19 Facts About Elizabeth Hausler

Elizabeth Hausler is the founder and CEO of Build Change, and a global expert on resilient housing, post-disaster reconstruction, and systems change.

Elizabeth Hausler is a social entrepreneur and a skilled brick, block, and stonemason.

Elizabeth Hausler's father owned a small business in masonry construction, building custom houses and lightweight industrial buildings.

Elizabeth Hausler worked summers with her father as a bricklayer, who encouraged Hausler and her sister to study engineering.

Elizabeth Hausler later attended the University of California, Berkeley and completed a Master's and Ph.

In 2002, Elizabeth Hausler defended her thesis, "Influence of ground improvement on settlement and liquefaction: A study based on field case history evidence and dynamic geotechnical centrifuge tests".

Later that year, Elizabeth Hausler was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and moved to India to study and assist with housing reconstruction after the 2001 earthquake near Bhuj, in Gujarat.

Elizabeth Hausler spent time in Iran after the 2003 Bam earthquake, and returned to India to evaluate how construction had adapted following the 1993 Latur earthquake and 1999 Chamoli earthquakes.

Elizabeth Hausler noted that some of the new houses built with international aid following disasters were not resistant to further earthquakes.

Elizabeth Hausler applied for an Echoing Green Fellowship in 2004 and founded Build Change.

The next year, Elizabeth Hausler and Build Change responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, a country where the organization would remain active for the next decade.

In recognition of Elizabeth Hausler's leadership, Build Change was awarded a $1.25 million Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2017.

In 2018, Elizabeth Hausler and Build Change went on to play a lead role in the creation of the Global Program for Resilient Housing at The World Bank.

In recent years, Elizabeth Hausler has increased her policy advocacy for climate-smart, disaster-resilient housing.

Elizabeth Hausler has pushed for resilience to play a bigger role on the global development agenda at the World Economic Forum, The World Bank, and the Clinton Global Initiative.

On International Women's Day 2019, Elizabeth Hausler spoke alongside Lorraine Twohill, Chief Marketing Officer of Google and Kiara Nirghin at the UN's official observance of the day.

At the Skoll World Forum in March 2019, Elizabeth Hausler participated on a panel on the topic of "AI for Good".

That same summer, Elizabeth Hausler delivered the commencement address for the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate College of Engineering, her alma mater.

Also in 2019, Elizabeth Hausler was one of the featured keynotes at Autodesk University-Las Vegas, where she shared how Build Change has used technology to scale the earthquake recovery in Nepal.