Vanessa L. Deane

Vanessa L. Deane is an assistant clinical professor of urban planning and public service and director of the Urban Planning program at New York University Wagner. Her work is rooted in the political economy of disasters, primarily in small island developing states. She won the 2021-2022 Outstanding Decentralization Paper Award for Latin America and the Caribbean for her in-depth analysis of Haiti's longstanding institutional challenges, accentuated by the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath. In light of a changing climate and rising instances of natural hazards, Deane is exploring the postcolonial adaptive capacity of select francophone nations facing current and imminent disaster threats.