Elizabeth Hausler

In April, 2020, Hausler commented in Forbes that "...issues of substandard housing are exacerbating this [COVID-19] pandemic...So how is the world's view of housing, and the importance of decent, disaster-resilient housing, going to change?"

As of the end of 2019, Build Change had reached nearly 500,000 people with a safer home, training, or a job, and worked in 24 countries.

On International Women's Day 2019, 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, Hausler participated on a panel on the topic of "AI for Good".

In August, 2019, she was featured in a Freethink video titled, "Could We End Earthquake and Hurricane Deaths?"

Also in 2019, 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.

2019 Inaugural Global Engineering Professional Award, Mortenson Center for Global Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder

In 2018, 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. The goal of the program is to identify the communities most at risk of disaster, and to strengthen the homes in those communities using a "build better before" approach.

On September 18, 2018, Hausler delivered a TED Talk as a part of 'We The Future', an event hosted by the Skoll Foundation and the UN Foundation. The theme of her talk was "How to Build Back Safer After Disaster".

2018 University of California, Berkeley Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award

2018 IBM Call for Code Runner Up (with Build Change)

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

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

In 2015, Build Change responded to the Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal, launching the organization's largest post-disaster effort to date, in the process protecting more than 120,000 people.

2014 Academy of Distinguished Alumni of University of California, Berkeley

2013 Structural Engineers Association of Northern California Award of Excellence in Structural Engineering

In 2011, Hausler was awarded a $100,000 Lemelson–MIT Prize that allowed her to train more engineers, laborers, and government officials in Haiti on resilient building.

2011 Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship US Social Entrepreneur of the Year

The next year, Hausler and Build Change responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, a country where the organization would remain active for the next decade. Today, more than 7,200 people in Haiti are living in permanent, earthquake-resilient homes due to Build Change's work.

2006 ABC News World News Tonight “Person of the Week”

Hausler applied for an Echoing Green Fellowship in 2004 and founded Build Change. Build Change is headquartered in Denver, and saves lives in earthquakes and windstorms by constructing disaster-resilient homes and schools. Through a combination of engineering, technology, financing and policy solutions, Build Change puts the homeowner at the center of the redesign process of their home.

Build Change's first project was partnering with Mercy Corps to build homes that could resist disasters after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

She later attended the University of California, Berkeley and completed a Master's and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering. During this time, Hausler developed an increased interest in the effects of earthquakes on the built environment. The September 11 attacks reinforced Hausler's desire to use engineering to save lives. In 2002, 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". It considered the 1964 Niigata earthquake, the Great Hanshin earthquake and the 1999 İzmit earthquake.

Later that year, 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. 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. Based on these field observations, Hausler became aware of difficulties with traditional donor-driven reconstruction approaches, which do not take climate, culture, or homeowner preferences into account. She noted that some of the new houses built with international aid following disasters were not resistant to further earthquakes.