Kit Topaz and Kathye Parker Join The Human Resilience Project

SALEM, Ore. - Sept. 29, 2026 - PRLog -- The Human Resilience Project (THRP), a multi-year ethnographic research initiative documenting how communities sustain resilience amid climate disruption and conflict, announces two new additions to its team: Kit Topaz as Research Associate and Kathye Parker as Volunteer Sponsorship Coordinator.

Topaz brings two decades of philanthropic strategy to THRP, where she will lead fundraising efforts sustaining the team's expeditions and research. She currently serves as Director of Philanthropy for the Whatcom Community College Foundation, following development leadership roles at Kulshan Community Land Trust, Cocoon House, and Save a Forgotten Equine (SAFE). Topaz holds a BA in Anthropology and Philosophy from Boston University, where she rowed on the crew team. Her anthropological training gives her direct fluency in the cultural contexts THRP documents, positioning her to connect the project's findings with the resources needed to carry them forward.

Parker coordinates fundraising and donor support from home base, allowing the field team to remain focused on expedition work. She spent more than twenty years with Girl Scouts, first as a volunteer and later as professional staff, building the organizational and relationship skills that now anchor THRP's development efforts. Her experience booking travel logistics for groups traveling across the United States translates directly into managing THRP's fundraising calendar and donor communications. Parker and her family have hosted foreign exchange students for years, a practice of cross-cultural welcome that mirrors the reciprocity at the center of THRP's mission.

"Kit and Kathye each bring skills our expeditions depend on," said Dr. Constance Scharff, Founder and Principal Investigator of THRP. "Every dollar they raise and every relationship they steward makes it possible for our team to continue to partner with and learn from communities around the world."

THRP is a ten-nation qualitative study examining how Indigenous and remote communities maintain psychological resilience under climate and conflict pressure. The project's field team is composed entirely of women, most of elder age, an approach that grants access to social knowledge held by elder women in the communities THRP studies. Completed expeditions include fieldwork with the Gabra community in Kenya, the Māori community in New Zealand and the Iñupiat community in Nome, Alaska. An upcoming expedition with the Guarani in Paraguay begins this week.

About The Human Resilience Project

The Human Resilience Project is a research initiative led by Constance Scharff, PhD, in partnership with communities across ten nations. THRP treats each partner community as an epistemic collaborator rather than a subject of study, working toward a popular press book due in 2028. More information is available at www.THRProject.com.