Nichole Kain, a 2024 graduate of Antioch’s PhD in Environmental Studies, has written and published her dissertation titled Aging in Place with a Warming Climate: Housing Design and Policies for Aging with Extreme Heat.
People over the age of 65 are disproportionately represented as the majority of heat victims and are likely to perish in their own homes during extreme heat events. Kain’s dissertation examines how age and climate-adaptive housing designs contribute to our quality of life. For her study, she designed a new conceptual framework titled PLACE: Preparing Living Spaces for Aging with Climate Extremes.
Employing a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation has an archival review of Medical Examiner reports from the hottest three days of 2022, a digital survey of people ages 65 and older currently living in Arizona, and semi-structured interviews with professionals and older Arizonians providing insights into ways to enhance age-friendly and heat-adaptive housing.
In addition to advancing our understanding of aging in places with extreme heat, this dissertation offers two pieces of applied materials: A residential guide/handout for the general public that combines mitigation for both extreme heat and age-friendly design, as well as a policy research brief promoting the future development of energy-efficient and age-friendly housing. The results of this study show connections between the built environment and real-world adaptations that can mitigate the impacts of extreme heat events.
Kain’s early career focused on adapting homes to meet people’s changing needs with age or disability, and her current research works toward regional and residential climate adaptation strategies to benefit medically vulnerable populations. In addition to her MS and PhD in environmental studies from Antioch University, Kain holds an MA in Gerontology from San Francisco State University and a BS in Occupational Therapy from Florida Gulf Coast University.
Learn more about Kain and download handouts created through her dissertation research on her website, Home and Place Project, and read her full dissertation, Aging in Place with a Warming Climate: Housing Design and Policies for Aging with Extreme Heat, here.
