Stephanie Nelson completed her MA in Geography at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2007. Her research interests focus on the intersection of international development, tourism and local populations which took her to southern Thailand to study long-term recovery from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In 2006 she interned with Kenan Institute Asia’s Tsunami Recovery Action Initiative program where she volunteered in local schools and learned about issues of rural development and tsunami-recovery in southern Thailand. She returned to the Phang Nga province of Thailand in 2007 to conduct her own research on long-term economic recovery, specifically focusing on international aid recovery efforts that have engaged with the tourism sector in innovative ways. Her growing interest in Asia has been put to action in North Carolina through volunteer work with Burmese refugees in the Chapel Hill area.