Distinguished Senior Fellows

Najib Abboud

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Najib Abboud has more than 25 years of experience in applied mechanics R&D, structural and computational engineering, and vulnerability assessments and mitigations. As leader of the Weidlinger Applied Science practice, he directs the firm’s research and advanced analysis efforts, which encompasses everything from solving problems related to the safety of military platforms, critical infrastructure, tall buildings, industrial and petro-chemical plants, and automotive and airborne vehicles to developing scientific software whose applications go beyond the built environment.

Software Innovation: Najib has led or contributed to several software development projects, mainly those in the areas of shock and nonlinear fluid and structure analysis, soil and structure interaction, thermo-mechanical coupling, structural acoustics and ultrasonics. These projects were typically driven by the need to understand the physics of a phenomenon in order to engineer better solutions.

Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience: Najib leads many critical infrastructure security and resilience projects for major transportation and port authorities, with a specific focus on bridges, tunnels, transportation facilities and networks. These efforts rely on both computational simulations of extreme events and physical testing as a basis for designs against blast, fire, impact and other attack modalities.

Investigation Expertise: During his career, he has served as a principal investigator and expert on a range of forensics projects. He served as project manager for the multidisciplinary investigation of the World Trade Center collapses and has applied sophisticated nonlinear analyses to other collapse investigations, establishing the firm’s leadership in the field. Najib also led large forensic investigations, from structural collapses such as the Tropicana Casino and Resort parking garage in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to errors and omissions and/or delays claims on large construction projects, including the Denver Art Museum in Colorado.

Mel Bernstein

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: m.bernstein@northeastern.edu

Mel Bernstein, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Senior Fellow, and formerly the Chief Operating Office, at the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University. Previously, he was Senior Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education at Northeastern University, Chairman of the Board at George J. Kostas Research Institute, LLC, and Professor of the Practice in Technology Policy and Materials Engineering at Northeastern University. He earned his doctorate in Metallurgy and Material Science from Columbia University.

Dr. Bernstein joined Northeastern University in July 2010 after serving as the Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland. While at Maryland, Dr. Bernstein led the effort to promote strong growth among the University’s research programs and developed partnerships with government agencies and corporations to foster the integration of cross-campus entrepreneurial efforts.

In 2003, Dr. Bernstein created The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of University Programs, where he served as its Director. In that role, he led the establishment of a growing and integrated network of merit-based national centers, bringing together the best academic talent from Engineering, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences and the Humanities, to work in areas critical to Homeland Security. He then served as Acting Director of the Office of Research and Development at DHS.

Before joining the Department of Homeland Security, Dr. Bernstein was Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Brandeis University. Dr. Bernstein has also served at Tufts University as Vice President for Arts, Sciences and Engineering, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences and Engineering, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics, and as Provost and Chancellor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Dr. Bernstein has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific and technical papers, co-edited four books and published numerous articles, during a research career at Carnegie Mellon University where he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Material Science and Engineering.

Donald Bliss

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Donald Bliss is a Distinguished Senior Fellow and a member of the Global Resilience Institute’s Post-Disaster Assessment and Advisory Team.

Bliss serves as the Vice President of field operations for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). In this position, Bliss oversees NFPA’s International Division, Government Affairs Division and NFPA’s Regional Operations.

Bliss’ career began with the Durham-UNH Fire Department in 1970 and he has been a part of the fire service in some way since then, holding such titles as director of the University of Connecticut Fire Department, and both Fire Chief and town emergency management director for Salem, N.H. Bliss served as both the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal and state homeland security director, and has held leadership roles in numerous professional organizations, including the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) and NFPA. He previously served on the NFPA Standards Council, served as president and chief operating officer of the not-for-profit National Infrastructure Institute in Portsmouth, N.H. and was a senior public safety consultant with Municipal Resources, Inc.

He served as a member of NFPA’s board of directors 2003-2009; was the chair of the NFPA 1 Uniform Fire Code Committee, and served as chair of NEC Code Making Panel 13. Bliss has also been on the NFPA Technical Committee on Emergency Management and Business Continuity and was a trustee of the Fire Protection Research Foundation.

Bliss holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of New Hampshire and has taught as an adjunct professor in the UNH graduate public administration program for the past five years. He has also completed numerous courses at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md.

GRI’s Post-Disaster Assessment and Advisory Team is a group of experts with deep operational experience in disaster response. Working in ways analogous to National Transportation Safety Board teams, GRI’s team conducts extensive analysis and in-depth interviews about the disaster, the response and recovery efforts.

