2022 Natural Hazards Workshop Award Winners

Mary Fran Myers Gender and Disasters Award

The Mary Fran Myers Gender and Disaster Award recognizes disaster professionals who continue Mary Fran Myers’ goal of promoting research on gender issues in disasters and emergency management. The 2022 award winner is:

Gender & Disasters Network (GDN). Established in 1997 at the Natural Hazards Workshop, GDN has grown into a global network of educators and advocates interested in gender relations in disaster contexts.

GDN’s goals align with the diverse history of the Mary Fran Myers Award winners, which includes people from around the world who build community and scholarship through research, activism, policy development, and network-building. The goals of GDN include:

• Documenting and analyzing people’s experiences before, during, and after disasters, situating gender relations in broad political, economic, historical, and cultural contexts;
• Working across disciplinary and organizational boundaries in support of collaborative research and applied projects;
• Fostering information sharing, resource building, and networking among members;
• Building and sustaining an active international community of scholars and activists;
• Advocating for change and evidence-based policy and practice at all levels.

Learn more about the GDN here.

Read the full announcement for this year’s award recipient and past winners on the Mary Fran Myers Gender and Disaster Award page.

Student Paper Competition

The Natural Hazards Center created the Annual Hazards and Disasters Student Paper Competition for undergraduate and graduate students in 2004 as a way to recognize and promote the next generation of hazards and disaster researchers. The 2022 winners are:

Hannah O'Reilly is studying Environmental and Natural Resources Policy as part of the Masters of the Environment Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her interest in policy is informed by her undergraduate BA in Environmental Sociology. Utilizing this background, Hannah aims to incorporate qualitative social science methods into the creation of policies that enhance community resilience to the unknowns of climate change. Before returning to school, Hannah spent 5-years working as a freelance journalist within the outdoor recreation niche, and as a freelance researcher. She is currently working for the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences as part of a NOAA grant investigating the occurrence of overlapping hazards during hurricanes. Hannah is also part of a project with the Conservation Lands Foundation investigating and mapping demographic trends and community needs across the Western U.S. Her interests in public policy lie at the human-wildland interface, particularly in terms of how these important transition zones can be managed in a way that encourages resilience throughout the entire socio-ecological system. Included in this is concern for the ways that natural disasters are prepared for, navigated, and recovered from. Read her winning paper here.

Nathan Schunk recently completed a BS in Quantitative Economics from East Carolina University where he also acted as research assistant for the Center for Natural Hazards Research on a NASA funded grant. He is currently a graduate student at ECU pursuing a master's in Quantitative Economics and Econometrics while continuing research with the Center for Natural Hazards. He aspires to continue to a PhD program after completing his MS. His primary interests include natural hazards and disaster recovery, environmental economics, health economics, environmental racism, and natural resource/energy economics. Read his winning paper here.

Learn more about the competition and view previous winning papers on the Student Paper Competition page.

While the Natural Hazards Center did not offer the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship and Disability and Disasters Award this year, please check back for more information and calls for applications in 2023!

The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship recognizes outstanding individuals who share Myers' commitment to disaster research and practice and have the potential to make a lasting contribution to reducing disaster vulnerability. Learn more about the scholarship and view past winners on the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship page.

The recently established Disability and Disasters Award supports people with disabilities working in disasters, as well as those who care for, study, or advocate on behalf of those with disabilities. Learn more about the award on the Disability and Disasters Award page.