Mary Nelan, Ph.D.

Dr. Mary Nelan is a member of the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science.  Before joining the faculty at the Univeristy of North Texas, Dr. Nelan earned her Ph.D. at the University of Delaware in Sociology.  During her time in Delaware she held the position of research assistant at the Disaster Research Center.  Dr. Nelan’s interest in disasters began during a response volunteer trip to Haiti in May 2010.  It was then that she started to research convergence behavior in disasters. 

Dr. Nelan’s primary area of research continues into convergence behavior, specifically focusing on volunteers and disaster donations.  She has worked on two NSF funded research projects and her research has been published in the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. 

My primary focus areas are disaster donations, disaster volunteers, convergence behaviors into disaster areas, and therapeutic communities that emerge following disasters.