RISE 2019 Conference

Tricia Wachtendorf is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware and Director of the world-renown Disaster Research Center – the oldest center in the world focused on the social science aspects of disaster. Over the past two decades, her research has focused on multi-organizational coordination before, during and after disasters, transnational crises, and social vulnerability to disaster events. Dr. Wachtendorf has engaged in quick response field work after such events as the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, the tsunamis affecting India, Sri Lanka (2004) and Japan (2011), Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012), as well as the earthquakes in China (2008) and Haiti (2010). With numerous research grants from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, she has published widely on improvisation in disasters as well as disaster convergence. Her most recent funded research projects examine the temporal nature of household and emergency management decision-making during hazardous events and investigate humanitarian logistics during disaster response. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the broad area of disaster sociology, as well as serves as faculty in the University of Delaware’s disaster science and management program.