three recipients to receive the 2009 Scholarship, which recognizes outstanding individuals who share the vision of former Natural Hazards Center Co-Director Mary Fran Myers. Myers, who passed away in 2004, was committed to reducing disaster losses nationally and internationally.
The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship provides financial support to recipients who otherwise would be unable to attend the Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. This scholarship covers all or part of the costs of transportation, hotel accommodations, meals, and Workshop registration fees.
While all the applicants were outstanding, the committee chose the following individuals to receive scholarships:
Alex Altshuler
Altshuler holds master’s degree in community social work from the University of Haifa and in social sciences and humanitarian affairs from the University of Rome.
His master’s thesis was a first-of-its-kind empirical study of factors influencing local Israeli authorities' emergency preparedness for war-caused disaster. He plans to begin PhD studies about Israel's lack of earthquake preparedness soon.
Ali Ardalan
Dr. Ali Ardalan is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences' Institute of Public Health Research and is founder of Iran’s first academic Health in Emergencies and Disasters department. His research interests focus on disaster epidemiology, community-based disaster risk management, and vulnerable groups in disasters.
Ardalan worked with the World Health Organization after the Bam earthquake and was a guest researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He is a contributor to the 2009 UN Global Assessment Report, initiated a Hospitals Safe from Disasters program, and directs global education on natural disaster management through Supercourse.
Oluponmile Olonilua
Oluponmile Olonilua is a visiting assistant professor of public administration at Texas Southern University's Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs in Houston. She became involved in disaster research after personally experiencing Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.
Her research interests include hazard mitigation plan evaluation and the effect of disasters on minorities and special populations. She has researched Tropical Storm Allison and evacuation problems during hurricane Katrina of 2005. Her dissertation, Towards Multihazard Mitigation: An Evaluation of FEMA-Approved Hazard Mitigation Plans under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA2K), evaluated over 200 plans approved under DMA2K.
For more information on the scholarship and full bios of the winners, visit the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship Winners page.