RISE 2019 Conference

Dr. Jenniffer M. Santos-Hernádez is a research professor in sociology of disasters for Centro de Investigaciones Sociales (CIS) at the University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras. Established in 1945, CIS is the oldest social science research center in Puerto Rico. Santos-Hernández’ research focuses on the linkages between development, social vulnerability to disasters, community resilience, and climate change. Her current activities include 1) serving as co-city lead for the city of San Juan in the National Science Foundation Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN), 2) leading the project ‘Helping Affected Communities Engage in Resilience (Post-María) – HACER’ through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) College/Community Underserved Partnership Program and supported by the U.S. Department of Education Work-Study Program, 3) developing a graduate certificate program in ‘Disaster Reduction Planning’ for the University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Planning, and 4) serving as external evaluator for the NSF Development and Launch Pilot ‘Capacity Building in Disaster Research for Scholars from Under-Represented Groups (SURGE). Santos-Hernández holds a B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Sociology from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Delaware, and several certifications. As a graduate student, she held research positions at the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center (DRC) and at the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).