In August of 2021, the LAF Research Grant in Honor of Deb Mitchell was awarded to three participants. The second of the three, each of which was awarded $25,000, is running an 18-month research project that just issued an update. The project has been running for ten months as of now and is run by Principal Investigators Travis Klondike and Andrew Fox from North Carolina State University. Focused on creating plans to increase resilience and recovery abilities for rural communities, their project is titled Developing a Disaster Adaptation Framework for Rural Resilience.

 

Co-Principal Investigators Klondike and Fox predict that, "Factors that disproportionately impact rural communities during recovery from natural disasters, such as resident buying power, migration preferences, and municipal capacity, collectively highlight the need for different approaches to planning and design than what might otherwise be the norm in more urbanized areas."

At the conclusion of the project in eight more months, they will put together a Rural Resilience Framework, as to provide guidance to planners or communities that need help rebuilding after or preparing before a disaster.

https://www.lafoundation.org/news/2022/06/2021-deb-mitchell-research-grant-update