Reilly Awarded Sloan Foundation Grant for Resilience Research

Allison C. Reilly, Pedro E. Wasmer Professor in the University of Maryland (UMD) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been selected for a Sloan Foundation grant together with co-leads Gabrielle Wong-Parodi (Stanford University) and Kelsea Best (Ohio State). Best is a former post-doctoral researcher at UMD, where she was advised by Reilly.

The Foundation awarded the grants following an Energy Systems Interactions Request for Proposals announced during 2025.

With support from the award, the three researchers will study how rebuilding efforts following extreme weather events have impacted energy resilience in three cities: Asheville, Houston, and Los Angeles. The cities suffered damage from, respectively, Hurricane Helene (2024), Hurricane Harvey (2017), and the Palisades Fire (2025).

The researchers will also partner with local chapters of the American Red Cross to design and pilot a novel intervention that will provide residents who have lost their homes with tailored resources to facilitate energy efficient and resilient rebuilding. The plan includes access to an in-person Rebuilding Ambassador who will help households better understand their rebuilding options.

“Our goal is to improve post-disaster rebuilding and climate resilience,” Reilly said. “While our specific focus will be on these three cities, our piloted intervention can be scaled up and expanded to other geographies facing similar challenges.”

The researchers’ work could help spur a reassessment of current policy, which favors “like for like” rebuilds in which damaged or destroyed property is simply replaced. This approach, Reilly notes, doesn’t always address deeper problems with resilience, including pre-existing inequities that make some communities particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events or energy insecurity. “In many cases, greater long-term benefits could be achieved if households improved the overall quality and energy characteristics of their homes, rather than just fixing the damage wrought by a weather event,” she said.

The Sloan Foundation launched its Request for Proposals last year to foster an improved understanding of energy systems and how their components interact, particularly in light of the need for decarbonization and resilience in the face of climate-driven hazards.

“Achieving effective energy system decarbonization requires rethinking how different components of the energy system interact and how these components relate to other elements of the economy,” the foundation said.

Published January 12, 2026