Carson MacPherson-Krutsky is a research associate at the Natural Hazards Center and Boise State University. She holds a bachelor’s from Western Washington University, a master’s from the University of Montana, and a PhD from Boise State University. Her research incorporates social science methods to investigate what motivates people to take protective actions and assess which risk communication strategies are most effective at encouraging people to prepare.
MacPherson-Krutsky joined the Natural Hazards Center in the fall of 2021. Her work involves developing interactive trainings for practitioners that focus on risk communication best practices with specific emphasis on socially vulnerable populations. This work is in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and builds upon existing Natural Hazard Center resources.
She is also the co-founder of the Boise State Hazard and Climate Resilience Institute, whose mission is to connect researchers and community partners to collaboratively address community resilience needs. In addition, MacPherson-Krutsky is the co-owner of HazardReady, LLC, which provides user-friendly personalized risk and preparedness websites.
She enjoys creating multimedia products (e.g., infographics, websites, videos, workshops) that convey complex or technical information in engaging and user-friendly ways. She is passionate about making connections across disciplines, sectors, and community members to ensure that the science we do can help support real-world decision-making in communities of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds.
MacPherson-Krutsky participates in the U.S. Geological Survey Social Science Working Group, the Language and Accessibility for Alert and Warning Workgroup and the U.S. Fire Administration Wildfire Evacuations Communications Workgroup.