People

Principal Investigator

Credit: Alyssa LaFaro

Miyuki Hino, PhD

Principal Investigator

Dr. Miyuki Hino is an environmental social scientist working on measuring and managing the impacts of climate change. Her research examines the linkages between natural hazards, governance, and public policy to drive effective and equitable adaptation to climate change. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Environment, Ecology & Energy Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Hino received her Ph.D. from Stanford University's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Yale University. Before Stanford, Dr. Hino spent several years supporting evidence-based climate change adaptation and mitigation decision-making, most recently at the New Climate Economy and ICF International.

Research Staff

Russell Blessing, PhD

Research Specialist

Dr. Russell Blessing is an urban resilience scientist with a focus on natural hazard mitigation. He received his Ph.D. in Urban & Regional Science and a Master’s in Urban Planning from Texas A&M University.

Dr. Blessing's research includes disaster resilience, flood risk management, and climate change adaption. Most recently, he was a Research Scientist at Texas A&M's Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas from 2019 to 2024. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and recognized by national media and Texas water and hazard decision makers for its impact on flood risk communication and resilience planning.

Isabel Kwass-Mason

Research Analyst

Department of City and Regional Planning

Graduate Students

Credit: Jess Abel

James Collins

PhD Candidate

James is in the Department of City and Regional Planning. His research engages with coastal communities in North Carolina experiencing and responding to flooding.

He investigates how social, economic, and housing factors influence vulnerability and resilience, with projects on chronic coastal flooding, H-2A farmworker housing, and the long-term impacts of residential floodplain buyouts. His work aims to inform more equitable and effective strategies for hazard mitigation and climate adaptation.

Projects
Carolinas RISA
Sunny Day

Tessa Fridell

PhD Student

Tessa is a first-year PhD student in UNC Chapel Hill’s Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program (E3P).

Farrah Hasan

PhD Student

Farrah is a second-year PhD student at UNC Chapel Hill’s Department of City and Regional Planning. She is interested in climate migrant destinations, particularly the roles of labor, water, and disasters in determining livability. Her Master’s thesis highlighted Mongla, Bangladesh as a case study on how cities can prepare their infrastructure and services for climate-related migrants.

Wesley Peebles

PhD Student

Wesley is a first-year PhD student at UNC Chapel Hill’s Environment, Ecology & Energy Program (E3P).

Ruitian Yan

PhD Candidate

Ruitian is in the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program (E3P) at UNC-Chapel Hill. Co-advised by Dr. Hino and Dr. Antonia Sebastian, Ruitian is interested in studying the social and financial impacts of flooding on housing.

Prior to joining UNC, she worked in the financial sector on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and climate risk management. She received her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Brown University.

Projects
Migration

Undergraduate Students

Diya Kayaleh

Undergraduate Student

Diya is an undergraduate junior studying Public Policy and English with a minor in Geography. She is interested in how disasters and long-term climate shifts shape patterns of both movement and immobility. Her research focuses on using credit data to spatially identify individuals by housing tenure in coastal North Carolina.