Rene Marker-Katz is a graduate student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) pursuing a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning (MCRP) with a specialization in land use and environmental planning. Her graduate degree will be accompanied by a certification in a Natural Hazards Resilience offered through the Department of City and Regional Planning. She is currently working as a Research Associate with the UNC Water Institute Re-Energize DR3 team to strengthen the relationship between governance and private/public entities to better support vulnerable community groups through climate-related disasters. In 2020 she earned a B.A. in Anthropology from University of New Orleans (UNO), where her interest grew in the adaptive capabilities of highly exposed urban populations that are most susceptible to climate-related hazards. While attending UNO, Rene was a Research Associate under the Anthropology Department Chair, analyzing food scarcity during COVID-19 and the impact of compounded exposures through environmental-related disasters.