Katherine E. Browne

Katherine E. Browne, PhD, is Professor of Anthropology at Colorado State University. Her disaster research examines how social history, cultural identities, and a sense of agency shape trajectories of collective resilience to adversity. She identifies practices of outside institutions that are misaligned with local needs and strengths and has promoted the use of culture brokers to address these cultural gaps. Her general-audience books, films, and articles suggest that a paradigm nudge is needed to integrate local knowledge into practices of mitigation and recovery in order to reduce risk, increase preparedness, and improve resilience. In 2016, she co-founded the Culture and Disaster Action Network (CADAN) as an academic/practitioner collaboration. In 2018, the American Anthropological Association named Browne recipient of its highest honor, the Franz Boas Award.