As Texas marks one year since the deadly flooding at Camp Mystic, Rice University experts are available to discuss grief and recovery, resilience after traumatic events and lessons for organizations preparing for emergencies.
Grief, trauma and community recovery
Luz Maria Garcini, assistant professor of psychological sciences and interim director of community and public health at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Garcini examines stress and health in response to trauma, loss and grief and seeks to identify mechanisms of risk and resilience in the face of adversity and social disadvantage. She has helped develop community-based resources to support families navigating grief and bereavement and studies factors that promote recovery following traumatic experiences.
Garcini can discuss anniversary reactions, how children and families process loss over time, and strategies that help individuals and communities cope after tragedy.
Flood risk and disaster preparedness
Philip Bedient, the Herman and George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of Rice’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster Center
Bedient specializes in flood prediction, warning systems and storm surge modeling. He is working with researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington to develop a real-time flood warning system for the Texas Hill Country designed to provide residents and emergency managers with earlier, more precise alerts during rapidly evolving flood events.
He can discuss flash-flood risks in Texas, warning systems and preparedness measures that can help reduce loss of life during extreme weather events.
Avantika Gori, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering
Gori can speak to coastal and inland flood risk in the face of climate change and changing landscape conditions. She currently leads a federally-funded project to better understand flooding in rural Texas communities and help them improve their long-term flood resilience.
Her research uses high-resolution physics-based models combined with statistical methods and AI/ML to quantify the interactions between extreme events, climate change, and the built and natural environment.
To schedule an interview with one of these experts, contact media relations specialists Kat Cosley Trigg at Kat.Cosley.Trigg@rice.edu and Alex Becker at alex.becker@rice.edu.