Naxhelli Ruiz-Rivera is a social scientist at the Institute of Geography, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a PhD in Development Studies (University of East Anglia, UK) and degrees in Ethnology and Regional Studies. Naxhelli has worked on academic projects spanning a variety of aspects of social vulnerability, from inequality and segregation to disaster risk reduction policies and politics. Her academic work focuses on social vulnerabilities; disaster recovery; the relationship between risk and territorial policies; and public communication of risk science. She was the lead author of the first collection of climatic risk cartography in Mexico designed to inform metropolitan planning processes (in Guadalajara, Mexico). She coordinated the Working Group of Disasters of the Mexican Council of Social Sciences (COMECSO).
Naxhelli is a Disaster Risk Reduction Advisory Board member for the Federal Government of Mexico and leads the Technical Committee on Urban and Territorial Resilience of the Resilience Council of Mexico City. She also coordinates the UNAM Seminar of Socio-environmental Risks (SURSA), an initiative for interdisciplinary research and outreach.
