I never wanted to be famous.
Two years ago, my life was defined by my research as an academic and the work I had done with natural disasters. No one outside of my academic and professional bubbles knew who I was, and I was perfectly content with that.
I wanted to save lives. I wanted to spend my life studying the Earth to help us better prepare us for its most volatile extremes, chiefly hurricanes and climate change. I did this because my own experiences with storms – specifically Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – pushed me to better-understand the many and varied elements of disaster – from the physical earth science to the social fallout.
For a girl who grew up poor and intermittently homeless in rural, southern Mississippi to earn a full ride to a school like Syracuse University and take my career as far as I had for as young as I was, I had everything I could have ever wanted. Two beautiful, amazing kids. A husband I love dearly, who also dedicated his life to service in public health. A j…
