May 13, 2025, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. MDT
Insights from the Mitigation Matters Award Program
Webinar Description:
The Natural Hazards Center manages the Mitigation Matters Research Award Program, which provides funding to researchers conducting studies on hazard mitigation programs, policies, and implementation. The program funded proposals from calls in 2019, 2021 and, most recently, Spring of 2023. To date, 29 research teams have conducted research with the support of this program.
Please join us for this webinar highlighting the research from three of these teams. Presentations will examine a range of topics including, zoning practices to reduce flood risk in Virginia, the recovery experiences of those who experienced the Marshall Fire in Colorado and factors that influence mitigation activities in rural Minnesota. This work is relevant to federal, state, and local governments; nonprofits; land use planners; floodplain managers; wildfire professionals; and many others.
These and other previously published Mitigation Matters Reports can be found on the Natural Hazards Center website. Each report is accompanied by a two-page research brief that can be easily distributed to others in your organization.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar.
Speakers
Yang Zhang, Virginia Tech
Zoning for Flood Risk Reduction: Analyzing Floodplain Zoning in Five Virginia Municipalities
Hannah Walters, Colorado School of Public Health
Colorado’s Marshall Fire: Recovery, Mitigation, and Resilience
Sarah Kirkpatrick, North Dakota State University
Understanding Flood Mitigation Implementation Activities in Minnesota’s Red River Basin
Yang Zhang is an associate professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech. He is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Disaster Resilience. His research interests include post-disaster recovery and hazard mitigation planning. He is currently researching floodplain planning, flood hazard mapping, and equitable disaster resilience.
Hannah Walters is a Doctor of Public Health candidate in the Environmental and Occupational Health department at the Colorado School of Public Health. Her dissertation is focused on analytical approaches to environmental justice, including studying equity in natural disaster recovery. Prior to her doctoral studies, Walters worked as an epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She earned her Masters in Public Health from Boston University in 2019.
Sarah Kirkpatrick is an associate professor of disaster resilience and emergency management at North Dakota State University. Kirkpatrick holds a PhD in emergency management, a master’s degree in diplomacy, and a bachelor’s in government. Her research interests include a range of topics central to the practice of emergency management, such as individual, household, business, and community recovery; the role of volunteers in response and recovery; emergency management professional roles; and community mitigation efforts. Kirkpatrick’s work has also focused on emergency management higher education.