Lori Peek

  • Professor, Department of Sociology
  • Director, Natural Hazards Center
  • Principal Investigator, NHERI CONVERGE, SSEER, and ISEEER
  • NATURAL HAZARDS CENTER

Lori Peek is director of the Natural Hazards Center and professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies vulnerable populations in disaster and is author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora, and co-author of Children of Katrina. Peek also helped develop and write school safety guidance for the nation, which resulted in the publication of FEMA P-1000, Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety.

Peek has conducted field investigations in the aftermath of several major disasters. She is the principal investigator for the NSF-funded CONVERGE facility, which is dedicated to improving research coordination and advancing the ethical conduct and scientific rigor of disaster research. She also leads the NSF-supported Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) and Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Extreme Events Research (ISEEER) networks. Peek is co-principal investigator for an NSF-effort focused on advancing interdisciplinary methods and approaches for hazards and disaster research. She is also part of a new U.S. Geological Survey-funded project on earthquake early warning systems in schools, and she is principal investigator for an evaluation research project for Save the Children.

Peek is past President of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Disasters and past Chair of the American Sociological Association Environmental Sociology Section. She is co-PI for the NSF INCLUDES Minority SURGE Capacity in Disasters project and a Board Member for the Bill Anderson Fund; both initiatives are dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented professionals in hazards mitigation and disaster research.