Overview
My research examines how environmental change and natural hazards create financial and societal risk, and how improved risk management can strengthen the resilience of communities and natural resource systems. I am particularly interested in natural disasters disaster finance, and the ways that land-use and ecological change influence hazard behavior and economic losses. My work combines geospatial analysis, hazard and climate modeling, and financial risk assessment to study how risks are generated, measured, and managed. I also explore innovative financial tools, including insurance, anticipatory finance, and public-sector risk financing, that can help communities and resource-dependent industries prepare for and respond to disasters. Currently, my work is focused on wildfire risk in the Western U.S., alternative insurance solutions (forecast-based finance, micro insurance, etc.), and risk management in marine resource systems.