Harold Brooks

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Harold W. Brooks is a member of the Global Resilience Institute’s (GRI) Post-Disaster Assessment and Advisory Team as well as a GRI Distinguished Senior Fellow.

Brooks served as senior vice president, International Operations for the American Red Cross’ International Services Department (ISD), after leading the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter as the regional Chief Executive Officer and held a number of leadership positions throughout the country, including in Washington, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New Jersey. As SVP, Brooks managed the international activities of the Red Cross which included supporting rebuilding and recovery efforts in Haiti, disaster response and preparedness activities worldwide, and disease prevention programs. He also ensured that local Red Cross chapters continued to educate their communities in International Humanitarian Law and provided services to reconnect families internationally, separated by war and disaster. Additionally, he oversaw the organization’s global policy and planning efforts supporting the American Red Cross mission to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies.

In addition to his Red Cross experience, Brooks has a history of work in international development. Before joining the Red Cross, he was Country Director for Africare in Kenya and served as Peace Corps Country Director in Papua New Guinea. Brooks is a former member of the board of regents for his alma mater, Loyola-Marymount University, where he earned a bachelor degree in political science.

GRI’s Post-Disaster Assessment and Advisory Team is a group of experts with deep operational experience in disaster response. Working in ways analogous to National Transportation Safety Board teams, GRI’s team conducts extensive analysis and in-depth interviews about the disaster, the response and recovery efforts.

Julia Byers

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Dr. Julia Byers, LMHC, ATR-BC, Professor Emerita, Lesley University has been working in over 25 countries providing humanitarian aid through expressive art/play therapies and mental health counseling. Julia has worked with many communities, individuals and families who experienced traumatic events, situational stress, and ongoing stress in response to natural disasters, military or violent related circumstances or unexpected or situational personal bereavement and loss. Having been trained in family systems theories, Julia utilizes an eclectic and existential approach to PTSD within a resilience strength-based framework.

Professor Byers received her doctorate from the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the Department of Adult Education, Counseling Psychology and Community Development in 1996, having already been a tenured professor within the Faculty of Arts, at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada for 16 years. She earned her clinical Master’s degree from I.M.C. and U.C.L.A. Los Angeles, California, and her Bachelor’s degree at McGill University. She also went to Vanier College, St. Laurent, Quebec for an initial diploma in Arts and Social Sciences.

While at Concordia University, Julia established the first internationally approved Graduate Art Therapy program from the American Art Therapy Association. After being hired at Lesley University in 1996, in part to develop the first Expressive Therapy PhD program in the states, Dr. Byers was the Expressive Therapy Division Director for 12 years and the first PhD director for five years. She also co-established the Lesley Extension MA program in Expressive Therapy in Netanya, Israel overseeing a total of 500 graduate students. Professor Byers taught the PhD Interdisciplinary studies course for the school of Education and the Graduate Studies in Arts and Social Sciences for 17 years, emphasizing how many different disciplines can work together for research, supervision and leadership.

Having received a significant grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare with the Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation of Canada, Julia began travelling to the Palestinian territories to provide mental health services to communities follow the Intifada Uprising. Dr. Byers has now traveled to Israel and the West Bank 24 times to promote resilience training for healthcare and educational institutions with sponsorship from Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, UNWRA, and other NGO organizations. Her continued work in other countries included travelling to Lebanon in the Syrian camps, and Lira, Uganda following the devastation of the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the Philippines following the typhoon and mudslide disasters. With Dr. Jody McBrien, University of Southern Florida, the psychosocial support provided resulted in a recent book publication entitled Cold Water: Women and Girls of Lira Uganda in which 100% of the sales proceeds is given to young women for school scholarships.

Julia continues her passion to work with underserved communities within the greater Boston area through her board membership with the Community Legal Services and Counseling Center for the past 10 years. C.L.S.A.C.C. provides support services for asylum seekers, refugees, and domestic needs for underserved populations. The collaborative efforts of all people who care for others is a lifelong art and education, which celebrates the best of what it means to be human. Hope is a powerful and resilient human expression.

