Highlighting community voices post-disaster: Santina Contreras

USC Trojan Family Magazine showcases Trojans who have made a significant impact on sustainability at the University of Southern California.

When Southern California faced historic wildfires this January, urban planner and researcher Santina Contreras wasn’t merely contemplating the physical reconstruction that would be essential for her hometown of L.A. She immediately focused on the communities and the voices that would be vital for a genuinely equitable recovery. With thousands of families uprooted and the loss of vital community entities such as schools, churches, and other important gathering places, she pondered what community considerations might be neglected in the haste to rebuild.

Contreras, an assistant professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy in the Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis department, has dedicated over 15 years collaborating with communities worldwide on disaster-related issues. Therefore, she understands what’s at stake when recovery initiatives fail to involve community members actively in the recovery process.

“I believe it is my duty to highlight how disasters impact the most vulnerable individuals in our community,” Contreras remarks. “That feels like the most crucial and fulfilling aspect of the work I engage in.”

A transformative experience

As a native of L.A., Contreras developed an early fascination with earthquakes, concentrating on how individuals living in inadequate conditions are affected by natural threats.

After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in structural engineering from the University of California, San Diego, Contreras achieved a Master of Science degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

An international disaster would ultimately shape her career. Following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Contreras traversed the globe to collaborate with a nonprofit organization on housing reconstruction initiatives in West Sumatra, Indonesia.

As an engineer, she initially approached communities aiming to rebuild from a technical perspective, advising on how to integrate earthquake-resistant methods into construction efforts.

Her hands-on experience “unveiled new inquiries for me regarding the roles that communities play in building resilience,” Contreras explains. “I witnessed how various social dynamics influenced people’s capability and willingness to adopt the techniques we were teaching, including what they could afford and what aligned with their local customs.”

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Collaborating with various organizations in both the private and nonprofit realms on the design and execution of resilience-enhancing initiatives, Contreras gained a deeper understanding of the necessity for prioritizing interdisciplinary and inclusive strategies when preparing for hazards and disaster risks.

She obtained her PhD in planning, policy, and design from the University of California, Irvine, crafting her dissertation on the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Rather than investigating the physical facets of reconstruction, Contreras focused on the influence of community participation in the recovery and rebuilding efforts of nonprofit entities.

Although Contreras has broadened her scope beyond earthquakes to encompass other forms of disasters and environmental planning contexts, the themes of community engagement and equity remain consistently present in her work.

Amplifying community voices

Contreras states that her most rewarding projects enable community members to express their opinions. In late 2023, she took on the role of principal investigator for a project within the USC Urban Trees Initiative, in collaboration with Public Exchange at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. This initiative commenced after a South L.A.-based community coalition approached Contreras for assistance in articulating residents’ preferences regarding urban trees, following past efforts by nonprofits and government failing to adequately incorporate their needs and interests in local tree planning endeavors. The qualitative research conducted by Contreras and her colleagues culminated in a report that provided community members with the information necessary to advocate for their concerns.

“The most gratifying aspect of the trees initiative has been witnessing the real-world implementation of our research, seeing our findings utilized in ways that community members can genuinely leverage,” remarks Contreras, noting that alongside producing a publicly accessible technical report and research brief (available in both English and Spanish), community members created brief video reels from the study data to bolster their advocacy endeavors. “Our research seeks to elevate the voices of community members, ensuring that their needs are better reflected in the decision-making process.”

That same year, Contreras began collaborating with a diverse team assembled by Public Exchange on the California Solar Canal Initiative, a consortium of research universities exploring a strategy to cover California’s extensive network of 4,000 miles of canals with solar panels. The initiative, officially launched in March, aims to convert the canals into a significant source of clean energy and water conservation, while also mitigating air pollution.

As the lead investigator at USC for the project’s community resilience and environmental justice team, Contreras will engage with community stakeholders to assess the project from an environmental justice lens, including evaluating the potential positive or negative impacts on communities due to the expansion.

Returning home with a fresh perspective

Before joining USC in 2021, Contreras served as an assistant professor of city and regional planning and was affiliated with the Sustainability Institute and the Center for Latin American Studies at The Ohio State University. Prior to that, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Contreras has authored numerous articles and reports assessing equity, justice, and engagement strategies surrounding natural hazards, environmental planning, and other resilience-building activities. Her research has been featured in leading journals — including the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Urban Affairs, and the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction — and highlighted in major media outlets such as NPR, the Associated Press, and the Los Angeles Times.

Returning to her hometown offers Contreras a unique chance to reconnect with the communities she is most familiar with and apply her interdisciplinary methodology to the intertwined environmental and equity challenges of Southern California.

“I was genuinely thrilled to join USC Price,” states Contreras. “Having experienced various types of institutions, I realized that there is a significant policy dimension to my work. By being part of USC Price, I have been able to delve more profoundly into the broader implications of my work regarding its impact on communities at a policy level.”