August 28, 2017
Media Availability – SIU experts on natural disasters and recovery efforts
Erin Perry, assistant professor of animal science at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is in Texas with her canine partner, Zorro, working with Missouri Task Force One (MOTF-1), an urban search and rescue team, to assist with rescue and disaster assistance efforts in the wake of Tropical Storm Harvey. Perry has been a canine handler with the Department of Homeland Security for 14 years. She is available for remote interviews with media now and will be available when she returns home. Contact her at 573/489-0291. She may not be immediately available.
Roberto Barrios, associate professor of anthropology at SIU and co-chair of the Risk and Disasters Topical Interest Group in the Society for Applied Anthropology, has expertise in post-disaster reconstruction. He conducted field research after Hurricane Katrina in the Versailles neighborhood of New Orleans, living in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer and recording the effects of the disaster and recovery efforts on residents. He was a Fulbright Fellow in 2000, studying the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. Barrios is available to talk to media about natural disasters and recovery efforts, particularly how they affect the people displaced by the disaster. Contact him initially by email at rbarrios@siu.edu.