Walter L. Christman

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Walter L. Christman is a pioneer in international cooperative ventures for enhanced regional and global security. He is principal architect of seven Secretary of Defense initiatives, three of which were endorsed by a President of the United States. Dr. Christman’s thirty-year career with the US Government spanned service in the Armed Forces, the US Congress, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House, with travel to more than fifty countries, and more than ten years of service as a US diplomat in the international community of Geneva, Switzerland.  He has been a Keynote Speaker at major conferences in China, India, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and the United States.  He is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Global Resilience Institute and recently nominated to the UN Secretary-General to serve as “Special Envoy for Global Resilience.” His forthcoming book, “Global Resilience: A Manifesto” is being published in the United Kingdom and translated into multiple languages.

Debra Durham

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Debra Durham is a distinguished senior fellow with the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University. She is also Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at Aveshka, Inc. Durham brings nearly 30 years of federal defense and homeland security experience as an accomplished government leader and expert in systems acquisition and engineering, research and development, and test and evaluation.

Previous positions include Senior Executive Service with the Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Group Director for Acquisition and Operational Analysis. She held appointments as the Science and Technology Component Acquisition Executive, Executive Agent for the DHS Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, DHS Standards Executive, and Executive of the Transportation Security Laboratory. She published the first DHS RDT&E Systems Analysis Framework and Guidebook for capability development.

Durham began a 20-year U.S. Navy civilian career developing applied engineering skills that led to becoming an accomplished leader in acquisition, operations analysis and systems engineering in the areas of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR). She focused on the design and integration of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) technologies and insertion programs and directed the test and evaluation, certification and assessment program for combat and weapon system integration, interoperability and readiness. She established systems and software engineering policy and architecture for major warfare systems, established the prioritization criteria for the Naval Sea Basing and Sea Strike Science and Technology program and successfully developed and implemented Technical Authority for U.S. Naval Combat Systems.

Durham studied computer science and continued her education at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her most rewarding efforts support advancement programs for women in STEM.

Ed Emmett

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Edward M. Emmett is a Fellow in Energy and Transportation at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is also a Senior Fellow at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. As a professor in the practice, Emmett teaches classes in transportation economics and policy as well as social policy.  In addition, Professor Emmett is a Distinguished Senior Fellow within Northeastern University’s Global Resilience Institute.

Since 2005, Emmett is the owner of The Emmett Company, a consulting firm advising public and private entities in transportation policy, emergency management, international marketing and strategic development.

From 2007 until 2019, Emmett served as County Judge of Harris County, Texas.  As County Judge, Emmett was the Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, a role which established him as a national leader in emergency response and community resilience.

A member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1979 to 1987, Judge Emmett was chairman of the Committee on Energy, a member of the Transportation Committee, and represented the state on numerous national committees relating to energy and transportation policy.

In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Emmett as a Commissioner at the Interstate Commerce Commission. After being confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate, Judge Emmett served on the commission for three years.

Emmett has received international recognition for his work in transportation and logistics policy. He was named Transportation Person of the Year by Transportation Clubs International and one of the Top 20 Logistics Professionals by Logistics Forum.

Emmett attended Bellaire High School. He graduated from Rice University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974 with a Master of Public Affairs degree.

Emmett has received numerous awards and honors, including Distinguished Alumnus of Rice University, the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and the Presidential Call to Service Award.

Emmett and his wife, Gwen, have been married for 45 years and have four children and 13 grandchildren.

Mark Harvey

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: markpharvey@alumni.virginia.edu

Mark P. Harvey is the former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Resilience Policy on the National Security Council Staff. In this role, he coordinated efforts to develop and implement integrated national strategies and policies that mitigate the risk of catastrophic events on the American people. These included efforts to heighten the protection of critical infrastructure, prepare communities for emergencies, facilitate effective response to disasters, and foster long term recovery from large-scale incidents.

Over the past 15 years, he has helped author a wide variety of plans, policies, and doctrine to foster resilience through effective risk management. He has been the lead author for critical infrastructure security and resilience programs, especially those in the Government Facilities Sector, provided physical security and risk management training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and developed and assessed continuity programs for the U.S. Intelligence Community. Mr. Harvey received his Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Studies with High Distinction from the University of Virginia.

Charles Jacoby

Distinguished Senior Fellow

General Charles “Chuck” H. Jacoby, Jr. serves as Partner and senior Vice Chairman with Capitol Peak Asset Management and is on the Advisory Board of Thermal Energy partners. General Jacoby brings over 36 years of experience leading military, government and international organizations. Prior to retiring from the United States Army, he was the first Army officer to command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the United States Northern Command, where he led the 1,800-person bi-¬national and joint headquarters and integrated 35 federal, state and non-governmental organizations for the defense and security of North America.

