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In this episode of , hear from Dr. Lori Peek about her formative years in small-town Kansas, how her research is helping us learn from disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the COVID-19 pandemic, and her love for teaching and mentoring students.

Terri Fiez

Hello, science fans, creative thinkers, and lifelong learners, and welcome to Buff Innovator Insights. I'm your host Terri Fiez, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Colorado Boulder. The Buff Innovator Insights podcast is a behind the curtain look at some of the most innovative, groundbreaking ideas in the world. Even better, it's an up-close and personal introduction to the people behind the innovations. My guest today, Dr. Lori Peek is a Professor of Sociology, Faculty Associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science, and Director of the Natural Hazards Center, all at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder. She is the principal investigator for the NSF-funded CONVERGE facility, which is dedicated to improving disaster research through coordination and collaboration among social scientists, natural scientists, and engineers. Dr. Peek's research focuses on the impacts of disasters on marginalized populations. This has included field investigations in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the BP Oil Spill, the Christchurch earthquakes, Superstorm Sandy, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Peek has authored the book Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-edited another book Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora, and co-authored a third book Children of Katrina, ensuring that the findings of her research are available to and can benefit the public. She also helped develop and write national school safety guidance for FEMA, resulting in the publication Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety. In addition to the recognition for her scholarship, Peek has received nearly a dozen awards for her teaching and mentoring. In my conversation with Dr. Peek, we'll talk about how growing up on a farm in a small town in Kansas provided a foundation for her future academic and professional success, how disasters like the 9/11 terrorist attack and Hurricane Katrina influenced her study of the effects of disasters especially on vulnerable populations, and how teaching and mentoring students at all levels has become a central part of her work and legacy to her field. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Lori Peek as much as I did.

I'm really excited today to have us our guest speaker, Lori Peek. And Lori first came to my house with a group of faculty. And when she picked up my cat and just started to love my cat, I knew that we would be friends. And it all made sense when I realized that she grew up in rural Kansas on a farm with cattle and sheep and pigs and some row crop farming too. Lori, what did you learn from this experience?

Lori Peek

You're so right, Terri. I was born and raised in a rural area of Kansas, about an hour and a half south of Kansas city. And one of the big things that I think my three brothers and I learned at a very early age was about the importance of working every single day because the animals on the farm, they need you.

Terri Fiez

In addition to living on a farm, I understand that the town you grew up in it was 592 people. So, clearly very small. And your graduating class was 16 students. Not very many people can say that. What was that like to have just 16 students in your class? And were you valedictorian?

Lori Peek

I am happy to report that I was valedictorian of my class. And I loved all of my classmates that I'm still in touch with, almost all of them. And people do oftentimes ask me what it was like to grow up in such a small place. Waverly, Kansas is my hometown. And there's not even a stoplight in Waverly. It's so small. But growing up in a small town, I know you did too, Terri, that you become a joiner. You really have to be there, contribute and show up because there aren't that many people. And so if you're one of the people, whether it's in sports or drama or music or whatever it is that you're a part of, you really have to show up.

Terri Fiez

So, what were some of your favorite subjects in school and also your outside activities?

Lori Peek

Yeah. I will say this. I definitely, I was always a kid that I loved school. So, I loved math. I loved science. I loved my writing classes. And again, my school was such a small school that we didn't have a large curriculum, but it meant that we had the same teachers over many years. And so, that really allowed us to develop a strong relationship and to keep learning from our teachers. So, I loved being a student. And I played sports. I did volleyball, basketball track, but I did other things like music and drama and cheerleading. And just about everything you could imagine to be a part of.

Terri Fiez

So then, you went off to a small private school. And did you know what you wanted to major in when you went to college?

Lori Peek

I didn't know what I was going to study. I was in undeclared major, but then my first semester of college, I took a sociology class. And I love the perspective of the discipline. I love the focus on not just individual persons, but really on groups and communities and society that sociology brings to the study of our world. That really was my first true academic love. And I've stuck with it all these years.

