Social Vulnerability to Disasters

Deborah S.K. Thomas, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver, where she also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health in the Colorado School of Public Health. She specializes in hazards and health geography and has over twenty years of experience working with geographic information systems (GIS) in disaster management and health applications, both in the U.S. and internationally. Her research and teaching interests focus on issues of vulnerability/resilience as they relate to both natural and human-induced hazards and health outcomes.

Brenda D. Phillips, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean and Full Professor of Sociology at Ohio University-Chillicothe. She is the author of Mennonite Disaster Service and an editor on Social Vulnerability to Disasters (CRC Press). In 2013, she was inducted into the International Network of Women in Emergency Management's Hall of Fame. In 2012, she received the Blanchard Award for Excellence in Emergency Management Education. Professor Phillips has conducted research on disaster recovery since 1982, beginning as a student of E.L. Quarantelli at The Ohio State University's Disaster Research Center. Her published research can be found in a variety of journals including the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Disaster Prevention, Disasters, Humanity and Society, the Journal of Emergency Management, Natural Hazards Review, and Environmental Hazards. She has been funded multiple times by the National Science Foundation to study disasters and vulnerable populations. Dr. Phillips has been invited to teach, consult or lecture in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, India, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, and the People's Republic of China. She is a graduate of Bluffton University (Ohio) and The Ohio State University.