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Winter storm impact on vulnerable Texas communities is the subject of a TXST and NSF collaboration

FEATURED FACULTY

Matt Joyce | March 7, 2023

Snow from Winter Storm Uri covering the streets of San Marcos on February 15, 2021.

Dr. Shinwoo Choi, assistant professor in Texas State University’s School of Social Work, has been selected by the National Center for Atmospheric Research for its Early Career Faculty Innovator Program, funded by the National Science Foundation. Choi will work with NCAR scientists to study Winter Storm Uri’s impacts on marginalized communities in Texas and recommend ways to strengthen the resiliency of urban and rural communities for future weather disasters.

Working with three NCAR scientists, Choi is embarking on a two-year interdisciplinary study titled “Climate Change, Infrastructure Disruption, and Extreme Weather Resilience: Cases of Environmental Justice Communities in Texas.”

Choi has been researching the experiences of vulnerable communities during natural disasters since her family weathered Hurricane Matthew in Florida in 2016. Shortly after her family moved to Texas, they experienced Winter Storm Uri, the February 2021 deep freeze remembered for knocking out power across the state.

Choi and her family relied on their social networks and a few hotel nights to navigate the storms, but the disruptions prompted questions for Choi. “Because my discipline is social work, it made me think,” she said. “What about our vulnerable populations? What about empowering vulnerable populations and increasing their resiliency?”

The NCAR grant provides $362,000 for Choi to conduct research about the impact of the 2021 storm through an interdisciplinary lens comprising big data, social science, and meteorology.

“A primary goal of the Innovator Program is to address complex research problems by building partnerships between NCAR scientists and early-career faculty,” said Dr. Alexandra Ramos Valle, coordinator of the Early Career Faculty Innovator Program and a project scientist. “Dr. Choi’s proposed project addresses multiple scientific objectives of the Innovator Program, including the reduction of damage and disruption to infrastructure from weather hazards, environmental justice research on the effects of weather hazards on marginalized communities, and the application of machine learning.”

The research team aims to produce articles for scholarly journals as well as practical resources for vulnerable populations across Texas. Community feedback will shape those resources, which could be informative workshops, websites, or other ideas, Choi said.

“Whatever the form will be, we want the results to be used for better preparedness,” she said. “Whether analyzing big data or interviewing community members, the end goal is better preparedness and better disaster resilience.”

The study will focus on six Texas Environmental Justice communities and analyze the differences between rural and urban areas. The rural counties are Titus, Navarro, and Maverick; the metro counties are El Paso, Dallas, and Harris. Choi said the counties could change depending on feasibility.

The study is composed of three interdisciplinary sections. The first is an assessment of data provided by Twitter to analyze spatiotemporal tweeting patterns. The team will filter the database for keywords such as “#poweroutage.” The researchers will try to determine where people felt the impacts of infrastructure disruption the most.

A second section calls on Choi’s social work expertise. Her team will conduct focus groups, surveys, and interviews with community members and leaders. They’ll be looking for insights into questions related to the communities’ perceptions of unmet needs, their preparedness for future disasters, their available resources, and their coping strategies.

A third section will produce a historical and future analysis of winter weather in Texas. Meteorologists at NCAR will create modeling to predict the likelihood of future winter storms in Texas.

“We will assess the chance of similar events occurring given future changes in extreme weather and climate change,” said Dr. Curtis Walker, an NCAR scientist and project collaborator. “This joint information can in turn allow community leaders and policymakers to prioritize resources and infrastructure accordingly for these communities under a range of future scenarios. Moreover, this work can serve as a foundational framework nationally and internationally.”

With the grant funds, Choi will hire a graduate research assistant and three to four undergraduate research assistants; and she will make trips to NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, to meet with project collaborators.

“It’s a huge learning experience for me as well,” Choi said. “This grant has a heavy emphasis on training — training me to be [NCAR’s] collaborator. I will meet with the other grant recipients and other NCAR scientists. It will be great to expand my horizons and collaborate with them on other federal grant proposals such as Environmental Protection Agency or other NSF funding opportunities.”