General Jacoby has commanded at all levels in joint and Army assignments, from parachute rifle company to geographic combatant command, including combat operations in Grenada with the 82nd Airborne Division; Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan; and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq. He also served as an assistant professor in the Department of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point. As the deputy commander of Combined/Joint Task Force-76 from 2004 to 2005, he was responsible for the conduct combat operations in Afghanistan. As the commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq from 2009 to 2010, he commanded the 135,000 troops conducting combat operations across Iraq. General Jacoby served as the director for Strategic Plans and Policy for the Joint Staff, where he led planning for coalition and NATO operations in Libya, assisted in the Middle East peace process and served as the U.S. military representative to the United Nations.

His military decorations include awards from the governments of Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia. An avid writer and historian, he has penned scholarly monographs on the efficacy of air campaigns, the organization of modern brigade combat teams, and articles on strategic deterrence, civil-military relations and institutional agility and risk. General Jacoby has been involved with several organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Association of the United States Army. He serves as a Trustee for the El Pomar Foundation and the Korbel School of International Relations at Denver University. He is also the distinguished chair of the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy, is a member of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Homeland Defense.

General Jacoby holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy, an M.A. in history from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in military arts and science from the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and an M.A. in strategic studies from the National War College at Fort McNair, Washington, DC.

Jill Jamieson

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: jilljamieson@IlluminatiAdvisory.com

Jill Jamieson currently serves as President of Illuminati Infrastructure Advisors, a professional services firm specializing in providing infrastructure advisory services to public sector and governmental entities.

With nearly 30 years of experience, she is a globally recognized leader in infrastructure finance and public-private-partnerships (P3), having worked extensively throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia for a wide variety of public and private sector clients.

Ms. Jamieson focuses on helping government entities fund, finance and deliver complex infrastructure projects in the timeliest and most cost-effective manner. Specific areas of expertise include innovative project delivery and performance-based contracting; infrastructure funding and finance, P3 program and framework development; structuring and implementing asset optimization / value-capture strategies; government transformation; and transaction advisory services. Successful experience encompasses work across multiple public infrastructure sectors, including transportation [airports port, road, rail, LRT and multi-modal], water civil works [inland waterways, flood risk management, water supply and storage, irrigation, and ecosystem restoration], energy, resilience, water/wastewater, stormwater management, healthcare, information and communications technology (ICT), environment, social sector, education [K-12 and higher education], gateway development, and economic revitalization projects, with a total capital investment portfolio in excess of US$30 billion.

Ms. Jamieson currently advises a wide range of federal, state, and local public authorities across the U.S. and the globe. An author and frequent keynote speaker on issues relating to public infrastructure funding finance and delivery, Ms. Jamieson has also been called to testify as an independent expert before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on policy and legislative issues relating to the funding, financing and delivery of complex public infrastructure projects. She has likewise been called to provide expert testimony by state and local authorities across the United States, as well as by governmental authorities across the globe.

Jill Jamieson earned a BSFS in international finance and law from Georgetown University’s Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Serve and a MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her professional background includes investment banking, law, and management.

Gil Kerlikowske

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Gil Kerlikowske is a distinguished senior fellow at the Global Resilience Institute, having previously served as the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from March 2014 to January 2017. Prior to his leadership role at CBP, Kerlikowske served in the Obama Administration as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) from 2009 to 2014.

He began his career as a police officer in Florida in 1972 and received a fellowship to the National Institute of Justice, a research branch of the Department of Justice, in 1984. His career in law enforcement eventually led Kerlikowske to becoming Seattle’s Chief of Police in 2000, a position he held until 2009. Commissioner Kerlikowske holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of South Florida in Tampa. He has taught courses in criminal justice at Seattle University, Buffalo State College, and Florida Atlantic University while serving as a police officer.

Kerlikowske is currently an Institute of Politics fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Rob Knake

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: r.knake@northeastern.edu
• Phone: 202.203.9471

Rob Knake is the Senior Research Scientist in Cybersecurity and Resilience at the Global Resilience Institute and the Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His work focuses on Internet governance, public-private partnerships, and cyber conflict and his expertise includes developing presidential policy. He is currently engaged on a multi-year project to examine the creation of a Critical Infrastructure Network that would move control system operations off of the public Internet — CInet.

