Walter Peacock

Walter Gillis Peacock is a professor of urban planning in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University. He is also a research survey statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau in the Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division and Small Area Modeling and Development Branch. In addition, Peacock is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. He is currently the holder of the Sandy and Bryan Mitchell Master Builder endowed chair and a senior fellow at the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. He has also served as director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (2004-2019) and as program director, for the Hazards, Disasters, and the Built Environment program at the National Science Foundation (2019-2021). His research areas include: disaster resilience with a focus on disaster impacts, housing recovery and restoration, community resilience, hazard mitigation & climate adaptation by households, businesses, and jurisdictions, social vulnerability, and hurricane evacuation. His research venues include states and regions in the United States (Texas, Florida, North Carolina, California, and the Gulf and Atlantic coasts) and other countries (Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Italy, Turkey, India, and the former Yugoslavia). His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He has authored or co-authored three books and over a hundred journal articles, book chapters, and research monographs/reports. He has striven for his research to make a difference in helping make communities stronger and more disaster resistant and sustainable places to live.