Terri Fiez

What was the one experience that was transformative for you in your undergraduate education?

Lori Peek

If I had to choose one, I think I would really point to the summer before my senior year of university, I won the scholarship and it actually allowed you to travel anywhere in the world. And I ended up traveling to, I studied abroad at Nottingham University in Nottingham, England. But my best friend in college, Rachel, she and I decided we were going to turn this study abroad into our first ever foreign adventure. And we ended up for two weeks before I actually started the study abroad. We did this two week tour around several countries in Europe. And we saved up all of our money for a year, so we could do that together. And Terri, it absolutely changed my life. Again, being a person from a small town, I didn't travel a lot. And so this was, it was so eyeopening. It was the first time I've seen other cultures. And it helped me to see both how similar people are, but also our real differences.

Terri Fiez

What a great foundation. Can you tell us about the undergraduate advisor who was so impressed with the paper you wrote that the individual asked you to present it to the university president? And how was that?

Lori Peek

That's right. It was my undergraduate honors thesis. So, that was actually my first time of ever doing real research when I wrote this honors thesis. And you're right, Dr. Kelly Fish-Greenlee she said, "Lori, I want you to come and present this to the president of Ottawa University," which is a small liberal arts school I attended in Kansas. And so, I got to present my thesis to the university president and he ended up writing a letter of recommendation for me to go onto graduate school. And so that was again, a pivotal moment in my life that put me on this course that eventually led me back here to ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder.

Terri Fiez

Let's transition to your graduate school and building into your professional career. After pursuing your master's at Colorado State, you went down the road and came to ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder for the first time to study sociology. And you received a fellowship to do that, which would help fund your research. Most students would have been happy with that and content with that, but I know you, you're a joiner and you want to be part of things. And so, I know you asked to have some opportunities where you could be involved in things. Tell us about that opportunity that you were able to take part in.

Lori Peek

Right. So it was the summer before my first year of doctoral studies here at the University of Colorado Boulder. And I had realized in sort of the run-up to starting classes in August that all of the other incoming graduate students in my cohort, they were going to be teaching assistants or research assistants. And so I called up the graduate director at the time in sociology and I said, I know I have this fellowship that I'm so thankful for it, but I would really like to have a job and to be engaged on campus. And he said, "Well, it just so happens that at the Natural Hazards Center, which is one of our research centers here in the Institute of Behavioral Science, they have an opening for a graduate research assistant position." And I was so fortunate to be hired. And it was as if my life was cast in concrete on that day because everything from that day forward that has been the focus of my research. The Natural Hazards Center has really been my research anchor, not just as a graduate student, but then throughout my professional career.

Terri Fiez

That's a good segue into my next question. What does the Natural Hazards Center do? And what did you do with the Natural Hazards Center?

Lori Peek

The Natural Hazards Center for over 40 years, it has been the National Science Foundation-designated information clearinghouse for the societal dimensions of hazards and disasters. And so, what that means is that we have a real responsibility at the Natural Hazards Center to really do four big things. So, we translate and share information. So, we try to get research into the hands of practitioners. We build bridges between researchers, practitioners, policymakers, journalists, and others who are concerned with disaster losses and trying to figure out how do we reduce them. We conduct original research and we train and mentor a next generation of researchers and practitioners.

Terri Fiez

Well, thinking about the timeline, you came in 1999. And as we know in 2001, the twin towers were destroyed. How did that influence your graduate work?

Lori Peek

Yes. Terri, you're absolutely right. I mean, our nation obviously has much more experience with natural hazards losses than other forms of disasters like terrorism. But then right in the center of my graduate studies, the 9/11 attacks happen. And I did end up studying the terrorist attacks as part of my dissertation. And so, it was a pivot to a different kind of extreme event. We might say that what continued in my interest is that really at the center of my own research agenda is a focus on marginalized populations. And so when 9/11 happened, I ended up studying the backlash against Muslim Americans that followed those terror attacks. It was really seeing how they've responded to the terror attacks and the backlash against their religious community that followed. A lot of people sort of thought like, oh, with this backlash, Muslims might sort of take off their headscarves.

