As the nation tried to absorb the shock of the 9/11 attacks, Muslim Americans were caught up in a... more As the nation tried to absorb the shock of the 9/11 attacks, Muslim Americans were caught up in an unprecedented wave of backlash violence. Public discussion revealed that widespread misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Islam persisted, despite the striking diversity of the Muslim community. Letting the voices of 140 ordinary Muslim American men and women describe their experiences, Lori Peek's path-breaking book, Behind the Backlash presents moving accounts of prejudice and exclusion. Muslims speak of being ...
The goal of this article is twofold: to clarify the tenets of convergence research and to motivat... more The goal of this article is twofold: to clarify the tenets of convergence research and to motivate such research in the hazards and disaster field. Here, convergence research is defined as an approach to knowledge production and action that involves diverse teams working together in novel ways-transcending disciplinary and organizational boundaries-to address vexing social, economic, environmental, and technical challenges in an effort to reduce disaster losses and promote collective well-being. The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters coupled with the growth of the field suggests an urgent need for a more coherent approach to help guide what we study, who we study, how we conduct studies, and who is involved in the research process itself. This article is written through the lens of the activities of the National Science Foundation-supported CONVERGE facility, which was established in 2018 as the first social science-led component of the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). Convergence principles and the Science of Team Science undergird the work of CONVERGE, which brings together networks of researchers from geotechnical engineering, the social sciences, structural engineering, nearshore systems, operations and systems engineering, sustainable material management, and interdisciplinary science and engineering. CONVERGE supports and advances research that is conceptually integrative, and this article describes a convergence framework that includes the following elements: (1) identifying researchers; (2) educating and training researchers; (3) setting a convergence research agenda that is problem-focused and solutions-based; (4) connecting researchers and coordinating functionally and demographically diverse research teams; and (5) supporting and funding convergence research, data collection, data sharing, and solutions implementation.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
There is an expansive and growing body of literature that examines the mental health consequences... more There is an expansive and growing body of literature that examines the mental health consequences of disasters and large-scale emergencies. There is a need, however, for more explicit incorporation of mental health research into disaster risk reduction practices. Training and education programs can serve as a bridge to connect academic mental health research and the work of disaster risk reduction practitioners. This article describes the development and evaluation of one such intervention, the CONVERGE Disaster Mental Health Training Module, which provides users from diverse academic and professional backgrounds with foundational knowledge on disaster mental health risk factors, mental health outcomes, and psychosocial well-being research. Moreover, the module helps bridge the gap between research and practice by describing methods used to study disaster mental health, showcasing examples of evidence-based programs and tools, and providing recommendations for future research. Since...
ABSTRACT This article presents the results of an evaluation of a volunteer training program that ... more ABSTRACT This article presents the results of an evaluation of a volunteer training program that prepares participants to enter postdisaster settings to work with affected children and families. The evaluation, which uses a knowledge-skills-attitudes (KSA) approach, draws on the results of a telephone survey with 46 randomly selected program volunteers. Volunteers reported statistically significant knowledge gains in the three primary training areas: program-specific knowledge, disaster-specific knowledge, and child-specific knowledge. The respondents who had deployed to a disaster after becoming a certified volunteer connected three major training goals to their skills in the field. Specifically, they recalled and used training materials in terms of helping facilitate children’s play, setting up and running a disaster child care center, and remaining flexible and adaptable in the highly uncertain postdisaster context. The research also revealed uniformly positive attitudes toward the trainers who conduct the 27-hour training sessions and high levels of satisfaction with the program itself. The article concludes with recommendations for further improving the program and discusses ways that universities can work with nonprofit disaster relief organizations to ensure timely and effective program evaluations.
This article draws on experiences and lessons from global disasters and utilizes the United Natio... more This article draws on experiences and lessons from global disasters and utilizes the United Nations Comprehensive School Safety Framework to highlight the necessary role of safe schools in protecting children, as well as adult staff, from the immediate threats and long-term implications of disasters. Specifically, we focus on three well-established pillars of school safety: Pillar I: Safe Learning Facilities; Pillar II: Disaster Management; and Pillar III: Risk Reduction and Resilience Education. In addition, we propose a potential fourth pillar, which underscores the function of schools in postdisaster mental health assessment and intervention for children. We argue that schools offer a central location and trusted institutional space for mental health assessment and intervention after disasters. We also examine the important linkages between schools, child mental health, and household and family recovery. We conclude with recommendations for filling gaps in research and practice related to ensuring the safety of schools and the associated health and well-being of children in the face of future disasters.
