Melissa Villarreal
Location of experience: North America
Type of disaster work: Long-term disaster recovery; social vulnerability; community-engaged research; intersectionality
Primary Interests: Social vulnerability; sociology of disasters; race/ethnicity and immigration; gender and intersectionality; diversity & inclusion; environmental justice
I am a PhD Candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Department of Sociology and a graduate research assistant at the Natural Hazards Center. My work primarily centers around the post-disaster recovery process of vulnerable populations. I am currently working on my dissertation project: an intersectional, multi-level analysis of the long-term, post-disaster housing recovery of Mexican immigrant women in Houston, Texas after Hurricane Harvey. I was awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) in 2019, giving me a full three years of funding to conduct my work in Houston. In 2021, I was awarded the American Sociological Association (ASA) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) to continue this project. In 2021, I was selected to be a Kinder Scholar for Rice University’s Kinder Scholar Program. The Kinder Scholar Program, located in Houston, selects researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students who conduct high quality research in the area.
I have also worked on projects looking at women’s experiences during and after disaster; the benefits of mentoring for marginalized doctoral students of color; structural vulnerability and reproductive health access for Mexican-origin immigrant women; parental notification and access to abortion among minors; and the enhancement of the ethical quality of disaster research. Finally, I am a William Averette Anderson Fund (BAF) Fellow, which is dedicated to advancing the success of minority professionals in the hazards and disasters field.
I am excited to join CADAN and work with other scholars dedicated to reducing disaster risk and vulnerability of marginalized individuals during disasters. I am also passionate about connecting researchers and practitioners to maximize the practical implications of academic research.