Disaster resilience

People love talking about the weather, but what they like talking less about is why certain weather patterns exist. That’s something Joan Casey has observed as a scientist who studies climate change’s impact on communities. 

A new digital tool developed by researchers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) could help health jurisdictions in Washington state assess their readiness for emergencies such as earthquakes, wildfires and tsunamis.

As a planning coordinator, Meg Hamele works to prepare Seattle for the inevitable public health crises that will arise if and when a disaster strikes the city. But her career evolved from a much simpler everyday annoyance — grocery shopping.

If you don’t already have an emergency kit at home, you’ve likely been meaning to build one for months, if not years. Kathleen Moloney can help you check that item off your to-do list.

The vast majority of earthquakes strike inside the Ring of Fire, a string of volcanoes and tectonic activity that wraps around the coastlines of the Pacific Ocean. But when an earthquake hits, the areas that experience the strongest shaking aren’t always the places that suffer the greatest damage.

Whether it’s a blizzard, a heat wave or a wildfire, severe weather is often quickly followed by a power outage.  As demonstrated in the recent Los Angeles wildfires, these combined events can be associated with major economic costs and health risks. Loss of power can disrupt medical equipment, heating or air conditioning, and other important systems.  

For the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS), 2024 was a year of behind-the-scenes change, as we thanked Professor Michael Yost for his 10-year tenure as department chair and welcomed

Explore a storymap about climate resilience in the Duwamish ValleyMore than a century ago, Seattle leaders set out to control and redirect the Duwamish River. They dredged the riverbed and dug out its twists and turns.

In the past several months, researchers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and their partners have received four awards from the UW Population Health Initiative to pursue research on the health impacts of emerging threats including extreme cold, sea level rise, extreme heat combined with wil

More than 100,000 oil and gas wells across the western US are in areas burned by wildfires in recent decades, according to a new study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the UW and six other institutions. Some 3 million people live next to wells that in the future could be in the path of fires worsened by climate change. 

The same geologic forces that shaped Washington state hold the potential to devastate the Pacific Northwest. This reality necessitates thorough disaster planning to prepare the region to mitigate, respond to and recover from future catastrophes.

Nell ThompsonBS, Environmental Public HealthHometownLynnwood, WAFuture plansGetting a master's of public health.“The learning opportunities I've had at UW have been really inspiring.”- Nell Thompson

Assistant Professor Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen joined the UW last year with a joint appointment in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and the Department of Urban Design and Planning (UDP) in the College of Built Environments.

Kathleen Moloney, DEOHS research scientist. As unprecedented as the outbreak of COVID-19 felt, it was far from the first time a deadly disease has swept the globe. 

It might start with a slight scent of smoke from a faraway wildfire, and often ends with weeks-long warnings about hazardous air quality, calls to shelter indoors and lessons about how to build homemade air filters.

2023 has been a year of community resilience for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). Together with many partners, our students, faculty and staff spearheaded projects to help Pacific Northwest communities respond and adapt to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke and other impacts of climate change.

Explore the storymap In the fall of 2022, our team of researchers from the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, the Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC), the City of Seattle and the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences went door to door in the Se

The University of Washington’s new Center for Disaster Resilient Communities (CDRC) will lead the development of a new workplan for a regional public health emergency preparedness and response center to help prepare the Northwest for disasters and emergencies.

University of Washington School of Public Health faculty member Kristie Ebi was recently elected as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Four teams of researchers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and their collaborators recently received awards from the UW Population Health Initiative to pursue projects focused on the health impacts of military aircraft noise pollution, using drones to monitor harmful algal blooms, engaging youth in disaster planning and incorporating public health

Claire Schollaert PhD, Environmental & Occupational Hygiene Hometown Walnut Creek, CA Future plans A career as an environmental health scientist in academia, government or the nonprofit sector

Heat is a quiet killer. Unlike most natural disasters, which can leave visible damage across an entire region, a heat wave’s effects on human health can be difficult to track.

 

Nnenia Campbell is executive director of the Bill Anderson Fund (BAF). Dr. Campbell’s work with the DEOHS includes training for advanced graduate students and early-career professionals on environmental and public health disaster research methods and skills.

Jamie Vickery is a Research Social Scientist and the Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) Branch Chief within the Global Systems Laboratory’s Weather Informatics and Decision Support (WIDS) Division and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences.

Gail has her doctorate in Public Health from the University of Texas, School of Public Health. She is a Certified Industrial Hygienist. Currently she has joint appointments as a Visiting Professor with Universidad de La Sabana, Faculty of Nursing, Bogotá, Colombia and as an Occupational Health Instructor for Texas A&M University.

Mr Matthews-Trigg graduated from DEOHS in 2017 with a Master’s in Public health, and he has continued to work with DEOHS faculty Drs. Kris Ebi and Nicole Errett since then, including co-authoring a textbook chapter with Dr. Ebi, supporting the DEOHS wildfire symposium, and supporting the Global Heat Health Information Network.