Lab student and earthquake survivor featured on Larry King show highlighting Haiti reconstruction

Major injury hasn't changed literacy advocate's commitment

July 15, 2010—Christa Brelsford, a summer student working on her doctoral dissertation in Energy and Infrastructure Analysis (D-4), was among the featured guests on the July 12 “Larry King Live” program on CNN. Brelsford was a volunteer in Haiti during the earthquake and has since divided her time between academic progress and helping with reconstruction efforts in the stricken country.

“The show went well,” Brelsford said. “I think it did a pretty good job of looking at a number of the challenges Haiti faces in its reconstruction process for an hour-long news show. They highlighted the difference in the amount of money that has been pledged, and how much has actually been spent, although they failed to emphasize how much of the pledged money has come from nations and the big NGO’s, not individual donors.”

Brelsford was in Haiti volunteering with an adult literacy project when the earthquake hit, and she was badly injured when a house collapsed around her. She lost a lower leg in the event, but has rallied to return to work, school and her continued volunteer efforts. On her return to the United States, she started a nonprofit, Christa’s Angels, to aid in the reconstruction of the literacy program facilities that had been destroyed. (link: www.christasangels.com)

“Construction on the Cabois Community school has been completed, and my family has given money to the families of the two men most instrumental in my rescue to rebuild their homes. Both homes were completed last week,” she said.

“I also designed a rainwater harvesting system that is under construction at the Cabois school, and under consideration at two other nearby schools that are being rebuilt with other grants.”
 
The “Larry King Live” segment was hosted by Soledad O’Brian rather than King himself, Brelsford said. “She asked me about how my recovery has been going, and how the two guys who saved my life are doing. I was surprised that she didn’t ask about what I‘ve been doing to try to help out Haiti’s reconstruction, but I guess that’s TV.”  This is the third time the student has been on this show, in addition to MSNBC and a wide range of programs since.

In D-4, Brelsford is working on research for her dissertation on water resource economics. “I’m essentially trying to understand what will happen when the western US runs out of water -- when demand for water on the Colorado River basin is greater than supply,” she said. 

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Brelsford, an avid rock climber, hasn’t let her prosthetic leg slow her down. Photo by Jason Halladay.