HRRC Leadership, Fellows & Affiliates

The HRRC includes several staff members and a network of core faculty members who contribute to the leadership and operation of the center in various capacities. HRRC connects faculty across Texas A&M University who conduct research related to hazards and disasters through our faculty fellow program. We also have HRRC faculty and research affiliates across many institutions who support the mission of the center and collaborate with us on various projects. Ph.D., master’s and undergraduate students work with center faculty on these research projects.

Join the HRRC Family 

If you are interested in becoming a fellow or affiliate with the center, please contact Dr. Michelle Meyer at 979.845.7813 or mmeyer@arch.tamu.edu.

Staff

  • Michelle Annette Meyer
    Director, 2019-Present
    Research Interest: Disaster research, environmental justice and equity, volunteering/emergent groups, research methods, social stratification 
  • Walter Gillis Peacock
    Senior Fellows
    Research Interest: Urban planning, sustainability & resiliency issues, natural hazards, hazards mitigation & adaptation, long-term disaster recovery, quantitative methods
  • Shannon Van Zandt
    Senior Fellows
    Research Interest: Coastal resilience, social vulnerability to disasters, low-income housing, environmental equity
  • George Rogers
    Senior Fellows
    Research Interest: Sustainability, risk analysis & planning, technology & society, quantitative methods 
  • Nathanael Rosenheim
    Director of Research
    Research Interest: Spatial modeling, data science, community development, food system planning
  • Doug Wunneburger
    Mapping Lead
    Research Interest: Social impacts due to interactions of demographics, spatially explicit policies & laws
  • David Bierling
    Director of Transportation
    Research Interest: Hazardous materials transportation analysis, port infrastructure, operations and environmental issues, emergency response equipment test & evaluation
  • John Thomas Cooper Jr.
    Director of Outreach
    Research Interest: Civic engagement, community development, disaster planning/policy 
  • Jaimie Masterson
    Director of Engagement
    Research Interest: Community engagement, plan evaluation, government & public policy, research communication, environmental justice 
  • Galen Newman
    Liaison with CHUD
    Research Interest: Urban regeneration, land use science, spatial analytics, urban flood resilience 
  • Deidra Davis
    Director of Equity and Inclusion
    Research Interest: Environmental justice, community engagement, public policy and land use 
  • Andrew Rumbach
    Director of Education
  • Jeewasmi Thapa
    Engagement Specialist 

Core Faculty

  • John T. Cooper, Jr.
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Civic engagement, community development, disaster planning/policy 
  • Mark Fossett
    Sociology
    Research Interest: Racial & ethnic relations, social inequality, social demography, urban sociology, statistical methods, quantitative techniques
  • Nasir Gharaibeh
    Civil & Environmental Engineering
    Research Interest: Infrastructure condition assessment & deterioration modeling, participatory methods for infrastructure management, pavement design, preservation & management, infrastructure life-cycle analysis
  • Dan Goldberg
    Geography
    Research Interest: GIS, geocomputation, cyberGIS, spatial databases, spatial uncertainty, environmental exposure assessment, healthGIS 
  •  Jaimie Masterson
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Community engagement, plan evaluation, local government and public policy, research communication, environmental justice 
  • Michelle Annette Meyer
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Disaster research, environmental justice and equity, volunteering/emergent groups, research methods, social stratification 
  • Ali Mostafavi
    Civil & Environmental Engineering
    Research Interest: Complex system-of-system modeling, resilience of interdependent infrastructure, disaster resilience & climate change adaptation, network dynamics in project systems, water-energy nexus in civil systems 
  • Galen Newman
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Urban regeneration, land use science, spatial analytics, urban flood resilience 
  • Walter Gillis Peacock
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Urban planning, sustainability & resiliency issues, natural hazards, hazards mitigation & adaptation, long-term disaster recovery, quantitative methods
  • George Rogers
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Sustainability, risk analysis & planning, technology & society, quantitative methods
  • Nathanael Rosenheim
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Spatial modeling, data science, community development, food system planning
  • Laura Stough
    Education & Humane Development
    Research Interest: Developmental disabilities, disaster psychology, learning sciences, disaster recovery, qualitative methods, natural hazards
  • Shannon Van Zandt
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Coastal resilience, social vulnerability to disasters, low-income housing, environmental equity
  • Sierra Woodruff
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Climate change adaptation, resilience, ecosystem services, plan integration, planning networks, multi-level governance, hazard mitigation 
  • Douglas Wunneburger
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Social impacts due to interactions of demographics, spatially explicit policies & laws
  • Xinyue Ye
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Geographic information system, big data, urban computing, data science 
  • Siyu Yu
    Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
    Research Interest: Community resilience, plan integration, land use & environmental planning, social vulnerability, hazard mitigation 

Post-doctoral Researchers

  • J. Carlee Purdum
    Research Interest: Sociology of disaster, environmental sociology, rural sociology, emergency management, social vulnerability, community recovery, incarceration
  • Maria Watson
    Research Interest: Economic development, disaster recovery, survey methods, small business, community resilience, disaster finance & policy

Faculty Fellows

  • Amir Behzadan, Department of Construction Science 
  • Ann Bowman, The Bush School of Government & Public Service
  • Shanka Chellam, Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Benika Dixon, Texas A&M Health Science Center
  • Cecilia Giusti, School of Architecture
  • Youngjib Ham, Department of Construction Science
  • Maria Koliou, Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Matthew Malecha, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning 
  • Zenon Medina-Cetina, Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Jason Moats, The Bush School of Government & Public Service
  • Xiaofeng Nie, Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution 
  • Garett Sansom, TAMU Public Health
  • Douglass Shaw, TAMU Agricultural Economics
  • Courtney Thompson, Department of Geography
  • Qingsheng Wang, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering
  • Zhe Zhang, Department of Geography
  • Lei Zou, Department of Geography

Faculty & Research Affiliates

  • Kayode Atoba, TAMU at Galveston, The Center for Texas Beaches & Shores 
  • Phil Berke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of City and Regional Planning
  • Samuel Brody, TAMU at Galveston, The Center for Texas Beaches & Shores 
  • Noel M. Estwick, Prairie View A&M University, College of Agriculture & Humane Sciences
  • Himanshu Grover, University of Washington, Department of Urban Design & Planning
  • Sara Hamideh, Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences 
  • Bryce Hannibal , RDC Administrator, Wasatch Front Research Data Center, U.S. Census Bureau 
  • Marccus Hendricks, University of Maryland, College Park, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
  • Wesley E. Highfield, TAMU at Galveston, Department of Marine Science
  • Jen Horney, University of Delaware, Disaster Research Center
  • Shih-Kai (Sky) Huang, Jacksonville State University, Department of Emergency Management
  • Fayola Jacobs, University of Minnesota, Humphrey School of Public Affairs
  • Navid Jafari,  Louisiana State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 
  • Laurie Johnson, Consulting & Research
  • Dawn Jourdan, University of Maryland-College Park
  • Brant Mitchell, Louisiana State University, Stephenson Disaster Management Institute
  • Louis Ngamassi, Prairie View A&M University, MIS
  • Jody Rosenblatt Naderi, Ball State University, Department of Landscape Architecture
  • Lori Peek, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Sociology 
  • Ronald W. Perry, Arizona State University, School of Public Affairs
  • Steven Quiring, The Ohio State University, Department of Geography 
  • Ashley Ross, TAMU-Galveston, Department of Marine Science
  • Andy Rumbach, University of Colorado-Denver, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
  • Jesse Saginor, Florida Atlantic University, School of Urban & Regional Planning
  • Keri Stephens, University of Texas-Austin, Department of Communications Studies
  • Elaina Sutley, University of Kansas, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering 
  • Jennifer Tobin, University of Colorado Boulder, Natural Hazards Center
  • Hung Lung Wei, John Jay School of Criminal Justice (NY)
  • Tristan Wu, University of North Texas, Emergency Administration and Planning
  • Sierra Woodruff, Office of Global Change, U.S. State Department
  • Yu Xiao, Portland State University, Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning 
  • Yue Ge, University of Central Florida, Department of Public Administration 
  • Yang Zhang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Urban Affairs and Planning

Students

Doctoral Students

Masters Students

  • Romel Fernandez
  • Haley Yelle

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students who work with us are listed on our projects page.