Anna Gasha is a doctoral candidate in historic preservation at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her dissertation focuses on the institutional dissemination of technoscientific expertise in the cultural heritage and engineering fields and how these movements of knowledge affect decision-making about historic and traditional built environments, particularly in disaster preparedness and post-disaster scenarios. Anna graduated with a Bachelor of Science in materials engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art and Architecture from Brown University. She holds master's in structural engineering from University of California, Berkeley and a State of California Professional Engineer license for civil engineering. She grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and New York City, and is currently based in New Orleans, Louisiana.