Lesley Gray
Associate student
About
Lesley Gray
Lesley Gray’s PhD is the first research of its kind, as no research has previously been conducted relating to morbid obesity and disaster risk resilience or emergency management. With both Australia and New Zealand ranking highly for obesity in developed countries, this study is determining disaster risk reduction strategies for persons with morbid obesity. In conjunction with her PhD studies, Lesley is a senior lecturer in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice at the University of Otago School of Medicine and was made a fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health in 2008.
Student project
Large bodied people or those people with morbid obesity are ‘conspicuously invisible’ in research relating to disasters. The Sendai Framework (UN, 2015) sets out the urgency to anticipate, plan for, and reduce disaster risk globally. Work is required to reduce exposure and vulnerabilities. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) approaches need to be broader and more people-centred.
