Today is a discussion of the life and work of legendary disaster researcher Dennis Mileti, who passed away due to COVID-19 in January.  I will be joined by Lori Peek and Amanda Ripley.
Lori Peek – who has been a guest three previous times on COVID Calls! – is a professor in the Department of Sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies marginalized populations in disaster and is author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora, and co-author of Children of Katrina. Lori received her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2005 from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she studied under Dennis Mileti and worked as his research assistant at the Natural Hazards Center.
Amanda Ripley is an investigative journalist for The Atlantic and other magazines and a New York Times bestselling author. Her newest book, released just this month, is High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. She also wrote The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way, about education, and The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why, about the lessons of disaster survivors. In that last book, The Unthinkable, she featured Dennis Mileti, one of her favorite sources during the many years she spent covering disasters and homeland security for Time Magazine in New York, Washington, and Paris. Her stories have helped Time win two National Magazine Awards.
Dennis Mileti was a giant in the natural hazards field and impacted many researchers (including me) as well as practitioners with his insights as well as his clear vision. He was interested in other people’s ideas and responded with constructive comments that reflected his views on the topic without indicating that he expected you to adopt them. For these reasons, Dennis was admired and respected in the hazards field by everyone I have known.