They might not want to show their religious faith. But instead, what I found was oftentimes these young second generation Muslim women who I was studying, they were much more likely to want to keep their headscarf under. I even interviewed several women who started wearing the headscarf after 9/11 because they really wanted to reclaim that identity and to show that they were a part of the American public sphere. And so I think, again, it was that theme of the pain and the suffering and the cascading impacts of disaster, but also the ways that we as human beings will respond as we work to preserve our identity and our communities.

Terri Fiez

That's really fascinating. So you finished your PhD, and then you went back up the road to Colorado State to begin your role as an assistant professor in 2005. And shortly after that, another disaster struck, which was Hurricane Katrina. How did that affect you and mobilize the work that you would do after that?

Lori Peek

So, it captured my attention as it did that of many other people. And the magnitude of this disaster, which still Katrina still stands as the most costly natural hazard event in our national history. One of the most deadly in modern history. It caused the largest and most abrupt displacement of a population in our US history. And I ended up launching with a fellow sociologist, Alice Fothergill, a long-term study of children in the aftermath of that event. And we followed young people who were between the ages of three and 18 at the time of Hurricane Katrina. We followed these young people for nearly 10 years after the storm. We think it's the longest running recovery study of children in disasters that has been conducted. So, we launched that study. And then, I also teamed up with a group of 12 other researchers from across the United States. We were all studying persons who were displaced by Katrina. And we ended up co-editing a book together called Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora, where we really documented the experiences of over one million people who were scattered all across the United States after that storm.

Terri Fiez

Lori, can you tell us how this research is used? So research often tends to be something that seems pie in the sky, but much of the work you're doing is very grounded. Could you give us an example of how that research has been somehow deployed or had an impact on our lives?

Lori Peek

Yes. And I know you're right, Terri, that sometimes research does seem so abstract. But most people who come into this research domain, they want to see their research make a difference in people's lives. And so, I'll give you two examples. So from my own research, one thing that I'm really proud of after we finished doing the research for Children of Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency actually formed a working group to try to figure out how can we develop policy guidance that is research-based to ensure that our schools in this nation are safe from natural hazards. And so I spent over three years as a part of a working group that involved engineers and social scientists, risk communication experts, teachers, school administrators, where we ended up producing practical guidance that's called Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety. And it's the first comprehensive guidance for schools throughout our nation to try to help make sure that our schools are safe from earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, fires, and other natural hazards.

A broad example that I'd love to give about how hazards research has really been applied. For over 50 years, social and behavioral scientists have studied warnings and specifically risk communication in the context of warning. So, how do we warn people that a hurricane is coming or a tornado or a flash flood? Here in Colorado, there are climb to safety signs. Those signs actually came out of a master student, Eve Grundfest out of her research here in Colorado that found that people perished in a flood because they didn't know to climb to safety. And so that is risk communication research that then was translated into actual signage that is now across much of our state. And so, there are all kinds of examples like that of where researchers in the hazards and disaster field have had a chance to work with practitioners and policymakers to really move our research into action. And that's something I'm really proud of.

Terri Fiez

So fast forward to 2016, and we were able to lure your back to ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder to lead the Natural Hazards Center. And so, as you described, you first came as a student and later came back to lead the center. What's been exciting for you to lead the Natural Hazards Center after being a student there?

Lori Peek

One of the things I guess I would say that I brought into leading the center was just such a respect for what came before me. And so, I hope that as the leader of the Natural Hazards Center that I will always carry that forward, that focus on how can we bring research, practice, and policy communities together to reduce the harm and suffering from disasters is sort of at the core of what we do and what I care about, but then also recognizing that conditions are changing rapidly. We're living in a time of climate change, of technological change, of social and economic change, of global pandemic. And so, how do we recognize those changes, those accelerating changes that we're now facing and really make sure that the Hazards Center is ready to adjust and adapt? So, I think that's what the kind of the vision that I really brought into this.

