The William Avarette Anderson Fund was created to expand advanced studies in the field of disaster and hazard research and mitigation within minority communities with the initial focus on increasing the number of African American scientists, practitioners and policy makers. Eligibility is based on (1) the graduate student's commitment to the mission of the William A. Anderson Fund; (2) the student must be African American or a member of another historically underrepresented group in the field, or from a community disproportionately affected by hazards or disasters and a U.S. citizen; and (3) the student should be newly enrolled in a Ph.D. program or either in or finishing their first year in a Ph.D. program.