Knake served from 2011 to 2015 as Director for Cybersecurity Policy at the National Security Council. In this role, he was responsible for the development of presidential policy on cybersecurity, and built and managed federal processes for cyber incident response and vulnerability management.

A frequent writer and speaker on cybersecurity, he has been quoted by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post and appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and National Public Radio. He has testified before Congress on the problem of attribution in cyberspace and written and lectured extensively on cybersecurity policy.

Knake holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and undergraduate degrees in history and government from Connecticut College.

Dick Lake

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: lakerm@gmail.com

Dick Lake is currently the Vice President, Security Services (Chief Security Officer) for Booz Allen Hamilton. As the Chief Security Officer, Dick leads a team of security services experts who ensure the security and safety of Booz Allen’s employees and resources. He previously served as the Director, Global Security (Chief Security Officer) for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from September 2013 to November 2017.

Prior to joining the private sector in 2013, Dick served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence, foreign area, and infantry officer for more than 36 years before retiring as a Major General. As a general officer, he led one of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s elements as the Director of Intelligence for the U.S. Marine Corps for four years. Dick subsequently served for four years with the Central Intelligence Agency as one of the deputy directors of the National Clandestine Service (now Directorate of Operations).

Earlier in his career, he served in a variety of command and staff positions in the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and Africa including humanitarian, crisis, contingency, and combat operations.

During his military service, he received a variety of U.S. and foreign military decorations to include the Secretary of the Navy’s Distinguished Service Medal, the Director of National Intelligence’s National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the National Clandestine Service’s Donovan Award, and the Defense Intelligence Director’s Award.

Dick earned a B.A. in modern languages from The Citadel and a M.A. in management from Central Michigan University. He’s also an honor graduate of the Defense Intelligence College (now the National Intelligence University) where he earned a MS. in strategic intelligence and was awarded an honorary doctorate in strategic intelligence from the same institution.

Michael Lehnert

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Major General Mike Lehnert, USMC (retired) graduated from Central Michigan University in 1973 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps as a combat engineer. He served on active duty for thirty-seven years and retired as a Major General in 2010. He deployed to Japan, the Republic of the Philippines, Cuba and participated in combat operations in Panama, Kuwait and Iraq. In 2003, he led 5,000 Marines and Sailors during the initial invasion of Iraq.

He held thirteen separate commands from platoon commander to Joint Task Force Commander. His service included: Chief of Staff Joint Task Force Panama overseeing the turnover of the Panama Canal, Joint Task Group Commander in Guantanamo Bay Cuba during the Cuban migrant crisis; Commander, Joint Task Force 160 to establish detention facilities for Al Qaida and Taliban terrorists, and Marine Logistics Group Commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His last job on active duty was as the Commanding General of Marine Corps installations west of the Mississippi. During that time he was recognized for his work recovering endangered species on the Marine Corps bases under his command. He also participated in an initiative to get more veterans into universities. This effort grew into the Student Veterans of America. In five years the SVA grew from twenty veteran-led chapters in universities across the country to over 1,000 chapters in every state and in three countries.

After retiring from the Marine Corps, he served for two years as the senior advisor to the Commissioner for Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C. His passions are the environment and education. He serves on the board of the Endangered Species Coalition and as the Vice Chairman of the board for the Student Veterans of America. He lectures at universities across the country as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow on leadership, ethical decision making and the environment.

Dr. Atyia Martin

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Dr. Atyia Martin has spent the last 16 years in federal and local government within intelligence, homeland security, emergency management, public health preparedness, and ultimately resilience. Prior to her career in public service, she worked in the private sector (for profit and nonprofit) in technology, business development, and administration. She has led many teams and major initiatives to consistently achieve their mission and goals while building the capacity of those around her to grow into their best selves.

Dr. Martin is currently the CEO & Founder of All Aces, Inc. Additionally, she serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Northeastern University’s Global Resilience Institute. Dr. Martin was the first Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Boston as part of 100 Resilient Cities. She led the development and implementation of Boston’s first resilience strategy which was the first one in the 100 Resilient Cities network to make racial equity, social justice, and social cohesion the foundation of building resilience across the city. She engaged over 11,000 people across government, community, businesses, and nonprofits to develop Resilient Boston: An Equitable, Connected City. Smart Cities magazine selected Resilient Boston as the best resilience strategy of 2017 and the Center for American Progress featured it in its report A Framework for Local Action on Climate Change.

