Academic and Training Program Hub

The National Drought Mitigation Center’s mission is to reduce the effects of drought on people, the environment and the economy by researching the science of drought monitoring and the practice of drought planning. We collaborate with and learn from decision-makers at all levels – individual ranchers, communities, regions, watersheds, tribes, states, countries – across the US and around the world. We organize and present workshops, writeshops and other capacity-building activities, in close cooperation with local partners.

The Disaster and Community Crisis Center (DCC) at the University of Missouri focuses on enhancing preparedness, recovery, and resilience in children, families, schools, and communities affected by disaster and community crisis. DCC is an interdisciplinary center with expertise in mental and behavioral health, social work, public health, communication, mass media, social media, and journalism.

The Missouri Climate Center, established in July 1995, is a section of the Atmospheric Science program of the Department of Soil and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia. The center is an integrated unit of atmospheric and climate research and service in the University's College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.The primary functions of the center are: 1) develop advanced databases containing atmospheric conditions, climate variations, and ecosystem changes in the State of Missouri, 2) produce value-added products from available weather data and disseminate the products to statewide users, 3) continuously monitor and document the climate change, and 4) apply the atmospheric research tools, e.g., statistical analysis and evaluation, to assess and predict the climate change and its effects on regional atmospheric environment and ecosystem response. The center provides needed information for effective planning and management of state agriculture, industry, and natural resources.

Welcome to the Wind Hazard Mitigation (WHAM) laboratory at Missouri University of Science and Technology! WHAM team has been conducting interdisciplinary research to enhance community resilience under a changing climate from different perspective. From the engineering perspective, they simulate different natural hazards (e.g., tornadoes, hurricanes, storm surge, and floods, etc.) numerically and experimentally and investigates their interactions with the built environment, and study vulnerability of the bult environment to natural hazards. By collaborating with other researchers nationwide, they are developing innovative approaches to mitigate the damage to mobile homes from tornadoes, developing a new communication infrastructure to improve risk communication, and develop a novel financial infrastructure to raise fund for implementing resilience infrastructure, and so on. Their research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. Department of Transportation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Australian Research Council.

Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience was established to respond to the increasing disasters under the climate change. We envision a world that humans will still live in harmony with nature under extreme weather due to climate change by involving all stakeholders to work together, while keeping an eye on the “north star” of Missouri S&T.Through transdisciplinary research and education, we are dedicated to mitigating the harm from hazards and building resilient civil infrastructure (e.g., buildings, bridges, roads, railways, and electric power transmission lines) and social infrastructure (e.g., extreme weather warning communication, risk awareness and funding for community resilience). Hazards include, but not are not limited to, extreme winds and storms (e.g. tornadoes, hurricanes, storm surge and downbursts), floods, earthquakes, extreme heat, wild fire, and man-made hazards. We will fulfill this mission through:1. Conducting research to slow down global warming from different perspectives.2. Advance the understanding of the interaction between hazards with civil structures and infrastructure and develop mitigation strategies.3. Enhance community resilience through convergence research by involving all stakeholders, such as researchers, building owners, private sector professionals, policy makers, local, state, and federal officials, non-profit organizations, and the media.4. Address the funding problem for community resilience, with social equality considered, such as providing guidance for the government to issue resilience bonds.5. Facilitate technology transfer and influence the building industry by creating a Resilience Consortium, including design firms, construction companies, building envelop providers (e.g., glass vendors and composite wood vendors), and so on.6. Educate, train and mentor the diverse next generation of hazards and disaster professionals, including design engineers, resilient construction technicians, and general contractors and subcontractors. This will build a recruiting pipeline of engineers and workers for the Resilience Consortium member corporations.

The Clinical Disaster Research Center is a diverse team of researchers from the University of Mississippi Department of Psychology. The UM-CDRC works within the areas of clinical disaster research, positive psychology, consultation, program evaluation, and disaster response training.The mission of The University of Mississippi Clinical-Disaster Research Center is to integrate service, training, research, and education in disaster mental health. We seek to develop evidence-based disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery practices to meet the needs of the University, local community, and region. The UM-CDRC strives to better understand the experiences of those affected by disasters and how they cope with these events. Research is conducted to devise, implement, and evaluate empirically-based disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery programs with the intent of minimizing risk factors and maximizing protective factors. With rigorous, systematic research as a foundation, and with expertise in clinical, community, multicultural, and positive psychology, the UM-CDRC works to understand how concepts like resilience, self-efficacy, and perceived meaning and purpose in life foster disaster recovery and posttraumatic growth.

The Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) provides a focus for Mississippi State University's activities directed toward maintaining and improving the quality of environmental health in Mississippi, the nation, and the world. The center provides a mechanism for uniting researchers from different MSU units to facilitate interdisciplinary research on common problems, primarily related to the toxic effects of chemicals. The CEHS's goal is to facilitate the development, implementation and administration of focused and of multi-disciplinary efforts in research, the training of graduate and undergraduate students, and service in the area of environmental health.

The Master of Arts in Health and Risk Communication (HRCMA) program will make you an expert in the theory and practice of health communication, one of the most pressing topics in today's world. This program is under review and is not currently accepting applications for Spring 2026. (For current graduate students and working professionals who are trying to enter the field of health and risk communication, we offer the Health and Risk Communication Graduate Certificate (HRC-GC))