Multi-hazard Approaches to Civil Infrastructure Engineering, 2016
This chapter provides an overview of disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities underway in 11 eart... more This chapter provides an overview of disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities underway in 11 earthquake-prone cities including Antakya and Istanbul, The goal is to provide information about the tools and resources that practitioners and organizations in these 11 cities have access to, in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of DRR strategies and a better sense of the contexts in which future potential products may be created, evaluated, and ultimately adopted. Drawing on both survey and in-depth interview data with earthquake safety practitioners from government, business, health care, education, and grassroots groups, the chapter describes earthquake and disaster risk reduction programs and initiatives in these communities, explains what spurred the creation of those programs and initiatives, details the technical tools and resources that practitioners in these cities currently use to assess and mitigate their risk, and analyzes the communication channels that disaster and risk professionals now have access to and find most useful in their work. The chapter concludes with a discussion of overarching motivations for adopting new disaster and seismic risk reduction (SRR) practices and offers practical advice to help guide the development of risk reduction tools for use in earthquake-prone cities around the world.
The aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of hurricane risk perception. T... more The aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of hurricane risk perception. The utility of such a measure lies in the need to understand how people make decisions when facing an evacuation order. This study included participants located within a 15-mile buffer of the Gulf and southeast Atlantic U.S. coasts. The study was executed as a three-wave panel with mail surveys in 2010-2012 (T0 baseline N = 629, 56%; T1 retention N = 427, 75%; T2 retention N = 350, 89%). An inventory based on the psychometric model was developed to discriminate cognitive and affective perceptions of hurricane risk, and included open-ended responses to solicit additional concepts in the T0 survey. Analysis of the T0 data modified the inventory and this revised item set was fielded at T1 and then replicated at T2 . The resulting scales were assessed for validity against existing measures for perception of hurricane risk, dispositional optimism, and locus of control. A measure of evacuation expectation was also examined as a dependent variable, which was significantly predicted by the new measures. The resulting scale was found to be reliable, stable, and largely valid against the comparison measures. Despite limitations involving sample size, bias, and the strength of some reliabilities, it was concluded that the measure has potential to inform approaches to hurricane preparedness efforts and advance planning for evacuation messages, and that the measure has good promise to generalize to other contexts in natural hazards as well as other domains of risk.
As the nation tried to absorb the shock of the 9/11 attacks, Muslim Americans were caught up in a... more As the nation tried to absorb the shock of the 9/11 attacks, Muslim Americans were caught up in an unprecedented wave of backlash violence. Public discussion revealed that widespread misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Islam persisted, despite the striking diversity of the Muslim community. Letting the voices of 140 ordinary Muslim American men and women describe their experiences, Lori Peek's path-breaking book, Behind the Backlash presents moving accounts of prejudice and exclusion. Muslims speak of being ...
The goal of this article is twofold: to clarify the tenets of convergence research and to motivat... more The goal of this article is twofold: to clarify the tenets of convergence research and to motivate such research in the hazards and disaster field. Here, convergence research is defined as an approach to knowledge production and action that involves diverse teams working together in novel ways-transcending disciplinary and organizational boundaries-to address vexing social, economic, environmental, and technical challenges in an effort to reduce disaster losses and promote collective well-being. The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters coupled with the growth of the field suggests an urgent need for a more coherent approach to help guide what we study, who we study, how we conduct studies, and who is involved in the research process itself. This article is written through the lens of the activities of the National Science Foundation-supported CONVERGE facility, which was established in 2018 as the first social science-led component of the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). Convergence principles and the Science of Team Science undergird the work of CONVERGE, which brings together networks of researchers from geotechnical engineering, the social sciences, structural engineering, nearshore systems, operations and systems engineering, sustainable material management, and interdisciplinary science and engineering. CONVERGE supports and advances research that is conceptually integrative, and this article describes a convergence framework that includes the following elements: (1) identifying researchers; (2) educating and training researchers; (3) setting a convergence research agenda that is problem-focused and solutions-based; (4) connecting researchers and coordinating functionally and demographically diverse research teams; and (5) supporting and funding convergence research, data collection, data sharing, and solutions implementation.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
There is an expansive and growing body of literature that examines the mental health consequences... more There is an expansive and growing body of literature that examines the mental health consequences of disasters and large-scale emergencies. There is a need, however, for more explicit incorporation of mental health research into disaster risk reduction practices. Training and education programs can serve as a bridge to connect academic mental health research and the work of disaster risk reduction practitioners. This article describes the development and evaluation of one such intervention, the CONVERGE Disaster Mental Health Training Module, which provides users from diverse academic and professional backgrounds with foundational knowledge on disaster mental health risk factors, mental health outcomes, and psychosocial well-being research. Moreover, the module helps bridge the gap between research and practice by describing methods used to study disaster mental health, showcasing examples of evidence-based programs and tools, and providing recommendations for future research. Since...
