Elizabeth Hausler

Hausler grew up in Plano, Illinois. Her father worked in masonry construction.[1] As a child she enjoyed playing with Lincoln Logs.[2] She worked summer construction jobs with her father, who encouraged her to study engineering. She studied engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She joined the University of Colorado Boulder for her Master's degree in environmental science, which she obtained in 1995.[3] After graduating, she moved the Chicago and Denver where she worked as a consultant at Dames & Moore.[1] She joined University of California, Berkeley and completed a PhD in civil engineering.[1] She was moved to use engineering to save lives after the September 11 attacks. She defended her thesis, Influence of ground improvement on settlement and liquefaction: A study based on field case history evidence and dynamic geotechnical centrifuge tests, in 2002.[4] It considered the 1964 Niigata earthquake, Great Hanshin earthquake and 1999 İzmit earthquake.[4] Later that year Hausler was awarded a Fulbright Program scholarship and moved to India, helping the community recover from an earthquake in Gujarat.[5] She 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.[6] She observed difficulties with donor-driven reconstruction approaches.[2] She became concerned that the houses built after the international aid ends following a disaster are not resistant to further earthquakes.[7]

Hausler applied for an Echoing Green Fellowship in 2004 and founded Build Change. Build Change are a Denver-based initiative that look to build resilient homes for communities effected by disaster.[8] They complete a thorough examination of unsafe housing in a region then improve the original construction plans, empowering the local people to choose their own materials and layout and no destroying the original architecture.[9] Their first project was partnering with Mercy Corps to build homes that could resist disasters after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.[10] They have built over 50,000 houses, schools and other buildings in the Philippines, China, Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala and Nepal.[8][10][11] Through Build Change Haulser has trained 25,000 local engineers to build sustainable homes for people in high risk areas.[8] They help the communities in seismically active areas access incentives and subsidies for disaster-resistant development.[10][12] She also worked with the communities following the Aceh earthquake.

They helped with the response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[13] They partnered with Sogebank to obtain loans that allowed local engineers to strengthen buildings.[7] She was awarded a $100,000 Lemelson–MIT Prize in 2011 that allowed her to train more engineers, labourers and government officials.[2] She has written for and spoken at the World Economic Forum.[14] In 2017 Hausler was awarded a $1.25 million Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.[8] Build Change has won several awards, including the Curry Stone Design Prize, Autodesk Impact Award, Open Identity Exchange.[15][16] She has discussed Build Change in the media and on podcasts, including the BBC, NPR and Elle magazine, as well as at the Aspen Ideas Festival.[17][18][19] She has delivered lectures on sustainable disaster-resistant materials and construction techniques in over 10 countries.[20]