News

September 2024
  • PhD Student Judanne Lennox-Morrison just received her first grant! She will be interviewing rural and tribal CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) leaders to understand how well the program operates in their communities. The research is funded by FEMA. 
May 2024
  • So proud of soon-to-be Dr. Joy Semien for becoming Deputy Director for EPA Region 6! 
February 2024
  • Joined the Third Assessment of Natural Hazards in the United States as a Steering Committee Member. Excited to work with Dr. Lori Peek and fellow amazing scholars on this important work. 
September 2022September 2021September 2020
  • Tenure! Already?! Time is flying! Thanks to my mentors and the committee in all their support. 
March 2020 March 2020July 2019 April 2019
  • We get to continue our research with volunteer rescuers!. See the abstract from NSF here.
August 2018 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!
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.
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 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 Director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center and an Associate 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) under Dr. Lori Peek.  She earned her BA from Murray State University in Murray, KY in Sociology and a MA from CSU in Sociology. 

Michelle's research interests include disaster resilience and mitigation, environmental sociology and community sustainability, and the interplay between environmental conditions and inequality. Particularly, Michelle studies how disaster and environmental settings intersect with social structural forces that maintain or transform inequality.  Michelle's research projects include understanding capacity of long-term recovery organizations, nonprofit efforts in resilience, 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.

Michelle's work has evolved to include collaborating regularly in large interdisciplinary teams. Her collaborators include experts in various engineering fields - especially civil, environmental, and structural - anthropology, archeology, public health, computer science, agricultural economics, public administration, landscape architecture, and of course sociologists. 

Her teaching expertise most centrally lies in research methods including introductory statistics, research design, and qualitative methods. She also teaches speciality courses in disaster, environmental sociology, social stratification, and community. She implements mechanisms for undergraduate and graduate student involvement in research - with a focus on historically excluded students - that supports their education and helps communities become more resilient. 

She has traveled across the US and world to collect data, including all around Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Colorado, New York, California, North Carolina, as well as Sri Lanka and Haiti. She has conducted survey research throughout the Gulf and Atlantic coastlines and in Peru, India, and Turkey. 

She aims to be an engaged scholar. She accomplishes this through collaborations with nonprofit and governmental organizations on applied research.

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