Risa Palm is a Professor of Urban Studies and past-Provost at Georgia State University. She previously held concurrent faculty and administrative positions as dean or provost at the State University of New York, Louisiana State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Oregon and University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as a faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the author or co-author of 15 books or monographs and more than 40 peer-reviewed research papers, primarily on the topics of response to earthquake hazards and climate change. She is past-President and a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers and has served on the governing boards of the American Geographical Society, the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, and the Association of Chief Academic Officers, as well as advisory committees for National Science Foundation programs and the National Academy of Sciences.