BSW: AJ Goodman

AJ is a self-motivated social work intern.  He demonstrates superior technical abilities and exceptional work quality. AJ takes the time to fully understand the scope of projects and displays a keen attention to detail. He is always ready and willing to take up any on-the-spot assignment without hesitation. In addition, he has excellent communication and leadership skills.  He has truly been an asset to our agency as he demonstrates a sincere desire to be in the helping profession.

MSW-F: Katie Young

Katie is an outstanding asset to our team at Family Promise! She challenges our team with hard questions, advocates for clients, represents our organization professionally and is an active learner, always asking questions about how she can perform at an even higher level.

MSW-A: Alexa Palomo

Alexa consistently practices with the national ethical standards in mind, and it is clear that it drives her participation in all calls. She has been working in a setting that would overwhelm and challenge most social workers as it is within the Austin Police Department providing crisis response to crime victims and their families. She is insightful and challenges her own beliefs and biases about the officers that she works with but also the system of policing. She is able to identify not only the gaps in policies but also the challenges that officers, detectives, and their civilian supports [like victim services crisis teams] face. She has been open to new experiences and has addressed calls that were triggering. She has maintained an awareness of her own reactions to secondary traumas and practiced effective self-care on-scene but also off-shift.

As one of her projects, she elected to interview officers about their experiences and the impact of social movements and political actions on their job. She maintained an open mind despite coming into this role with her own biases relative to policing. She has also kept a balance in this, recognizing and addressing situations where the investigative processes are not as victim-centered and trauma-informed as we would prefer. She has advocated with detectives and officers to help decrease the impact of these processes on the victim.

One call that stands out to me is a traffic fatality that she co-led with me [her field supervisor]. This call was pretty triggering for Alexa for multiple reasons, but she was still able to address the needs of victims and also practice effective self-care. In this case, the family of the victim showed up on-scene in droves. Our role was to provide the notification of the victim's death but also provide support and resources however we could.  After I provided the notification of death multiple family members became agitated or acutely panicked. Alexa took it upon herself to seek out the family members who broke away from those I was with and to provide empathetic, safe support to them as they processed the news and considered next steps. Though she initially was intimidated by the size and scope of the scene as well as the agitated and almost violent response the family, she was able to hold space for family in a safe and appropriate way.  Alexa is easily someone I would gladly work with again and I would trust her clinical and social work skills. She has consistently been a strong foundation on the night shift crisis team despite the challenging nature of our work and the schedule itself. I cannot speak highly enough about Alexa as a person and as a social work professional.

Recognition of MSW advanced student at TJJD field placement Fall 2022

Danielle Ramirez received the “Outstanding Performance-MSW Advanced Year Intern Field Award Fall 2023”.  She completed her field placement at Ayres Halfway House under The Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD).  Danielle was tasked with identifying a gap in service delivery within her field internship at TJJD, as her Capstone MSW Advanced Project. She specifically focused on the Parole Conditions Form, which is a highly important document outlining the rules and expectations of youth granted parole, to assist them with maintaining compliance while on community supervision. This specific form, used statewide, had only been available in English. Danielle identified that many parents of youth at TJJD did not understand the care plan established for their children specifically related to this language barrier.  Danielle advocated that TJJD also provide this form in Spanish. Danielle translated the form into Spanish and presented it to the TJJD legal department for policy change consideration. The form has been approved by TJJD administrators and will be implemented statewide! Phenomenal advocacy work, Danielle. 

Norma Mercado, Field Liaison and APCE PhD student, was featured in the Spanish TV news station Univision!

Norma Mercado, APCE PhD student, was recently featured in the Spanish TV news station Univision in their Sunday evening program Aqui y Ahora. The segment featured her personal story as an immigrant child who faced many challenges, including poverty, abuse, teen pregnancy, and homelessness. Although her personal experience with a lack of resources and support drives her work, she promised to help others in similar situations someday. Now Norma dedicates her time and passion to helping other families overcome adversity. In addition, Norma has been instrumental in creating the family resource center in Bastrop, Texas. The family resource center is part of Bastrop ISD and includes a health center, adult classes, a clothes closet, WIC program, and wrap-around services. Click here to watch.

BSW student Caitlin McCauslin presented on November 18, 2022 during the Honors Research Conference. Caitlin presented on intimate partner violence in young relationships. Her research explores causes and prevention methods. Through this research Caitlin looked into prevention methods that are already in existence and ones that could be implemented in the future.