Michelle A. Ritchie

Institute for Disaster Management, Health Policy & Management,

Assistant Professor

Institute for Disaster Management, Health Policy & Management,

Dr. Michelle Ritchie is an assistant professor at the Institute for Disaster Management. Here, she serves as the undergraduate program coordinator for the minor program in disaster management.

Dr. Ritchie holds a dual-title Ph.D. in Geography and Climate Science from Penn State. Her dissertation research modeled the processes supporting household adaptation in social-ecological systems undergoing rapid environmental change and coastal hazards. This research continues today through capacity-building for longitudinal and applied research projects in Iceland.

Before coming to UGA, Dr. Ritchie was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Disaster Management Program where she taught online graduate courses on hazard mitigation and the socio-cultural aspects of emergency management.

Education

Dual Ph.D. in Geography and Climate Science, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State, 2021
Master of Arts in Geography, Harper College of Arts and Sciences at Binghamton University, 2017
Bachelor of Arts in Geography, College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Connecticut State University, 2015

Areas of Expertise

RESEARCH: social-ecological systems, coastal vulnerability, hazards, climate change adaptation and mitigation, mixed methods
TEACHING: emergency and disaster management, human-environment geography, environmental studies

Course Instruction

DMAN 3100: Disasters and Society (every Fall)
DMAN 3200: Disaster Policy (every Spring)
DMAN 3750: How to Survive the Apocalypse (every Fall)
DMAN 4960R: Faculty-Mentored Undergraduate Research I
DMAN 7450: Disasters & GIS (every Spring)
FYOS 1001: A Field Guide to Resilience
GRCS 7001: A Field Guide to Resilience