Unequal access to warnings. Unsafe schools. Unenforced building codes.
These are just a few of the challenges that keep people working in the hazards and disaster field up at night. The Natural Hazards Center Solutions Fund—which was officially launched at the 51st Annual Natural Hazards Workshop—seeks to address longstanding and ever more pressing challenges by supporting evidence-based initiatives to reduce disaster risk and create a safer, more just, and resilient world.
The fund was established with a founding donation from Deborah Mills, a former forest engineer and long-time hazard mitigation practitioner who has been attending the Workshop for decades. For Mills, attending the 50th anniversary of the Natural Hazards Workshop last summer while simultaneously watching the devastation unfold after flash floods in the Texas Hill Country motivated her to act.
“I asked myself, what can I do,” Mills said in her remarks at the Workshop launch event. “I thought, maybe I can be a bridge, and that kernel of an idea stayed with me.”
By funding special projects, initiatives, and convenings, this sustaining investment aims to help translate research into innovations that reduce hazard risk and the disproportionate impacts of disasters. The goal is to make best practices, interventions, and other approaches widely accessible and to support those working daily to understand risk and protect people, property, the economy, and the environment. Mills emphasized, “This community has big ideas to reduce disaster risk and make people safer. This fund will help to make some of those ideas a reality.”
Funds will be stewarded by the Natural Hazards Center, with guidance from a small advisory panel of experienced practitioners and researchers. Project ideas will be generated by the members of the hazards and disaster community and those we serve.
“The establishment of this fund allows us to reinvest in all of you,” said Natural Hazards Center director Lori Peek at the launch event. “We want to help address those risks that are keeping you up at night.”
Uplifting Changemakers
One of the foundational functions of the fund will be to support the integration of practitioners into the production of the Third Assessment of Natural Hazards in the United States. The Natural Hazards Center Solutions Fund Changemaker Award will recognize those who are working to apply evidence-based disaster risk reduction solutions on the ground.
“These are people who have worked tirelessly to make their communities safer,” Peek said. “They have critical insights from policy and practice to bring back to the research community.”
The inaugural recipients include Katie Arrington, recovery and resilience project manager for Boulder County; Tom Hughes, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Mitigation, Insurance, and Resilient Communities Office, as well as the state hazard mitigation officer; and Maria Dillard, a research social scientist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“There’s a major role to play for federal, state, and local leaders to ensure that the solutions we need are developed and implemented,” Dillard said. “And we have a responsibility to show up.”
Changemaker Award recipients will receive funds to support their Workshop attendance and associated participation in Third Assessment-related review panels.
From left to right: Maria Dillard, Katie Arrington, Deborah Mills, Tom Hughes, and Lori Peek at the launch of the Natural Hazards Solutions Fund during the 51st Annual Natural Hazards Workshop.
Photos from the 2026 Natural Hazards Workshop, courtesy of Chip Van Zandt of Van Zandt Visuals. For more photos, visit the Workshop Photo Gallery.
Moving Groundbreaking Research Into Policy and Practice
The Natural Hazards Center Solutions Fund will also support the Research to Action Award to accelerate the transformation of innovative research into practical, effective solutions to reduce harm from disasters.
A research team from Texas A&M University—which includes Jiang Zheng, Galen Newman, Shannon Van Zandt, Michelle Annette Meyer, and Michael McNair—will be the first recipients of funding.
Their recent study, which was initially supported by the National Science Foundation-funded and Natural Hazards Center-administered Quick Response Research Award Program, provides the first statewide analysis of children’s flood exposure and risk at youth camps in Texas. The project, which was conceived during the 2025 Natural Hazards Workshop, was motivated by the overwhelming loss of life caused by the July 2025 Central Texas Floods. Principal investigator Jiang Zheng was especially affected by the devastation at Camp Mystic, where 27 girls lost their lives and one girl remains missing as of June 2026.
“Camp is supposed to be a safe, fun, joyful opportunity for kids to enjoy outdoor space. It’s a place where we can nurture the next generation to appreciate nature,” Zheng said. “And there’s a lot more we could have done to keep kids safe.”
While youth camps serve millions of children annually, flood and other hazard risks to these facilities remain poorly understood and weakly regulated. An award of $10,000 will support the team to expand their work beyond Texas and accelerate collaboration with policymakers, camp operators, and emergency management agencies to strengthen resilience and reduce risk in youth camp environments.
From left to right: Michelle Annette Meyer, Shannon Van Zandt, Deborah Mills, Jiang Zheng, and Lori Peek at the launch of the Natural Hazards Solutions Fund during the 51st Annual Natural Hazards Workshop.
Photos from the 2026 Natural Hazards Workshop, courtesy of Chip Van Zandt of Van Zandt Visuals. For more photos, visit the Workshop Photo Gallery.
How to Give
You can give to this fund and be part of the development and implementation of meaningful hazard risk reduction solutions. Donations of all sizes are encouraged to ensure that lessons from practice, policy, and research are applied to help the people and places that need it most.
Make your gift online through the University of Colorado Boulder’s Office of Advancement.
If you prefer to donate via check, use the following mailing address:
University of Colorado Foundation
P.O. Box 561690
Denver, CO 80256-1690
Gifts will be added to an interest-bearing account, to grow and sustain solutions now and well into the future. There are no additional administrative or overhead fees on gifts. All donations go directly towards the Natural Hazards Center Solutions Fund.
All donations made before July 4, 2026, will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to the generosity of founding donor Deborah Mills.
“Since I got my start as a forester, all my metaphors have to do with trees,” Mills said. "And I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to plant this seed. I’m very excited to see other people fertilize, water, and nurture it, to see what grows.”
If you have questions about the new Natural Hazards Center Solutions Fund, please contact us at hazctr@colorado.edu.