Elaina Sutley

Co-Investigator

Associate Professor & Associate Dean, Impact & Belonging

Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, School of Engineering

University of Kansas

Elaina is the Associate Dean for Inclusion and Belonging in the School of Engineering and an Associate Professor in Structural Engineering at the University of Kansas. Elaina is the Lead U.S. Co-investigator for Retreating from Risk.

Elaina's research focuses on analyzing inequity in communities before disasters, and disparities in impact and recovery processes during and after disasters, identifying systematic barriers, and developing engineering solutions that target resources and address the needs of underserved community members.

As part of a National Institute of Standards and Technology Center of Excellence for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning, Sutley is leading a longitudinal field study documenting the seven-year recovery trajectory of a low-income, diverse community faced with two catastrophic flood disasters during the study period. Sutley is also the research co-lead on the Adaptive and Resilient Infrastructures Driven by Social Equity (ARISE) project, performing community engaged research across the state of Kansas on equitable climate adaptation and resilience.

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