ABSTRACT This article presents the results of an evaluation of a volunteer training program that ... more ABSTRACT This article presents the results of an evaluation of a volunteer training program that prepares participants to enter postdisaster settings to work with affected children and families. The evaluation, which uses a knowledge-skills-attitudes (KSA) approach, draws on the results of a telephone survey with 46 randomly selected program volunteers. Volunteers reported statistically significant knowledge gains in the three primary training areas: program-specific knowledge, disaster-specific knowledge, and child-specific knowledge. The respondents who had deployed to a disaster after becoming a certified volunteer connected three major training goals to their skills in the field. Specifically, they recalled and used training materials in terms of helping facilitate children’s play, setting up and running a disaster child care center, and remaining flexible and adaptable in the highly uncertain postdisaster context. The research also revealed uniformly positive attitudes toward the trainers who conduct the 27-hour training sessions and high levels of satisfaction with the program itself. The article concludes with recommendations for further improving the program and discusses ways that universities can work with nonprofit disaster relief organizations to ensure timely and effective program evaluations.
This article draws on experiences and lessons from global disasters and utilizes the United Natio... more This article draws on experiences and lessons from global disasters and utilizes the United Nations Comprehensive School Safety Framework to highlight the necessary role of safe schools in protecting children, as well as adult staff, from the immediate threats and long-term implications of disasters. Specifically, we focus on three well-established pillars of school safety: Pillar I: Safe Learning Facilities; Pillar II: Disaster Management; and Pillar III: Risk Reduction and Resilience Education. In addition, we propose a potential fourth pillar, which underscores the function of schools in postdisaster mental health assessment and intervention for children. We argue that schools offer a central location and trusted institutional space for mental health assessment and intervention after disasters. We also examine the important linkages between schools, child mental health, and household and family recovery. We conclude with recommendations for filling gaps in research and practice related to ensuring the safety of schools and the associated health and well-being of children in the face of future disasters.
Multi-hazard Approaches to Civil Infrastructure Engineering, 2016
This chapter provides an overview of disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities underway in 11 eart... more This chapter provides an overview of disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities underway in 11 earthquake-prone cities including Antakya and Istanbul, The goal is to provide information about the tools and resources that practitioners and organizations in these 11 cities have access to, in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of DRR strategies and a better sense of the contexts in which future potential products may be created, evaluated, and ultimately adopted. Drawing on both survey and in-depth interview data with earthquake safety practitioners from government, business, health care, education, and grassroots groups, the chapter describes earthquake and disaster risk reduction programs and initiatives in these communities, explains what spurred the creation of those programs and initiatives, details the technical tools and resources that practitioners in these cities currently use to assess and mitigate their risk, and analyzes the communication channels that disaster and risk professionals now have access to and find most useful in their work. The chapter concludes with a discussion of overarching motivations for adopting new disaster and seismic risk reduction (SRR) practices and offers practical advice to help guide the development of risk reduction tools for use in earthquake-prone cities around the world.
The aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of hurricane risk perception. T... more The aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of hurricane risk perception. The utility of such a measure lies in the need to understand how people make decisions when facing an evacuation order. This study included participants located within a 15-mile buffer of the Gulf and southeast Atlantic U.S. coasts. The study was executed as a three-wave panel with mail surveys in 2010-2012 (T0 baseline N = 629, 56%; T1 retention N = 427, 75%; T2 retention N = 350, 89%). An inventory based on the psychometric model was developed to discriminate cognitive and affective perceptions of hurricane risk, and included open-ended responses to solicit additional concepts in the T0 survey. Analysis of the T0 data modified the inventory and this revised item set was fielded at T1 and then replicated at T2 . The resulting scales were assessed for validity against existing measures for perception of hurricane risk, dispositional optimism, and locus of control. A measure of evacuation expectation was also examined as a dependent variable, which was significantly predicted by the new measures. The resulting scale was found to be reliable, stable, and largely valid against the comparison measures. Despite limitations involving sample size, bias, and the strength of some reliabilities, it was concluded that the measure has potential to inform approaches to hurricane preparedness efforts and advance planning for evacuation messages, and that the measure has good promise to generalize to other contexts in natural hazards as well as other domains of risk.
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Papers by Lori Peek