News

April 2018
  • Undergraduate McNairs Scholar Lilly Cambre received second place for her poster about our research on earthquake warning messages in Haiti at the LSU Discover Day competition. Sociology students rarely win during this day and we are super proud of her!
April 2018
  • Honored to be selected as for a 2018 LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award! It honors Assistant Professors with outstanding achievements in research and publications.
November 2017
  • My first graduate student, Carlee Purdum, received a Quick Response Grant to study the effects of Hurricane Irma on inmates and how inmates provide labor for disaster resilience. So proud of her groundbreaking work!
October 2017 May 2017
  • Thank you to LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation for honoring me with an Undergraduate Teaching Award for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences!
May 2017 September 2016 August 2016
  • Exited to start my first collaboration with LSU researchers - our NSF IBSS grant to research social media in disaster was recently funded! Check the abstract here. 
August 2016
  • The team at Texas A&M led by engineer Nasir Gharaibeh received funding from NSF to test citizen science protocols for monitoring infrastructure condition! Read more here.
January 2016
  • Newest publication on green building framing is out in Organization and Environment. Check it out here.
September 2015
  • Several wonderful undergrads started working with me on our NSF research grant through the Research Experience for Undergraduates Supplement program from NSF!
June 2015
  • With the recent Texas floods, KBTX asked us to join them for a news spot about our research on communities doing disaster recovery! See me chatting with Rusty Surette here. 
May 2015
  • Traveled to Gothenburg, Sweden with Stephenson Disaster Management Institute, LSU professors, and New Orleans City Officials to learn about Gothenburg's plans for sea level rise, disasters, and climate change. See report and photos here.
May 2015
  • Super thanks to the Sociology Society and the undergrad majors! I am honored and humbled to be selected for the Faculty Teaching Award this year! Looking forward to meeting more of our amazing undergrads next fall!
December 2014
  • Just announced, I am excited to be among an amazing group of young hazard scholars as part of the Next Generation of Hazards and Disasters Researchers Fellowship program funded by NSF. See all the wonderful scholars involved here.
December 2014
  • Enjoyed working with GeoHazards International last summer on a survey about earthquake protective action messages. See discussion of the project in their winter newsletter here.
August 2014 July 2014
  • New NSF project! Our team will be continuing our research on recovery, adding four new Texas locations to the project. See the abstract here!
October 2013
  • Joined EERI for the trip to Taiwan to learn about disaster recovery following an earthquake and landslide. 
July 2013
  • Joined EERI and World Bank research in Sri Lanka on Build Back Better Practices following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Check out the slide show on this page!
June 2013
  • Awarded my first NSF grant as a PI! Read a media release about it and other research at the HRRC this summer.
August 2012
  • Have a cameo in our Department of Sociology video promoting CDRA and environmental/disaster sociology at CSU. See it here!
July 2012
  • Honored by the ASA Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology with the Robert Dentler Award for Outstanding Student Achievement.  From the award committee: "You were nominated for an impressive body of work which includes 5 distinct projects and a very innovative approach to addressing social problems, especially disaster response. The Awards Committee was most impressed with your willingness to engage with a wide variety of public and private institutions, and to use your sociological training and skills to create social change. This approach to social research and public action exemplifies the goals of our Section."   

Disaster. Environment. Community. Inequality. Organization.

Michelle Meyer is the Associate Executive Director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center and an Assistant Professor in the Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Department at Texas A&M University. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University (CSU) and has worked as an Assistant Research Scientist at the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University and as a research assistant at the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis at CSU.  She earned her BA from Murray State University in Murray, KY in Sociology and her MA from CSU in Sociology. 

Michelle's research interests include disaster resilience and mitigation, climate change displacement, environmental sociology and community sustainability, and the interplay between environmental conditions and social vulnerability. Particularly, Michelle studies inequality and how disaster and environmental settings intersect with structural forces that maintain or transform inequality. Michelle’s dissertation research focused on the interrelation of individual and community resilience and social vulnerability in hurricane-prone communities. Michelle has worked on various research projects including disaster risk perception, social capital in disaster resilience, organizational energy conservation, volunteer training program evaluation, evaluation of disaster response plans for individuals with disabilities, social media use among vulnerable populations, how to increase protective action knowledge in Haiti, citizen science protocols for measuring storm-water condition equity, and environmental attitudes and behaviors. Her teaching interests include research methods and statistics, sociology of disaster, environmental sociology, social stratification, and community sociology. 

She has conducted research in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, New York, California, Sri Lanka, and Haiti. As well as survey research throughout the Gulf and Atlantic coastlines and in Peru, India, and Turkey. 

She regularly collaborates with nonprofit organizations on applied research including t.e.j.a.s. (Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Service), GeoHazards International, local long-term recovery organizations, Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), as well as with high school students. She works hard to find mechanisms for undergraduate and graduate involvement in research that supports their education and helps communities become more resilient. 

*All pictures and posters on this website are property of Michelle, please ask before using. 
michelle_cv_april_2018.pdf
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Michelle and her dissertation adviser Dr. Lori Peek at her dissertation defense, May 2013.