Rebekah Paci-Green
Office
Location
AH 206, MS9085
Hours
Winter 2026: Mondays 1:30-3pm, Thursdays 9:30-11:30am. Appointments via calendly.com/rpgreen. Drop-ins welcome!About
Dr. Paci-Green (pronounced "Paw-Chee-Green") is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Resilience Institute at Western Washington University. In July 2021, she became Chair of the Environmental Studies Department.
Dr. Paci-Green received her PhD from Cornell University where she combined structural engineering and culture anthropology to study disaster risk. She carried out her research in Istanbul Turkey, where she lived for two years. She studies the physical and social vulnerability and risk perceptions in informally built districts. She used qualitative and quantitative research methods in these settlements to recommended innovative, culturally-attuned methods for decreasing population vulnerability.
Dr. Paci-Green completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Columbia University’s Earth Institute where she studied hurricane recovery in moderate and low-income neighborhoods of New Orleans. Working with residents, local NGOs and university partners, she has established reliable information on housing damage and reparability in some of the most heavily damaged low-income neighborhoods of the city. This work formed the basis of a community recovery plan for the Ninth Ward, which Dr. Green and others presented to the New Orleans City Council. This and other advocacy has led to the mayor’s choice to move segments of the low-income, African American neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward off of the “depopulation” list and onto the high-priority redevelopment list.
Since coming to Western, Dr. Paci-Green research has focused on working with community-based organizations to develop and implement disaster risk reduction strategies. This work includes developing phone apps in Fiji for family disaster preparedness, collaborating with Save the Children Australia to analyze a global survey of comprehensive school safety policy and practices, and coordinating the development of community-based safer school construction in low and moderate income nations with high hazard exposure. More recently, she spent a year in Nepal volunteering with the National Society for Earthquake Technology, supporting their staff in reflecting on and writing about their community-based, disaster risk reduction work.
She is initiating two new research projects in 2024. The first will be a second global survey of Comprehensive School Safety Policy, conducted with the United Nation's Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Education Sector. The second will be an interdisciplinary research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, and led by the University of Buffalo. The interdisciplinary teams will investigate the combined risk of sea-level rise and earthquake risk on concrete buildings. Dr. Paci-Green will investigate the social acceptance of potential mitigation options that can lower this combined risk.
Locally, Dr. Paci-Green directed the Resilience Institute from 2015 to 2025 to support communities in natural hazards planning. Institue work included developing the Cascadia Subduction Zone scenario for a full-scale multi-jurisdictional (local, state, and federal and British Columbia) response exercise, supporting the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in climate change adaptation planning, and coordinating the 5-year update of the Whatcom County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan.
At Western Washington University, Dr. Paci-Green teaches courses in human ecology, the Disaster Risk Reduction minor, and advised The Planet publication from 2011-2015.
*Earlier publications under last name Green
Education
Research Interests
Dr. Paci-Green's research interests include how risk perception shapes social vulnerability and unsafe built environments, comprehensive school safety related to natural hazard risks, vulnerable populations, disaster risk reduction, and community-defined resilience.
Publications
Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Benson, E., Ranade, R., Okumus, P., Elhami-Khorasani, N., Francis, O., Paci-Green, R. (2025). Saltwater flooding-induced corrosion and lateral strength of RC structures. In Proceedings of the Fracture Mechanics for Concrete and Concrete Structures Conference XII. DOI: 10.21012/FC12.1343.
Pandey, B., Petal, M. & Paci-Green, R. (2024). Causes of Deaths and Injuries in the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. In Proceedings of the 18th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, International Association for Earthquake Engineering.
Jiwanji, A., Paci-Green, R., MacFarlane, K. (2020). Comprehensive school safety policy: trends in the Pacific Region, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 35, 19-25.
Paci-Green, R., Pandey, B., Gryc, H., Ireland, N., Young, M. (2020). Challenges and benefits of community-based safer school construction, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 44.
Paci-Green, R., Varchetta, A., McFarlane, K., Iyer, P., Goyeneche, M. (2020). Comprehensive school safety policy: A global baseline survey, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 44.
Pandey, B., Paci-Green, R, & Ventra, C. (2017). Comparative Assessment of Performance of School Buildings in the 2015 Gorkha (Nepal) Earthquake. In Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Paper No 4657, International Association for Earthquake Engineering.
Paci-Green, R., Pandey, B. (2016). School Construction as Catalysts for Community Change: Evidence from Safer School Construction Projects in Nepal, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Nepal Earthquake special issue, 34(3): 32-54.
Paci-Green, R., Berardi, G. (2015). Does the global food system have an Achilles heel? The potential for regional food systems to support resilience in regional disasters, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 5:685-698.
Hammond, B.*, Berardi, G., and Green, R. (2013). Resilience in agriculture: Small and medium-sized farms in northwest Washington state, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 37: 316-339.
Miles, S., Green, R. and Svekla, W. (2012). Institutional Capacity for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction in Informal Settlements of Guatemala City, Disasters,36 (3):365-381.
Green, R. and Miles, S. (2011). Social Impacts of the 12 January 2010 Haiti Earthquake. Earthquake Spectra, 27 (S1): S447-S462.
Green, R. (2008). Unauthorized Development and Seismic Hazard Vulnerability: A Study of Squatters and Engineers in Istanbul, Turkey Disasters, 32 (3): 358-376.
Green, R., Bates, L., Smyth, A. (2007). Impediments to Recovery in New Orleans' Upper and Lower Ninth Ward One Year after Hurricane Katrina, Disasters, 31 (4): 311-335.
Selected Practitioner-Reviewed Reports, Manuals and other Outputs
Paci-Green, R. Custer, B.*, Nielsen, A., Hatsue Barrozo Hirata, J., Keenan, C. (2025). Global Status of School Safety: Technical Report of the 2024 Comprehensive School Safety Policy Survey. Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector,
Paci-Green, R. Ro, J.*, Mason, M.*, Wiser, A., Harris, P., Gargett, J., Kost, W., Coogan, L., Fogsong, C., Pratschner, S., Harper, R., Burnet, J., Clary, J., Martin, M., Everett, J., McCreery, S. (2021). Whatcom County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan. Prepared by Western Washington University Resilience Institute and Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management.
Fiji Family Safety Plan digital app. 2021. Paci-Green, R., Project Lead and Content Expert. Ulgen, S., Digital Solutions Technical Lead. Developed as a joint effort of Risk RED and IMAGINS, partnering with Save the Children. Publicly available at Google Play and Apple Store.
School Safety Self-Assessment Survey, 2018. Paci-Green, R. Project Lead and Content Expert for Laos PDR and Fiji. Ulgen, S., Digital Solutions Technical Lead. developed as a joint effort of Risk RED and IMAGINS, partnering with Save the Children, and the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector. Publicly available at Google Play and Apple Store.
Paci-Green, R., Pandey, B. (2018). Best practices in community-based school construction. GADRRRES Research-into-Practice Brief. Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience in the Education Sector.
Paci-Green, R., Vigneaux, G., Jensen, S., & Petal, M. (2018). Developing and Implementing Comprehensive School Safety Policy. GADRRRES Research-into-Practice Brief. Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience in the Education Sector.
Wardell, D. (videographer), Paci-Green, R. (scriptwriter), McFarlane, K. (2017). Towards Safer School Construction video series and website. Save the Children, Australia with support from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Resilience.
Paci-Green, R. Miscolta, A., Petal, M. McFarlane, K. (2017). Comprehensive School Safety Policy: Trends in the Asia-Pacific Region, GADDDRES
Paci-Green, R. Miscolta, A., Petal, M. (2017). Comprehensive School Safety Policy: Case Studies, GADDDRES,
Paci-Green, R., Pandey, B., Friedman, R. (2015). Safer Schools, Resilient Communities: A Comparative Assessment of School Safety after the 2015 Nepal (Gorkha) Earthquake. Risk RED.
Paci-Green, R. and Pandey, B. (2015). Towards Safer School Construction: A Community-based Approach, with Save the Children, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, UNESCO, Arup International Development, and Risk RED, Melbourne: Save the Children.
Green, R., Boles, N.*, and Black, T.* (2015). Cascadia rising: Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) catastrophic earthquake and tsunami exercise scenario document, a Resilience Institute report for FEMA Region 10 Preparedness Division, Lynnwood, Washington.
Green, R., & Petal, M. (2010). Disaster and Emergency Preparedness: Activity Guide for K to 6th Grade Teachers. Washington, D.C.: International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.
Petal, M. & Green, R. (2010). Disaster and Emergency Preparedness: Guidance for Schools. Washington, D.C.: International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.
Awards
2025 Debnath Mookherjee Teaching Excellence Award (Recipient), 2025
2016 Academy Award for equity and inclusivity, Western Wash. Univ. Teaching-Learning Academy (Recipient), 2016
2014 Western Washington University Innovative Teaching Showcase, Blended Learning (Recipient), 2014
2013 First place, student graphics design/editing, Spring 2013 The Planet magazine – The recovery issue, Washington Press Association (Publication adviser) (Recipient), 2013
Recent Press & Media
What happens when an earthquake hits a building already damaged by coastal flooding? 9/26/23
Studying quakes' effects on sites damaged by saltwater 9/25/23
What happens when an Earthquake hits a Building Already damaged by Coastal Flooding? 9/19/23
A full list of publications and reports can be found in my CV.