A significant percentage of the world’s population lives with the threats posed by various natural hazards. Although deaths resulting from natural disaster events have decreased over time, the economic impacts, social disruption, and effects on our infrastructure have steadily increased. Join speaker Matt Davis to learn more about these threats.  Drawing examples from his research at Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius and Washington’s Mt. Rainier, his experiences in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and his work on earthquake preparedness efforts in California, a number of issues in disaster preparedness and recovery will be addressed. Specifically, we’ll explore the reasons people choose to live in risky places, some of the psychological factors that affect their perceptions of risk and likelihood of preparing for potential disasters, and factors that help in disaster recovery.

Matt Davis is a Massachusetts native and a retired Professor Emeritus of Psychology from Dominican University of California. His research expertise focused on how people perceive their risks from various natural hazards and how to better motivate them to prepare for disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes. He conducted the first research studies of residents living in close proximity to Italy’s two famous volcanoes, Vesuvius and Etna, has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences across the U.S. and internationally, and was a featured expert in the 2006 television documentary: Could It Happen Here?

An avid traveler, he has visited 35 countries, has crossed the U.S. by car on over 50 road trips, and cumulatively, and led students on many study abroad trips across Europe. In 2020 he retired from his faculty position and left California, recently returning to his hometown of New Bedford. He is the author of a travel memoir, At Home in the World: Reflections of a Travel Addict which chronicles many of his adventures while traveling internationally.

LIRA is a multi-faceted educational program for the retired and semi-retired, for which there are neither educational nor age requirements. LIRA's philosophy is to provide, at a modest cost, college-level learning experiences for all its members, regardless of previous educational background.