Dr. Pardee earned her degree in 2009 from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, where she was enrolled at the time of Hurricane Katrina. In 2014, she published the book Surviving Katrina, a study of the survival strategies of low-income, African-American women during and following the hurricane. This book and related research investigates the intersection of race, class, gender, and geography, in relation to disaster preparedness, lived experience, and recovery. Dr. Pardee also devotes time to examining the meaning of conducting research on traumatic community events from a reflexive perspective. Additional projects include assessing the disaster preparedness of childcare facilities in the greater Rochester, NY metropolitan area, and using agent-based modeling to forecast the effects of family evacuation patterns on decision-making and timeliness.