Prior to her role as Chief Resilience Officer, Dr. Martin was the director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness at the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). In this role, she was responsible for coordinating public health, healthcare, and community health preparedness; emergency response and recovery coordination among the public health and healthcare system; oversight of the Stephen M. Lawlor Medical Intelligence Center to coordinate response and recovery efforts; and education and training through the DelValle Institute for Emergency Preparedness. She led the expansion of the DelValle Institute from the greater Boston area to the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Additionally, she increased their reach and capacity by facilitating the development and implementation of a learning management system to support in-person training and expansion into online learning. During her tenure, she led the public health and healthcare response to the Boston Marathon bombings, the winter snow storms of 2015, trolley crashes, train crashes, the Long Island evacuation, and dozens of smaller scale emergencies.

Dr. Martin has served as adjunct faculty in the Master of Homeland Security at Northeastern University. Her previous professional experience also includes the Boston Police Department’s Boston Regional Intelligence Center; City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management; the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI); and active duty Air Force assigned to the National Security Agency.

Dr. Martin holds an Associate of Arts in Serbian Croatian from the Defense Language Institute (DLI), Bachelor of Science from Excelsior College, a Masters in Homeland Security Leadership from the University of Connecticut, and a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University. She was also formerly a certified Emergency Medical Technician and a Basic Life Support Instructor. Dr. Martin and her husband were born and raised in Boston where they currently live. They have five children, three still at home.

Matt McGuire

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Matt McGuire joined CapZone to lead investor relations and stakeholder engagement to advance the objectives of The Investing in Opportunity Act passed in December 2017. Prior to joining CapZone, Matt was a Partner at TPG Growth and the Rise Fund, where he was responsible for fundraising and investor relations globally while also focusing on the firm’s emerging markets and impact investing strategies. His prior asset management experience included senior roles with Ariel Investments and Citadel.

In addition to his roles in private equity and impact investing, Matt has spent nearly a decade in public service, largely focused on increasing economic development through private investment. In 2015, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the U.S. Executive Director of the World Bank Group. In that role, he represented the U.S. on the boards of Bank’s four operating units, approving the Bank’s $60 billion in annual loans and investments globally; and he served on the Bank’s Pension Finance Committee and its Audit Committee. During that time, he worked closely with senior leadership of the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, to coordinate the U.S.’s positions at the Bank with broader foreign policy strategies. Prior to the World Bank, he ran the Office of the Business Liaison at the US Department of Commerce and was a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Earlier in his career, Matt worked for the New York State Comptroller at the New York Common Retirement Fund; and he spent several years working in the fields of affordable housing and workforce development.

Matt received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University, his B.A. from Brown University, and he has a Certificate of Religious Studies from the University of London.

Vilas Mujumdar

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Vilas Mujumdar has been an independent consulting engineer since 2009. Previously he was CEO, President and Partner in many large engineering firms and at the highest-level in the public sector; Chief of Operations, Division of State Architect, State of California; Director, Engineering Research Centers Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). His professional experience includes Design, Project Management, Teaching, and Research Management in Asia, Europe, Canada and the US. He is a recipient of many awards and recognitions nationally and internationally including: NSF Director’s Award (2009); NSF Outstanding Service Award (2008); NEES Community Visionary award (2005); Special recognition from California Governor “for making a significant contribution to enhancing seismic safety in California”(1999); and many international awards for Building Projects in the private industry, with many projects published as feature articles in Engineering News Record.

Vilas currently serves on the ASCE Board of Direction and has served on the Board of many other professional societies. He is recognized internationally for his leadership and contribution to integrated trans-disciplinary work in reducing natural hazard risks, and is proactively involved in addressing resilience and sustainability issues facing the global society. He was Chief Engineering Editor for Natural Hazards Review (2009-2015), an ASCE multi-hazard, multidisciplinary journal.

Dr. Mujumdar has authored two books, guidelines, numerous reports and manuals and over 75 technical papers and has given over 30 keynote lectures at international conferences.

He is listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, and Who’s Who in Finance and Industry.

Peter Neffenger

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: p.neffenger@northeastern.edu

Admiral Peter Neffenger (USCG Ret.) is a distinguished senior fellow with the Global Resilience Institute, having previously served as the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from July 2015 to January 20, 2017. Prior to his leadership role at the TSA, Neffenger was the 29th Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, earning the rank of Vice Admiral.

