Dr Louise Elstow

Louise Elstow is an interdisciplinary social scientist and resilience consultant. Since 2008 she has been working with partners to plan for and respond to crises and emergencies, beginning her career in Local Government in London working as an Emergency Planner. Since then, she has worked across multiple sectors and explored resilience in different guises and in different countries (including Germany, USA, Saudi Arabia and Japan). Louise has recently joined the Wessex Regional Flood and Coastal Committee as an independent panel member and is an Associate at the Cabinet Office’s UK Resilience Academy.

At Cambridge University, Louise supports the delivery of the MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development in the Centre for Sustainable Development, using systems thinking approaches to address global risks and sustainable development goals. She is leading the Client Project module. Similarly, at the University of Wolverhampton, she is a module tutor on the MSc in Resilience and Emergency Management. 

She has worked on research projects exploring the impact of physical climate risks on healthcare infrastructure, and barriers and levers to climate smart building. She is currently mapping resilience accountability in London, and working with the National Trust and farmers on a Welsh Integrated Natural Resources Scheme (INRS) to build environmental and agricultural resilience on Sugar Loaf mountain. 

Louise gained her PhD in Sociology from Lancaster University in 2023. Her thesis “Getting the Measure of It: Radiation Knowledge Construction in Japan since 2011” uses concepts from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to examine the making and use of scientific information about radiation following the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. She also holds an MSc in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management, from Leicester University, as well as a BSc in German, Swedish and Economics from the University of Surrey.