Center News

Two Scholars Awarded Annual Paper Competition Prize

The Natural Hazards Center is excited to announce the winners of our annual Hazards and Disasters Student Paper Competition. Kylie-Anne MacLeod and Mayesha Shams will be recognized for their outstanding scholarship at this year’s Natural Hazards Workshop.

Kylie-Anne MacLeod is a recent graduate from Mount Royal University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology. Her academic work focuses on the sociology of disaster, with particular attention to rural marginalization and its impact on vulnerability, response, and recovery.

MacLeod’s winning paper, Marginality Underwater: Rural Marginalization and Vulnerability in the 2022 Appalachian, explores how social and structural inequalities in rural Kentucky shaped disaster outcomes and recovery pathways after catastrophic floods in 2022.

MacLeod wrote the paper as a requirement for a Sociology of Disaster course — taught by sociologist Tim Haney—which she took during the spring of her senior year in 2025.

“I ended up becoming kind of obsessed with disaster research, and I directed all of my focus towards that class,” she said. “From a sociological perspective, learning about all the ways that a community’s make-up and resources shape disaster outcomes was endlessly fascinating to me.”

It was in this course that she learned about the work of the late sociologist Kai Erikson, whose seminal book Everything in Its Path analyzes the devastating 1972 Buffalo Creek flood in West Virginia. Erikson's exploration of the collective trauma and community destruction caused by a mining company dam collapse inspired MacLeod to examine a modern-day hazard in the Appalachian region.

While attending the 2026 Natural Hazards Workshop, MacLeod hopes to learn more about pathways to continue her work in the hazards and disaster field.

“The opportunity to publish my paper is really exciting and really motivating,” she said. "I can’t wait to meet more people in the field, hear their stories, learn about their research, and think about what I might want to do next.”

Mayesha Shams is a PhD student in the Fire and Emergency Management Administration program at Oklahoma State University. Her work focuses on emergency management and disaster governance. Her winning paper, Can AI Replace Human Stakeholders in Emergency Management? Exploring the Promise and Pitfall of Automation on Authority, Trust, and Outcome Through a Narrative Literature Review, explores the recent boom of artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential applications in disaster planning and response.

“At this moment you could prompt ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude to create an emergency management or emergency preparedness plan for you,” Shams said. “So, the question on my mind was, do those plans work? And how will human expertise and leadership continue to play a role?”

Drawing on emerging research, Sham’s paper highlights AI’s potential to enhance operational capacity and help emergency management authorities to forecast future hazards and resource constraints. It also considers the importance of human leadership in high-stakes and morally complex disaster scenarios, citing the need for empathy, ethical reasoning, and adaptability in unique, localized hazards environments

Outside of her studies, Shams works as a volunteer with the American Red Cross (Kansas-Oklahoma Region) on the Disaster Action Team, where she supports local disaster response efforts, serves in shelter centers, and conducts community-level training on CPR and disaster preparedness. For her, the human element of emergency management is important and deeply personal.

“I’ve spoken with people who have experienced tornadoes and fires personally, and this is such an important part of building my knowledge in the field,” Shams said. “Whenever I interact with people in the community, and I see how they are engaged, how they feel interested and grateful for this information that makes them safer. It makes my work feel grounded.”

Both students impressed the judges with their originality, writing quality, and knowledge of the topic. MacLeod and Shams will each receive $250, publication on the Natural Hazards Center website, and free registration to the 2026 Natural Hazards Workshop.

The competition was established in 2004 as a way to recognize and promote the next generation of hazards and disaster researchers. Learn more about the competition and read previous winning papers on the competition web page.