Maja Jeranko, a postdoctoral scholar with the National Science Foundation’s Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub (Cascadia CoPes Hub) and the University of Washington Center for Disaster Resilient Communities, helped initiate a UW Population Health Initiative-funded project titled, “Living with Water: Co-developing strategies to protect health while adapting to sea level rise in the Duwamish Valley.”
The project began August 1, 2024, and addresses three aims: to identify potential flood adaptation strategies for the Duwamish Valley and evaluate their alignment with community values and priorities, to co-design conceptual strategies for flood adaptation that support the community’s values and well-being, and to evaluate impacts of the group’s approach on systemic equity to inform future climate adaptation research and planning efforts.
Jernako was inspired to lead an interdisciplinary research project after witnessing the lack of collaborative efforts in Ecuador after the country suffered a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2016.
After receiving her Ph.D. in anthropology, Jernako spent many years conducting research in collaboration with a local Ecuadorian grassroots organization. This work eventually landed Jernako at the UW to facilitate a Population Health Initiative proposal in collaboration with the Duwamish River Community Coalition.