CJ Huxford, Graduate Research Assistant

Contact CJ Huxford
Office: (360) 650-2707
Fax: (360) 650-7702

CJ Huxford is a graduate student in the Geography Masters program at Western Washington University’s (WWU) Huxley College of the Environment.

CJ has a BA in Planning and Environmental Policy and a minor in Journalism. His emphasis is in risk analysis and risk communication from an environmental perspective.

He became a research assistant for the Resilience Institute in Summer 2009 and continues to assist the institute with research projects and report writing.

Before working with the Resilience Institute, CJ designed and participated in several independent disaster risk reduction. Spring 2008 he participated in a study abroad program in Kefalonia Greece that worked to redevelop an abandoned rural village using sustainable practices to increase community resilience and reverse rural abandonment. Winter 2009 he expanded this project and co-authored Reversing Rural Abandonment in the Mediterranean: a Capacity and Vulnerability assessment of communities on the Ionian Island Kefalonia, Greece. The report was submitted and awarded second place in a paper competition at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado.
CJ’s current research for his Master’s thesis expands research conducted in his undergraduate studies with critical infrastructure and how communication and public perception shapes policy of these infrastructures.

CJ was awarded the Thomas Henry Huxley Award in 2010 for his interdisciplinary work connecting science and disaster risk reduction with action through effective risk communication and public participation.

CJ is expected to graduate with a MS in Geography Fall 2012 from Western Washington University.