The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship selection committee chose five recipients to receive the 2008 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 and participate in the Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop to further their research or community work and careers. This scholarship covers all or part of the costs of transportation, hotel accommodations, meals, and workshop registration fees.

This year’s applicant pool was very competitive, including nearly 60 applicants from 25 different nations. While all the applicants were outstanding, the committee unanimously chose the following individuals to receive scholarships:

Edy M. Barillas
Barillas holds a master’s degree in engineering geology from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. He currently lives and works in Guatemala, but interacts with professionals and practitioners across Central America regarding disaster preparedness. His work focuses on landslides in urban areas, natural hazards zoning using Geographic Information Systems, and early warning systems for rain-triggered landslides.

Monalisa Chatterjee
Chatterjee is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at Rutgers University who has worked on environmental degradation and the impact of cyclones on cities in India. Her dissertation, which is entitled, “Urban Flood Loss Sharing and Redistribution Mechanisms among the Impoverished Industrial Population of Mumbai,” examines informal coping methods of poor urban flood victims and the impact of globalization on coping strategies.

Charna R. Epstein
Epstein directs the Crisis Prevention and Disaster Recovery Department at Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights in Chicago, where she helped lead the Chicagoland Katrina Relief Initiative. She received her bachelor’s degree with high honors from Brandeis University and her master’s in social service administration, with a focus on public policy and management, from the University of Chicago. Epstein is now at the University of Chicago studying for a master’s in threat and response management (2009 candidate).

Molly Mowery
Mowery received her master’s in city planning in 2008 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research interests focus on natural hazards, sustainable development policy, and climate change adaptation. Before pursuing graduate study, Mowery worked in land use planning at a law firm in Denver, Colorado. More recently, she has worked for the Scottish Government Planning.

Uchenna Okoli
Okoli is a native of Nigeria. She holds a postgraduate diploma in contemporary diplomacy from the University of Malta and is completing a master’s in disaster management and sustainable development at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom. Her master’s thesis is a policy study of the strategies being implemented by the Nigerian to address the socio-economic vulnerability of Nigerian women. Since 2003, her work has focused on raising awareness about importance of disaster risk reduction and integrating a culture of safety in Nigeria through advocacy and capacity building.

For more information on the scholarship and full bios of the winners, visit the the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship page.