Psychology's David Sattler given IGE grant to research climate change and mental health in Mongolia

David Sattler, professor of Psychology at Western, is the 2018 recipient of a research award funded by the Jack Street Fund for Mongolia and managed by the Institute for Global Engagement.

“This funding provides an important opportunity to conduct vital research and collaborate with colleagues in Mongolia,” Sattler said. “I look forward to bringing lessons learned from this project into the classroom and sharing them with the academic community.”

Sattler’s project will examine the effects of climate change on behavioral adaptation strategies to climate change, climate-change risk perceptions, and mental health in Mongolia. The effects of climate change in Mongolia are profound. Climate change in Mongolia is putting poor and vulnerable children and their parents at risk of losing their lives and livelihoods in the short run and becoming increasingly vulnerable to detrimental changes in the long run. Sattler has conducted research projects in the wake of natural disasters around the world, including Thailand, Philippines, Fiji (see photo at right), Indonesia, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

“Offered for the second year in a row, this award supports faculty research that builds bridges between Western and its university partners in Mongolia,” said Vicki Hamblin, executive director of IGE. 

Sattler will work with a colleague and students from the National University of Mongolia to accomplish his research project and to publish its results.

Other partners in Mongolia, such as the American Center for Mongolian Studies, will also contribute to Sattler’s project.

In 2017 Holly Diaz, a non-tenure-track instructor in Leadership, conducted research on Women in leadership in Mongolia with support from the same grant.

Her work expanded on the data collected in 2016 by Karen Stout, Diaz and students who were participating in a Global Learning program to Mongolia to learn more about women in leadership in that country. Their combined research resulted in presentations at two conferences.