Katherine Johnson (Jo) is a social scientist in the Earthquake Engineering Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) focused on multi-hazards risk mitigation. Currently, she leads a project on Emergency Communication for NIST's National Construction Safety Team Investigation on impacts from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, is co-lead on a project dedicated to the development of a new functional recovery earthquake performance objective, is an associate program manager for the Earthquake Engineering Group, and assists with new efforts to improve NIST's engineering focus on changing environmental conditions.
Jo is very interested in encouraging social science attention across the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program and other federal-level natural hazards efforts and periodically supports NIST's earthquake and hurricane reconnaissance activities. She is the co-chair of the Classroom Education and Outreach subcommittee of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute's Schools Earthquake Safety Initiative and is passionate about enhanced seismic building performance, particularly for dependent and vulnerable populations.