On Monday, December 14, 2009, Dr. Carla Norris-Raynbird will discuss, "When the Wolf is at the Door: Exploring Issues of Vulnerability and Capacity in Louisiana's Coastal Zone Parishes," as a part of the Natural Resources Consortium Continuing Education Series. This presentation is free and open to the public and will take place from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., at the Center for Research and Innovation.

This lecture presents findings from research conducted immediately before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast in 2005. Coastal Zone Management program efficacy in building state and local capacities to make sustainable coastal management decisions has been a focus of federal government concern. Dr. Norris-Raynbird approaches this topic by examining parish (county) participation in Louisiana's Local Coastal Program (LCP), knowledge of and attitudes toward coastal issues among local decision makers and coastal zone management program implementers, and their conceptualization of the interface of the Local Coastal Program and coastal issues. Research conducted in the nineteen coastal zone parishes utilized survey, interview, and observation methods to produce individual and parish level data.

The analyses show that coastal hazards vulnerability is highly salient to both LCP and non-LCP respondents, but the translation of hazard impacts to economic vulnerabilities such as infrastructure damage, property loss and business interruption, is far weaker for respondents from non-LCP parishes. Among non-LCP respondents, emergent themes are a lack of urgency to become involved in coastal zone management, a failed cost-benefit perception of LCP participation, and coastal zone management (CZM) knowledge gaps. In comparison, knowledge synergies realized through the CZM/LCP network is a major theme among LCP respondents.

Dr. Carla Norris-Raynbird is in her fourth year as Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Center for Environmental, Earth and Space Studies, Economics and Sociology. Active on several BSU committees including Student Scholarship and Creative Achievement and the Honors Committee, she also represents Bemidji State University in committee work with the Rural Sociological Society and is President-elect for the Sociologists of Minnesota.

In 1994, after a fifteen year career as a marketing and multi-media specialist, she returned to academia to finish a B.A. Honors degree at the University of Winnipeg. Graduate school took her to Texas where she received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University. Before coming to Bemidji, Dr. Norris-Raynbird worked for the University of Louisiana for three years as a Research Scientist on an EPA-funded climate change project conducted by a university consortium including Florida A&M University, University of New Orleans, University of Louisiana and Texas A&M University.

Dr. Norris-Raynbird's research interests and publications focus on the human/natural environment interface, specifically in building human and organizational capacities in the social management of natural resources, the coastal zone, and disasters. Her most recent publication is a case study of the Neptune Group - an emergent NGO (Non-Government Organization) exclusively associated with the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conference. Currently Dr. Norris-Raynbird has two research projects underway: 1) working with a student community researcher in collaboration with Native Harvest on food sovereignty and sustainability issues and 2) in collaboration with the University of New Orleans Center for Hazard Analysis, Reduction, and Technology on a follow-up study to her dissertation work funded by Louisiana SeaGrant on shifts in local capacities in coastal parishes since Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav.