Michèle Companion works as an humanitarian aid response coordinator, specializing in food and livelihood security in complex emergencies and disasters. She has served as a consultant for U.S. and international humanitarian organizations and agencies around the globe. She has lived and worked in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, South Africa, Uganda, and Rwanda. She works with Native American tribes and global Indigenous groups on issues of food security, food sovereignty, and cultural survival around livelihood preservation and access to traditional food and medicine, especially in the face of climate change and disasters. She continues to work on disaster risk reduction in urban zones and with migrant/resettled populations. She is the secretary and a board member of the Lowlander Center and co-chair of the International Coordinating Committee for the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association. She was a visiting research professor at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan, where she examined urban food access and constraints.
Companion has a long relationship with Research Committee-39 (Sociology of Disasters) and the International Sociological Association (ISA), including being an assistant editor of the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. She is currently the President of the International Research Committee on Disasters and served as the secretary/treasurer from 2018-2022. She received the RC-39 President’s Service Award in 2018. She has served as the World Forum RC-39 Program co-coordinator in 2016 (Vienna) and 2021 (Porte Alegre) and 2025 in Rabat, Morocco. She served as the ISA World Congress RC-39 Program co-coordinator (2023 Melbourne).