Samantha Penta

Samantha Penta is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Preparedness in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany. She earned her PhD and Master of Arts in Sociology and an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and History with Distinction at the University of Delaware. Previous to her appointment at the University at Albany, she worked for several years at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware.

Dr. Penta’s research focuses on health and medical care in crises, decision-making in preparedness and response, and humanitarian logistics. She worked on projects examining evacuation and preparedness challenges for long-term care facilities, disaster donations behavior, and community recovery and resilience to disasters and epidemics. Her most recent work examines the processes involved in planning and implementing international crisis medical relief efforts, focusing on health and medical responses to the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Dr. Penta specializes in qualitative research and has participated in multiple quick response field research deployments, including to New York City following Superstorm Sandy, the Oklahoma City area following the May 2013 tornados, Florida leading up to Tropical Storm Erika, Nepal after the 2015 earthquake, and North Carolina following Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

She is committed to interdisciplinary work that both advances scientific knowledge of crises and disasters, while also supporting the people affected by those events. Dr. Penta has presented her work in regional, national, and international forums, including at the Natural Hazards Workshop in Colorado, at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland, at the International Sociological Association’s World Congress of Sociology in Japan, and at the 4th International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction in New Zealand. Her published work is featured in outlets including the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy, Earthquake Spectra, Sociological Forum, and the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

CEHC Courses Taught

CEHC 310 Research Seminar in EHC 

CEHC 344 Emergency Preparedness

CEHC 398 Field Experience in EHC

CEHC 399 Special Topics in EHC - Crisis and Public Health 

CEHC Research Interests

Disasters and Crises; Crisis and Emergency Management; Humanitarian Relief; Humanitarian Logistics; Organizational Responses to Disasters; Collective Behavior; Convergence; Disaster Policy; Qualitative Research Methods; Decision-Making; Medical Sociology and Sociology of Health; Public Health; Environmental Sociology; Environmental Justice