Leila Darwish

Leila Darwish is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Disaster Resilience Leadership at Tulane University in New Orleans. Besides her studies, she also volunteered this past year during the floods in Baton Rouge and the tornado in New Orleans East. Originally from the Canadian Rockies, Leila has over a decade of experience working on environmental issues and community engagement, as well as supporting communities dealing with technological disasters such as oil spills. Moving into the field of disaster resilience, environmental and social justice are at the foundations of her work. She is passionate to engage in hazard mitigation, response and recovery in ways that acknowledge and address the root causes of vulnerability, injustice, and inequity. When it comes to natural hazards, she loves researching floods, wildfires, and earthquakes, as well as climate change adaptation and urban resilience. This summer, she is interning at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction in Toronto.