Rate My Professor Nicole Dash

Nicole Dash serves as Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Health Sciences at the University of North Texas, a position she has held since 2020. A distinguished social scientist, she earned her PhD in Comparative Sociology from Florida International University in 2002, with a dissertation titled "Understanding Decision-Making in Risky Settings: Re-thinking Hazard-Related Perceptions and Action." She also holds an MA in Comparative Sociology from FIU (1994), focusing on inequality in disasters exemplified by Hurricane Andrew, and a BS in Sociology from Florida State University (1989). Dash's career at UNT began in 2002 as an Assistant Professor, progressing to Associate Professor in 2008, Interim Department Chair from 2009 to 2010, Associate Dean from 2010 to 2020, and her current deanship. Earlier roles include Research Associate at the International Hurricane Research Center at FIU (1996-2002), Graduate Research Associate at the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center (1994-1996), and GIS Specialist for FEMA (1993-1997). She has been engaged in disaster research since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Dash's research specializations encompass disaster research, including risk perception, evacuation decision-making, social vulnerability, housing recovery, and hazard mitigation, with a focus on hurricanes and coastal hazards. Currently, she collaborates on an NSF-funded project on Native American community disaster preparedness and contributes to the National Institute of Building Sciences' Mitigation Saves 2, integrating social costs like reduced PTSD into benefit-cost analyses, affirming a four-to-one savings ratio for mitigation investments. Key publications include "Sheltering and Housing Recovery Following Disaster" in the Handbook of Disaster Research (2007 and 2018 editions, with W.G. Peacock, Y. Zhang, et al.), chapters on "Social Class" and "Race and Ethnicity" in Social Vulnerability to Disasters (2009 and 2013), "Evacuation Decision Making and Behavioral Responses: Individual and Household" (Natural Hazards Review, 2007, with H. Gladwin), and "Lasting Effects of Hurricane Andrew on a Working-Class Community" (2007). She has received grants from the National Science Foundation, State of Florida, and IHRC, and honors such as UNT Junior Faculty Summer Research Fellowships (2005, 2006) and a nomination for Exemplary Online Teacher (2012). Dash has chaired and served on numerous dissertation and master's thesis committees.