OSU Oregon Coastal Futures Project recognized with national engagement award

August 22, 2024

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A transdisciplinary team of Oregon State University researchers, Extension specialists and students dedicated to helping coastal communities adapt to natural hazards has been recognized as one of four regional winners of the Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award.

The Oregon Coastal Futures Project is one of four regional award winners announced today by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). The winners will compete for the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award, the top honor nationally for this type of initiative. The Magrath Award will be announced in November.

"As a modern, land-grant university, OSU partners with communities to solve of some of our state's greatest challenges," OSU President Jayathi Murthy said. "The Oregon Coastal Futures Project is a shining example of how transdisciplinary research and teaching can combine with community engagement to benefit all Oregonians."

Oregon's coastal counties are susceptible to sea level rise, coastal storms, and the rupture of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which could lead to a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami. In response to a request from Oregon's coastal communities, OSU launched the Oregon Coastal Futures Project with community partners to improve the ability of underserved and rural residents to prepare for earthquakes, tsunamis, storms and rising sea levels.

The project uses a collaborative approach to consider social, economic and ecological costs and benefits of adaptation strategies. The project collects social, economic, natural and infrastructure data to create nuanced equitable adaptation policies that examine how assets could best be protected and made accessible to community members after a disaster.

Peter Ruggiero, a professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences who leads Oregon Coastal Futures, said the project's success started with working closely with a Community Advisory Council comprised of non-governmental organization representatives and agency personnel, who provided deep experience and expertise with coastal hazards impacts along the Oregon Coast.

"Our frequent meetings and conversations with the Community Advisory Council led to co-produced research approaches and priorities that broadened authentic connections with coastal communities," Ruggiero said. "By engaging with the Advisory Council, local community-based organizations, and community members themselves, our project was able to co-develop new knowledge about how underrepresented populations consider natural hazard risks, assess the protective actions they may take, and explore new policy approaches that take these actions into account."

The university-community team of students, postdoctoral scholars, and community partners regularly share the broader impacts of their work, including more than 30 presentations to Oregon coastal lawmakers and public interest groups, at academic and professional conferences, and at "Science on Tap" talks. The team also has produced more than 15 peer-reviewed publications, two websites, and multiple story maps.

Marina Denny, associate vice provost for engagement in the OSU Division of Extension and Engagement, said that OSU is committed to being an engaged university through its intentional and collaborative approach to reach and impact individuals and communities.

"We are the people's university, committed to engaging communities to mutually find solutions to big problems," Denny said. "It's inspiring that we have passionate faculty building strong and lasting relationships with community partners and contributing to significant environmental, social, and economic impacts on such a large scale. Engagement, when done well, is a transformational approach to strengthening university-community partnerships."

In addition to Ruggiero, members of the Oregon Coastal Futures team are:

• John Bolte, professor in the Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
• Patrick Corcoran, associate professor emeritus in the College of Earth, Oceans, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS), retired Oregon Sea Grant Extension coastal hazards specialist and a member of the project's advisory council.
• Daniel T. Cox, professor and director of the Cascadia Lifelines Project in the College of Engineering.
• Steven J. Dundas, associate professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences and researcher at the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station.
• Felicia Olmeta Schult, professor of practice in CEOAS and Oregon Sea Grant Extension coastal hazards specialist.
• Jenna Tilt, assistant professor in CEOAS.

It's the second time OSU has had a regional winner of the Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award. Open Campus, a program of OSU Extension that provides local access to learning to address the unique educational needs of Oregon's communities, won in 2014.

Since 2007, APLU and the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, have partnered to honor the engagement scholarship and partnerships of four-year public universities. The award recognizes programs that demonstrate how colleges and universities have redesigned their learning, discovery and engagement missions to deepen their partnerships and achieve broader impacts in their communities. The national award is named for C. Peter Magrath, APLU president from 1992 to 2005.

The four regional winners - OSU, East Carolina University, the University of Minnesota and West Virginia University - will each receive a $5,000 prize to further their work.

"Community engagement is a critical part of public universities' mission and we're pleased to highlight the work of institutions that are instrumental to solving the most pressing challenges facing their communities through partnerships with other stakeholders," APLU President Mark Becker said.

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