Shirley Laska

Shirley Laska, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of New Orleans, created the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response, and Technology (CHART). Over its 23-years, CHART has served a large cadre of master's and doctoral students who appreciate both hazards risk assessment and reduction through collaboration with communities. She also served as vice president of research and initially established the Environmental Social Science Research Institute. She authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, research grants, served with National Academy of Sciences and Naval Research Advisory Board committees, received awards from the American Sociological Society and Rural Sociology. An edited volume by Laska, Louisiana’s Response to Extreme Weather–A Coastal State’s Adaptation Challenges and Successes, was published in 2020. 

Post-“retirement,” Laska co-founded the Lowlander Center with Kristina Peterson. Lowlander has an applied participatory action research approach to community collaboration honoring the knowledge and capacity of coastal and inland Louisiana Indigenous and historied communities. With the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation Tribe, Lowlander won the resettlement proposal ($52 million) in the Rockefeller HUD-NDRC resilience competition for their resettlement -- which never came to fruition. 

After Hurricane Laura, Lowlander Center created the very productive Disaster Justice Network (DJN). (See the 2023 NHCW poster session.) Designed to bring together diverse interest groups, to work together to address disaster response and resiliency challenges for and with communities.

Throughout her career, Laska has been an innovator, co-developing the Louisiana Universities Resilient Architecture Collaborative (LURAC) and Rebuilding the Boot. Both advocate and educate for the adoption of storm-resilient construction methods. www.lowlandercenter.org