Terri Fiez

So of course, we're currently in the middle of one of these natural hazards, the COVID pandemic. What does the Natural Hazards Center do during this time of the COVID pandemic?

Lori Peek

With the pandemic, we have actually funded this quick response grant program, which provides small grants of about 2000 to $5,000 to researchers or research teams to get them into the field. We were able to support a number of researchers and research teams to launch original research on the COVID pandemic. And we just put out a second call and we're able to fund a whole nother round of research on the COVID-19 pandemic. So, that's one big thing we did. Another big thing that we did through the CONVERGE facility that I also lead was that we put a call out for COVID-19 working groups. And we ended up funding 90 of these working groups that were led by social scientists and public health researchers from around the world. And these working groups focused on a range of topics from vaccine uptake to the experiences of first-generation college students to cascading disasters. And these working groups involved over 1300 researchers.

Terri Fiez

Well, that leads into my next question. You've talked a lot about research and then Natural Hazards Center and the partnerships that you have, but I think a really important notable thing that you do every year is teach the introductory sociology class at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder with nearly 400 students. What is it that you enjoy about this? And how do you entice them to be excited about the field?

Lori Peek

Terri, thank you for bringing up my class because I absolutely love teaching introduction to sociology. And I know hearing 400 students may make some people feel fearful. And I will admit the first time I taught that class, I too was fearful to stand up in front of 400 students. But I have just absolutely fallen in love with teaching this class. And I know that they're not all going to be sociology majors, but what I bring into the class is whatever your major is, whatever you're planning to study here at the University of Colorado Boulder, here's how a sociological perspective, the research methods and the theory that we use, how I hope it can inform what you're going to do in the future. And I hope that I will get to teach it for many years to come.

Terri Fiez

And they're very fortunate to have you and the level of enthusiasm that you have for the topic. So my final question is, what are you most proud of in your career and what do you hope your legacy will be?

Lori Peek

Yeah. Terri, that's such a big question. And I guess in thinking about that, I think what I am most proud of is really the number of students who I have mentored over the years, everything from doctoral students who are now professors themselves, my master's level students who are out doing so many different things in the workforce, and my undergraduate students who oftentimes are still finding their way, but you get to watch their light just grow brighter and brighter. And so, I think that's what I'm most proud of. And what I hope my legacy is going to be is through those students that I've mentored most closely, that they're going to carry the research, but also the teaching and service mission forward in their own work.

And for the much larger number, the thousands of students who I've had much more fleeting interaction with through my classes, I hope that the legacy through that will be a commitment to learning and critical thinking and a curiosity about our world, which is ever changing. And so bringing those sorts of traits to the classroom is something I hope to do every day, and then to inculcate that in my students, so then they bring it out into their lives at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder and far beyond. So, I guess that is what I would say to that question. And thank you for asking it.

Terri Fiez

Well, thank you, Lori. This has been really illuminating, fascinating. And we look forward to watching the things that you do over time, and so proud of all that you've done here at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder and for the nation overall.

Lori Peek

Terri, thank you so much for hosting this podcast and thank you for all of your leadership at the university and for these questions, it's really meant a lot to me to be able to be on today. So, thank you.

Terri Fiez

That was Dr. Lori Peek, ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder Sociology Professor, Faculty Associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science, and Director of the Natural Hazards Center. I love hearing about her years in Waverly, Kansas, how her research has evolved along with the hazards we face, even including the COVID-19 pandemic, and especially about her love for teaching and mentoring students at all levels. You can learn more about Dr. Peek and the Natural Hazards Center at . For more Buff Innovator Insight podcast episodes and to join our mailing list, go to . I'm your host and Vice Chancellor for Research Innovation at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder, Terri Fiez. It's been a pleasure to be with you. Innovation is for everyone. We can all make the world a more interesting and better place. Sometimes we just need a spark. We'll see you next time.