Chiho Ochiai is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), Kyoto University, Japan. She has worked at a development consulting firm, joining projects in Southeast Asia and South America. She has a sociology background, she holds a Ph.D. from GSGES, Kyoto University. She was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD), University of California, Berkeley, in 2014, researching community efforts after the wildfire. Her research interests mainly focus on community participation in post-disaster housing reconstruction, disaster risk reduction activities, and traditional community knowledge coping with local natural disasters in Japan, Asia, and the USA.
Sandra Carrasco is a lecturer in humanitarianism and development at Deakin University, Australia. She was previously employed as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Newcastle and received the prestigious postdoctoral McKenzie Fellowship at the University of Melbourne. Sandra holds a PhD and master’s in environmental management from Kyoto University, Japan and a master’s in education from Victoria University, Australia. She has professional and research experience in the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Her research interests include community resilience and sustainable development, equality, diversity and inclusion, disaster risk reduction and post-disaster recovery, governance and city planning, incremental housing, urban poverty, and migrant and refugee studies.
Sung Lun Tsai is a member of the Emerging Frontiers Division, the innovation department at Shimizu Corporation. He previously worked as a co-researcher associate at Kyoto University. He holds both a doctoral and a master's degree in environmental management from the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES) at Kyoto University, Japan. During his graduate studies, he received scholarships and research funding from the Government of Taiwan, the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, the Obayashi Foundation, the Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation, and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation. His research interests primarily focus on post-disaster reconstruction, livelihood restoration, community resilience, disaster risk reduction, and settlement planning in the context of Taiwan's indigenous communities.