Robin S. Cox

Professor

Program head

Environment & Sustainability
Humanitarian Studies

Dr. Robin Cox is the program head for the graduate programs in Climate Action Leadership (Graduate Diploma; Master of Arts) and a professor in the Disaster and Emergency Management graduate programs of the School of Humanitarian Studies. Cox is also the director of the Resilience by Design (RbD) Research Innovation lab, a transdisciplinary research and educational outreach center that focus on building multigenerational climate action leadership and competencies. The goal of this center is to inform, inspire, and support the well-being of people and the planet in a changing climate, through research, education, and policy advising

Experience

Cox is an active researcher with multiple nationally funded research projects. She leads the Adaptation Learning Network (ALN), a three-year, $2-million project funded by Natural Resources Canada and the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. This project is building climate adaptation capacity with organizations, professionals, businesses, and communities through professional development training and networking. Cox is an experienced disaster psychosocial responder and researcher with expertise in individual- and community-level resilience and trauma.

Memberships and Committees

Robin Cox held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research at Simon Fraser University in 2007. 

Education

2007
PhD in Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

Awards

2016
Kelly Outstanding Teaching Award

Royal Roads University

Publications

Agrawal, N., & Cox, R. S. (2019). Natural disasters and 150th commemoration of Canada as a country. Natural Hazards, 98(1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-019-03751-9

Agrawal, Nirupama, & Cox, R. S. (Eds.). (2019). Natural disasters and 150th commemoration of Canada as a country [special issue]. Natural Hazards, 98(1). https://link.springer.com/journal/11069/98/1

Bentz, J., & Cox, R. S. (2019, May 28). Arts-based methodologies for youth leadership, empowerment and meaningful engagement in climate change. European Climate Change Adaptation Conference, Lisbon, Portugal.

Berard, A. A., Plush, T., Cox, R. S., & Hill, T. T. (2020). Beyond information sharing: Stimulating youth recovery and resilience post-disaster through social media [In Press].

 

Berard, A., Plush, T., Hill, R., & Cox, R. S. (2019). Stimulating youth recovery and resilience post-disaster through social media.

Cox, R. S. (2007). Capacity Building Approaches to Emergency Management in Rural Communities: Recommendations from survivors of the British Columbia Wildfires, 2003. International Journal of Emergency Management, 4(2), 250–268.

Cox, R. S. (2014). Disaster Preparedness in Canada’s North: What’s resilience got to do with it? Northern Public Affairs, 2(3), 43–45.

Cox, R. S. (2015, November). Solving climate change will require a Neverland mindset. The Walrus Talks Resilience. Walrus Talks 2015, Calgary, Canada. https://youtu.be/wivJAurLQ68

Cox, R. S. (2018). Engaging Youth to Create a Culture of Resilience.

Cox, R. S., & Danford, T. (2014). The need for a systematic approach to disaster psychosocial response: A suggested competency framework. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 29(2), 183–189. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X14000259

Cox, R. S., & Hamlen, M. (2015). Community Disaster Resilience and the Rural Resilience Index. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(2), 220–237. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764214550297

Cox, R. S., Heykoop, C., Fletcher, S., Hill, T. T., Scannell, L., Wright, L. H. V., Alexander, K., Deans, N., & Plush, T. (2020). Creative Action Research [Manuscript in Review].

Cox, R. S., Hill, T. T., Plush, T., Heykoop, C., & Tremblay, C. (2019). More than a checkbox: Engaging youth in disaster risk reduction and resilience in Canada. Natural Hazards, 98(1), 213–227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3509-3

Cox, R. S., Irwin, P., Scannell, L., Ungar, M., & Dixon-Bennett, T. (2017a). Children and youth’s biopsychosocial wellbeing in the context of energy resource activities. Environmental Research, 158, 499–507.

Cox, R. S., Irwin, P., Scannell, L., Ungar, M., & Dixon-Bennett, T. (2017b). Children and youth’s biopsychosocial wellbeing in the context of energy resource activities. Environmental Research, 158, 499–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.07.014

Cox, R. S., Scannell, L., Heykoop, C., Tobin-Gurley, J., & Peek, L. (2017). Understanding youth disaster recovery: The vital role of people, places, and activities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 22, 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.03.011

Cox, R. S., Tremblay, C., Heykoop, C., Fletcher, S., Scannell, L., & Hill, T. T. (2018). Gen Z: social innovators in times of uncertainty.

Cox, R., & Woods, K. M. (2009). Like a fish out of water: Reconsidering disaster recovery and the role of place & social capital in community disaster resilience & recovery. American Journal of Community Psychology, 48(3–4), 395–411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-011-9427-0.

Fletcher, S., Cox, R. S., Scannell, L., Tobin-Gurley, J., & Peek, L. (2016). Youth creating disaster recovery and resilience: A multi-site arts-based youth engagement research project. Children, Youth and Environments, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.26.1.0148

Godsoe, M., Ladd, M., & Cox, R. S. (2019). Assessing Canada’s disaster baselines and projections under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: A modeling tool to track progress. Natural Hazards, 98(1), 293–317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-019-03599-z

Irwin, P., Cox, R. S., Scannell, L., Fletcher, S., Dixon-Bennett, T., Heykoop, C., & Ungar, M. (2016). Children and youth’s biopsychosocial health in the context of energy resource activities.

Murphy, B. L., Bowles, R., Anderson, G., & Cox, R. S. (2014). Planning for disaster resilience in rural, remote, and coastal communities: Moving from thought to action. Journal of Emergency Management, 12(2), 105–120. https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.2014.0165

Peek, L., Abramson, D. M., Cox, R. S., Fothergill, A., & Tobin-Gurley, J. (2018). Children and Disasters. In H. Rodríguez, W. Donner, & J. Trainor (Eds.), Handbook of Disaster Research. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63254-4_13

Peek, L., Tobin-Gurley, J., Cox, R. S., Scannell, L., Fletcher, S., & Heykoop, C. (2016). Engaging youth in post-disaster research: Lessons learned from a creative methods approach. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 9(1), 89–112–189–112. https://doi.org/10.5130/ijcre.v9i1.4875

Plush, T., & Cox, R. (2019). Hey, Hey, Hey—Listen to What I Gotta Say: Songs Elevate Youth Voice in Alberta Wildfire Disaster Recovery. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning, 5(2), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v5i2.68343

Scannell, L., & Cox, R. S. (2020). Meaningful youth engagement in climate action [Manuscript in preparation].

Scannell, L., Cox, R. S., & Fletcher, S. (2017). Place-based loss and resilience among disaster-affected youth. Journal of Community Psychology, 45(7), 859–876. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21897

Scannell, L., Cox, R. S., Fletcher, S., & Heykoop, C. (2016). “That was the last time I saw my house”: The importance of place attachment among children and youth in disaster contexts. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(1–2), 158–173. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12069

Scannell, Leila, Li Qin Tan, Cox, R. S., & Gifford, R. (2020). Place attachment, well-being, and resilience. In K. Bishop & N. Marshall, The Routledge Handbook of People and Place in the 21st-Century City. Routledge.

Tobin-Gurley, J., Cox, R. S., Peek, L., Pybus, K., Maslenitsyn, D., & Heykoop, C. (2016). Youth Creating Disaster Recovery and Resilience in Canada and the United States: Dimensions of the Male Youth Experience. In Men, Masculinities, and Disaster (pp. 152–161). Routledge.

Related news