Professional Affiliation

Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health

Expert Bio

Sabrina McCormick is a sociologist and documentary filmmaker who investigates the social dimensions of climate change. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health. Dr. McCormick has been funded by the Center for Disease Control to study heat wave impacts in urban America, by the National Science Foundation to examine the role of citizen science in assessing affects of the Deepwater Horizon spill, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study health impacts of climate change. She is currently Associate Producer on the first television series about climate change entitled "The Years of Living Dangerously" to be screened on Showtime in 2014.

Project Summary

Dr. McCormick's research for the Wilson Center explored how emergency managers use social media and crowsourcing for disaster response. The first set of findings provides insight into why many EMs are not using social media, and describes their concerns result in fear, uncertainty and doubt, oftentimes called FUD. Second, this research demonstrates how internal functioning and staffing issues within these agencies present challenges.