Graduate Degrees and Disasters: Learning from Social Scientists in the U.S. Federal Government

Keely Maxwell is a general anthropologist in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development. She works in the Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, where she out carries out applied social science research on community resilience, environmental cleanups, and disaster waste decision-making. Dr. Maxwell is the coordinating lead author for a new chapter in the Fifth National Climate Assessment titled “Social Systems and Justice.” She has a PhD and a Master of Forest Science from the Yale School of the Environment and a bachelor’s in biology and environmental studies from Williams College.

Sara McBride is a crisis communication response leader with 20 years progressive experience in risk, hazard, science communication, public education, disaster risk reduction, community resilience, and international humanitarian response. Dr. McBride is a social scientist with expertise in mixed methods and a specialty in content and critical analysis. Her professional communications accomplishments include serving as Public Information Manager for GeoNet/GNS Science during the Kaikoura Earthquake and Second-in-Command for Christchurch Earthquake Response. Her extensive international and domestic on-site crisis communication and emergency management experience includes work in New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Namibia, Hawai’i, and Washington. She is proficient in French and Solomon Islands Pidgin.

Cassandra Shivers-Williams is the social science deputy program manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Program Office. Her research expertise includes understanding social and personal factors that affect human decision-making during threatening situations. In her current role, Dr. Shivers-Williams offers administrative science support for NOAA-funded researchers and provides social science expertise to various partners and stakeholders. She received her bachelor’s in psychology from Southern University and A&M College and her master’s and PhD in social psychology from Howard University. She is also an alumna of the NOAA Cooperative Science Center for Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, which is how she got her start at NOAA.

Tyson Vaughan is a civil works and water resources policy analyst and a subject-matter expert in the social dimensions of disaster recovery and risk reduction, community resilience, and environmental collaboration and public engagement. As a sociologist at the Institute for Water Resources (IWR), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), he works to improve federal policy, engage the public, and enhance the resilience of American communities facing environmental risks. Dr. Vaughan holds a PhD in Science & Technology Studies from Cornell University. His doctoral dissertation examined expert-facilitated public participation in recovery planning in post-disaster Japan. Furthermore, he has studied public participation in scientific research (a.k.a. “citizen science”), post-Katrina participatory recovery planning in his hometown of New Orleans, and recovery from industrial mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan.