Dr. Samantha Montano became interested in disasters following a trip to New Orleans immediately following Hurricane Katrina and the Levee Failure. She spent four years in New Orleans working with various nonprofits on recovery efforts related to both Katrina and the BP Oil Disaster in 2010. 

Her educational background includes a B.S. in Psychology from Loyola University New Orleans and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Emergency Management from North Dakota State University. 

She is currently an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. She has taught courses on disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation, vulnerable populations in disaster, the political and legal foundations of emergency management, disaster communications, and voluntary organizations active in disaster.

 Her research interests cut across areas of interest to emergency management. She primarily studied nonprofits, volunteerism, and informal aid efforts in disaster but also does work related to the intersection of disasters and climate change, gender, and media.  

In addition to research she is passionate about public engagement work especially related to climate change. She has been interviewed in the New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and been published in the Washington Post, Teen Vouge, City Lab, Vox, among others.

Her forthcoming book about disasters and climate change will be published by HarperCollins/ Park Row Books in summer 2021.

You can sign-up for her free monthly disaster newsletter here.

The opinions expressed on this blog are entirely those of the author and not any associated institutions.