Community Engagement | Environmental Justice | Hazards | Disasters
My research focusses on the intersection of natural hazards, international development, and community development planning. Within this space, I explore relationships between local communities and external stakeholders surrounding natural hazard events and international development projects. Specifically, I take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding three areas of academic inquiry:
Exploring community engagement processes in hazard and development planning. This includes addressing questions surrounding the assessment, impact, and theoretical perspectives used towards understanding participation and engagement in hazard and development activities.
Understanding how specific actors and institutions disseminate community engagement ideas and practices. This includes addressing the training, education, and ethics surrounding hazard and development activities.
Studying emerging topics in hazards and international development planning.
Niles, S.,* Contreras, S., Roudbari, S., Kaminsky, J., & Harrison, J. Resisting and Assisting Engagement with Public Welfare in Engineering. Journal of Engineering Education (In Press). Sanders, B., Schubert, J., Goodrich, K., Houston, D., Feldman, D., Basolo, V., Luke, A. Boudreau, D., Karlin, B., Cheung, W., Contreras, S., Reyes, A., Eguiarte, A., Serrano, K., Allaire, M., Moftakhari, H., AghaKouchak, A., & Matthew, R. (2019). Collaborative Modeling with Fine Resolution Data Enhances Flood Awareness, Minimizes Differences in Flood Perception, and Produces Actionable Flood Maps. Earth’s Future, 7, e2019EF001391. DOI: 10.1029/2019EF001391.Houston, D., Cheung, W., Basolo, V., Feldman, D., Matthew, R., Sanders, B., Karlin, B., Schubert, J., Goodrich, K., Contreras, S., & Luke, A. (2017). The Influence of Hazard Maps and Trust of Flood Controls on the Perception of Coastal Flood Risk in Newport Beach, California. Environment and Behavior. DOI: 10.1177/0013916517748711.Feldman, D., Contreras, S., Karlin, B., Basolo, V., Matthew, R., Sanders, B., Houston, D., Cheung, W., Goodrich, K., Reyes, A., Serrano, K., Schubert, J., & Luke, A. (2016). Communicating Flood Risk: Looking Back and Forward at Traditional and Social Media Outlets. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 15, 43-51. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.12.004.Cheung, W., Houston, D., Schubert, J., Basolo, V., Feldman, D., Matthew, R., Sanders, B., Karlin, B., Goodrich, K., Contreras, S., & Luke, A. (2016). Integrating resident digital sketch maps with expert knowledge to assess spatial knowledge of flood risk: A case study of participatory mapping in Newport Beach, California. Applied Geography 74, 56-64. DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.07.006.Peer Reviewed Articles (Under Review)Niles, S.,* Roudbari, S., Harrison, J., Contreras, S. Advancing Cech’s Three Pillars of Public Welfare Engagement: Integrating Social Justice and Political Engagement into Sociotechnical Frameworks of Engineering. Journal of Engineering Social Justice and Peace (Under Review).Technical ReportsNiles, S.* & Contreras, S. (2018). Social Vulnerability and Health Care Workers’ Response after Hurricane Maria (QR288). Boulder, CO: Natural Hazards Center Quick Response Research Report.Peer Reviewed Presentations at Meetings and ConferencesContreras, S. Post-disaster Housing Reconstruction after the Mexico City Earthquake: Learning from the language and communication surrounding the participatory work of NGOs. Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Greenville, SC 2019.Contreras, S. Evaluating the Participatory Work of Nongovernmental Organizations in Post-Disaster Haiti. International Research Committee on Disasters Annual Meeting, Broomfield, CO, 2019.Contreras, S. Utilizing Arnstein’s Ladder as an Evaluative Framework for the Assessment of Participatory Work in Post-disaster Haiti. Association of European Schools of Planning Annual Congress, Venice, Italy, 2019. Contreras, S. & Niles, S. Community Outreach and Post-disaster Medical Care: An Exploration of the Work of Health-care Organizations in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Annual Meeting of the Urban Affairs Association, Los Angeles, CA, 2019.Niles, S.,* Roudbari, S., Contreras, S., Harrison, J., & Kaminsky, J. Health, Hygiene, and Race in International Development. Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 2019 (presented by co-author).Niles, S.,* Contreras, S. Health Care and Disaster Governance after Hurricane Maria. Pacific Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Oakland, CA, 2019 (presented by co-author).Niles, S.,* Contreras, S., Roudbari, S., Kaminsky, J., & Harrison, J. Bringing in “The Social” Resisting and Assisting Social Engagement in Engineering Education. World Engineering Education Forum, Albuquerque, NM, 2018 (presented by co-author).Contreras, S. & Roudbari, S. Participation as a Two-way Street: Small Organizations Learning from Communities in International Development. Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Buffalo, NY, 2018.Contreras, S., Basolo, V., Goodrich, K., Matthew, R., Sanders, B., Feldman, D., Houston, D., & Cheung, W. An Investigation of Urban Development on Hillsides in Tijuana, Mexico. Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Portland, OR, 2016.Contreras, S. Organizations and Participatory Development: Post-disaster Recovery in Haiti. Annual Meeting of the Urban Affairs Association, San Diego, CA, 2016.Basolo, V. & Contreras, S. Incorporating Sustainability and Resiliency for Housing in Earthquake Prone Areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. Annual Meeting of the Urban Affairs Association, San Antonio, TX, 2014.Basolo, V. & Contreras, S. Urban Housing and Earthquakes in Developing Countries: Vulnerability, Resiliency, and the Goal of Sustainability. Joint Congress of the Association of European Schools of Planning and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Dublin, Ireland, 2013.Other PresentationsContreras, S., Irazabal-Zurita, C., Lieberknecht, K., Sanders, T., & Sanyal, B. FWIG, GPEIG, POCIG Session: Mentoring from the Margins: Cultivating a Culture of Inclusion for Faculty and Students of Color, Women, LGBTQIA, and the Global South in Planning, Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Greenville, SC (roundtable).Contreras, S., Lieberknecht, K., Oden, M., Richter, S., & Wachsmuth, D. How Planning Leadership Contributes to Sustainability through University-Based Grand Challenges, Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Greenville, SC (roundtable).Contreras, S., Campbell, J., Tang, X., & Duke, T. Regenerative Cultures and Resilient Communities (RCx2). Ohio Campus Compact Annual Meeting: Campus, Community, and Student Connections from the Inside Out, Columbus, OH, 2019 (presentation).Contreras, S., Campbell, J., Tang, X., & Duke, T. Regenerative Cultures and Resilient Communities (RCx2). Community Engagement Conference: Partnering for a Resilient and Sustainable Future, Columbus, OH, 2019 (presentation).Tellez, K.**, Contreras, S., & Campbell, J. Regenerative Cultures and Resilient Communities’ Development Process. Workshop on Sustainability Education through Collaborative, Community-Engaged, Problem/Project-Based Learning (PPBL), Columbus, OH, 2018 (presentation).Contreras, S. Towards a More Equitable Recovery and Reconstruction for Post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico, Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Buffalo, NY, 2018 (roundtable participant).Feldman, D., Contreras, S., Karlin, B., Basolo, V., Matthew, R., Sanders, B., Houston, D., Cheung, W., Goodrich, K., Reyes, A., Serrano, K., Schubert, J., & Luke, A. Getting the Message Right – The Challenge of Communicating Flood Risk as a Boundary-Spanning Problem: A Case Study of Newport Estuary, California. Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop, Broomfield, CO, 2015 (poster).Contreras, S. Organizations and Participatory Development: Post-disaster Recovery in Haiti. Center for Organizational Research Small Grant Recipients Presentation, Irvine, CA 2015 (poster). Goodrich, K. & Contreras, S. Poster presentation Flood Resilient Infrastructure and Sustainable Environment (FloodRISE) Project. Planning for Disaster Resilience Symposium, College Station, TX, 2014 (poster).* Indicates co-author is a graduate student.**Indicates co-author is an undergraduate student.
