Hans Louis-Charles

Hans M. Louis-Charles is an Associate Professor at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). At the Wilder School (VCU), Louis-Charles teaches courses on risk assessment, disaster response, recovery, and hazard mitigation in their Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness program. Louis-Charles is a disaster scientist who conducts applied and theoretical research focused on emerging threats, community resilience, and collective behavior during disaster events for better-informed policy and practice in the field of emergency management. His research is interdisciplinary, utilizes a mixed-methods approach, and has been published on a range of topics including falling space debris, disaster impact disparities, emergency management financing, household preparedness and evacuation, media coverage of disasters, and ethical post-disaster field research.

Louis-Charles earned his Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Central Florida (UCF), his Master of Arts in international development from the American University, and his PhD in disaster science and management from the University of Delaware (UDel). Louis-Charles was a Ronald E. McNair scholar (UCF), a graduate research assistant at the Disaster Research Center (UDel), a Founding Fellow of the Bill Anderson Fund (BAF), and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the BAF. Louis-Charles also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Council for Refugees and Immigrants, Inc.