Elizabeth Hausler facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Elizabeth Ann Hausler
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Hausler in 2015
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| Born | 13 January 1969 (age 56) Aurora, Illinois U.S.
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| Occupation | Civil Engineer, Social Entrepreneur, CEO |
Elizabeth Hausler is an amazing engineer and leader. She started an organization called Build Change. This group helps people build strong homes and schools that can stand up to earthquakes and big storms. Elizabeth is also a social entrepreneur, which means she uses business ideas to solve big problems in the world. She's even a skilled builder herself!
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Growing Up and Early Interests
Elizabeth Hausler grew up in a town called Plano, Illinois. Her dad owned a business that built houses and other buildings using bricks and stones. When she was a kid, Elizabeth loved playing with Lincoln Logs. In the summers, she worked with her dad as a bricklayer. He encouraged Elizabeth and her sister to study engineering.
Education and Early Career
Elizabeth studied engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. After college, she worked as a consultant in Chicago. She helped with cases about cleaning up old waste sites.
Later, she went to the University of Colorado, Denver for her master's degree. She studied environmental science and worked on projects like designing landfills.
She then went to the University of California, Berkeley for more studies. She earned both a master's and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering. During this time, Elizabeth became very interested in how earthquakes affect buildings. After the September 11 attacks, she felt even more strongly about using engineering to save lives. In 2002, she finished her Ph.D. by studying how ground improvements can help buildings during earthquakes.
Later that year, Elizabeth received a special scholarship called a Fulbright Fellowship. She moved to India to study and help rebuild homes after an earthquake in 2001. She also visited Iran after the 2003 Bam earthquake. She went back to India to see how building methods had changed after other earthquakes.
From these trips, Elizabeth realized that traditional ways of helping after disasters didn't always work well. They often didn't consider the local weather, culture, or what homeowners wanted. She saw that some new houses built with international help were still not strong enough for future earthquakes.
She learned that people who owned homes wanted to be involved in rebuilding their own houses. They preferred getting money and expert advice instead of a free house that didn't fit their needs.
Building a Better Future with Build Change
In 2004, Elizabeth Hausler started Build Change. This organization is based in Denver. Its main goal is to save lives by helping people build homes and schools that can survive earthquakes and strong winds. Build Change uses engineering, technology, money solutions, and policy changes. They always make sure the homeowner is part of the design process for their new home.
By the end of 2019, Build Change had helped almost 500,000 people. They provided safer homes, training, or jobs. They worked in 24 different countries.
Build Change's first project was helping to build disaster-resistant homes after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. They worked with another group called Mercy Corps.
In 2009, Elizabeth was recognized as an Ashoka Fellow. This award is given to people who find new ways to solve big social problems.
The next year, Elizabeth and Build Change helped after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. They continued to work in Haiti for the next ten years. Today, more than 7,200 people in Haiti live in strong, earthquake-resistant homes thanks to Build Change.
In 2011, Elizabeth won a $100,000 Lemelson–MIT Prize. This award helped her train more engineers, builders, and government workers in Haiti on how to build safely.
Over the next few years, Build Change kept helping after disasters. They also started working more on preventing problems before disasters happen. They helped strengthen homes and schools ahead of time. For example, after Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, Build Change helped rebuild. They also started a program to make the country stronger for the future.
In 2015, Build Change responded to the Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal. This was their biggest effort after a disaster so far. They helped protect over 120,000 people.
Because of Elizabeth's great leadership, Build Change received a $1.25 million Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2017.
In 2018, Elizabeth and Build Change played a big part in creating the Global Program for Resilient Housing at The World Bank. This program aims to find communities most at risk from disasters. It then helps strengthen homes in those areas using a "build better before" approach.
In recent years, Elizabeth has worked to get more support for climate-smart, disaster-resistant housing. She has pushed for building strength to be a bigger part of global development plans. She has spoken at events like the World Economic Forum, The World Bank, and the Clinton Global Initiative.
On September 18, 2018, Elizabeth gave a TED Talk. She spoke about "How to Build Back Safer After Disaster."
On International Women's Day in 2019, Elizabeth spoke at a special event for the United Nations. She shared the stage with important leaders like Lorraine Twohill from Google.
At the Skoll World Forum in March 2019, Elizabeth discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used for good.
That same summer, Elizabeth gave the graduation speech for the engineering students at the University of California, Berkeley, her old university.
In August 2019, she was featured in a video called "Could We End Earthquake and Hurricane Deaths?"
Also in 2019, Elizabeth was a main speaker at Autodesk University-Las Vegas. She explained how Build Change used technology to help with earthquake recovery in Nepal.
In April 2020, Elizabeth told Forbes magazine that poor housing makes problems like the COVID-19 pandemic worse. She asked how the world's view of housing and the importance of good, disaster-resistant homes would change.
Awards and Recognition
Elizabeth Hausler has received many awards for her important work:
- 2019: Inaugural Global Engineering Professional Award, Mortenson Center for Global Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
- 2018: University of California, Berkeley Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award
- 2018: IBM Call for Code Runner Up (with Build Change)
- 2017: Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (with Build Change)
- 2017: Curry Stone Design Prize honors Build Change as a member of the Social Design Circle
- 2014: Academy of Distinguished Alumni of University of California, Berkeley
- 2013: Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae Achievement Award
- 2013: Structural Engineers Association of Northern California Award of Excellence in Structural Engineering
- 2011: Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship US Social Entrepreneur of the Year
- 2011: Lemelson–MIT Prize for Sustainability
- 2009: Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow
- 2008: The Tech Awards Laureate
- 2006: Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow
- 2006: ABC News World News Tonight “Person of the Week”
- 2004: Echoing Green Fellowship
