Mary Angelica Painter

Mary Angelica Painter is a research associate at the Natural Hazards Center. Her research expertise includes developing and adopting new ways to understand and engage with vulnerable communities in the context of natural hazards, while also incorporating the effects of the role of government, policy, and politics in disaster mitigation and response. She has particular interest in understanding individual, household, and community risk to natural hazards because of social, economic, and political inequality, widely referred to as social vulnerability. Her work at the Natural Hazards Center is driven by a philosophy of collaboration, where the community, decision-makers, researchers, and everyday people are involved in identifying problems and finding solutions together for those who are in most need.

Painter has a background in research methodologies, specifically survey, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches, which she uses in various collaborative research projects including community-based projects in Puerto Rico, emergency alerts and warnings in Colorado, and engaging with socially vulnerable communities in the Midwest. She is also the co-founder of the SOLVER (Social Vulnerability & Resilience) Research Laboratory, where she researches social vulnerability, compounding hazards/disasters, and political dynamics of disaster response. She earned a PhD in political science from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and is a CONVERGE Data Ambassador.