Students

Brevin Franklin is a current senior at the University of Maryland studying Economics and Mathematics. Brevin has a  particular interest in environmental issues and how they interact with resource allocation. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in either Economics or Public Policy and continue research into disaster resource allocation. Brevin’s long-term goals are to become a research analyst at a federal department like the EPA or NOAA. Currently, Brevin is also a Sondheim Scholar.

Wendy Prudencio is a Ph.D. student in the Public Policy Program with a specialization in Emergency Services. She has a passion for advocacy and public service. Her research focuses on the impact of natural disasters in marginalized communities in the U.S. Wendy is also a VADM Lautenbacher Graduate Scholar and NOAA EPP Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Scholar.

Gwendolyn Alexandre is a Ph.D. student in the Public Policy program with a specialization in Emergency Medical Services. She is interested in intersectionality-based mixed methods policy analysis to explore health and socio-economical inequities in disaster and natural hazards research. Gwendolyn works as a UMBC Social Vulnerability and Resilience Lab (SOLVER) graduate research assistant, supporting research that advances policies that reduce disaster-related inequalities. She is also an NOAA EPP Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Scholar, under the mentorship of Dr. Fernando Tormos-Aponte.

Laura Bayona-Román is a Master’s student in the Applied Sociology program and an NOAA EPP Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Scholar.  Her research interests include social movements and the intersections between political systems and disaster recovery.  In addition, she recently completed a virtual internship at the Caribbean Office of the International Tsunami Information Center where she studied the relationship between social capital, social vulnerability, and tsunami disaster resilience in Puerto Rico.

Fariha Khalid is an incoming Ph.D. student in the School of Public Policy, UMBC. She is also an NOAA EPP Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Scholar. In 2020, she received an M.A. in Applied Sociology from the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health, UMBC. She focuses on sociopolitical factors and neighborhood effects to examine racial and economic disparities in the context of natural disasters. Her research interests include social determinants of health, food and housing insecurities, and residential segregation.