Previous positions include Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Operations, where he directed the organization’s global strategy and policy, and Deputy National Incident Commander for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, where he served a crisis management expert. Neffenger held numerous positions throughout the Coast Guard since receiving his commission in 1982.

Admiral Neffenger holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University, an MA in National Security and Strategy from the U.S. Naval War College, and an MA in Business Management from Central Michigan University. He received a BA in English from Baldwin Wallace University. He is also a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience, a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a former fellow of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Marcella Nunez-Smith

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith is Associate Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management and Founding Director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center (ERIC) at Yale University.  ERIC’s research focuses on promoting health and healthcare equity for structurally marginalized populations with an emphasis on supporting healthcare workforce diversity and development, developing patient reported measurements of healthcare quality, and identifying regional strategies to reduce the global burden of non-communicable diseases. She is the principal investigator on several NIH and foundation-funded grants.  Dr. Nunez-Smith is also Deputy Director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, Core Faculty in the National Clinician Scholars Program, Director of the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership, Co-Director of the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship, and Director of the Center for Research Engagement (CRE) at Yale University.  Dr. Nunez-Smith is board certified in internal medicine, having completed residency training at Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and fellowship at the Yale RWJF CSP where she also received a Masters in Health Sciences. Originally from the US Virgin Islands, she attended Jefferson Medical College, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society; she earned a BA in Biological Anthropology and Psychology at Swarthmore College.

Cecilio Ortiz Garcia

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Cecilio Ortiz Garcia is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. His research focuses on environmental /energy justice issues and the governance of socio-technical systems transitions. He is the author of “Airs of Injustice: How Air Pollution Affects the Health of Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S. (2004). In 2009, Dr. Ortiz Garcia served as Co-Principal Investigator in the project Sustainable Development for Rural Communities: Social, Health, Economic and Environmental Advances. Through this project a consortium of universities and colleges in Mexico, Canada and the United States tackled crucial issues in rural sustainability preparing a new generation of students and creating a collaborative network of researchers. In 2015, he co-founded the National Institute of Energy and Island Sustainability of the University of Puerto Rico. This Institute is an interdisciplinary effort to connect all energy and sustainability-related research and development inside the UPR system in a convergence platform across its eleven campuses. After Hurricane Maria, and in collaboration with the Arizona State University School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Ortiz Garcia formed the RISE-Puerto Rico Platform (Resiliency through Innovation in Sustainable Energy). RISE- Puerto Rico seeks to re-design the way University-Community relations develop for more just and culturally respectful university post-disaster interventions. During his 2018 summer visiting fellowship at PLAS, Dr. Ortiz-Garcia will work together with Dr. Perez-Lugo and Javier Torres on the NSF CRISP “Open Access Smart Grid Project” finalizing the analysis of interviews utilizing NVivo software. Ortiz Garcia will be at PLAS from July 15 to August 11, 2018.

Marla Perez Lugo

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Marla del Pilar Perez Lugo is an environmental sociologist, with expertise in disaster vulnerability and energy governance. She holds a PhD from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and is a professor of sociology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Puerto Rico. Her work has been published in prestigious academic journals such as The Professional Geographer, Sociological Inquiry and Organizations and the Environment. Together with Dr. Cecilio Ortiz Garcia and Dr. Lionel Orama Exclusa, she is the co-founder of the National Institute for Energy and Island Sustainability of the UPR System and member of its steering committee. Dr. Perez Lugo is also a member of the EPA’s National Advisory Committee and a member of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NAEHSC). Since the impact of hurricane Maria in PR her work has expanded to include issues of community resilience and collaborative partnerships. She is currently on leave from the UPR System and affiliated to the National Council for Science and the Environment as a Senior Fellow. Her position involves the creation of the RISE Network, an interuniversity platform to transform the role of universities in disasters.

John Plodinec

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: john.plodinec@gmail.com

Since 2008, Dr. Plodinec has been the technical lead for the activities undertaken by the Community and Regional Resilience Institute. In this role, he has been responsible for identifying and evaluating technologies that can enhance a community’s ability to anticipate emergencies and disruptions, limit their impacts, effectively respond to them and rapidly recover from them. He was the technical lead for the development of CARRI’s Community Resilience System and its Campus Resilience Enhancement System. His most important contribution to these efforts has been development of action-oriented tools that operationalize the “Whole Community” concept for both communities and college campuses.

Dr. Plodinec also developed CARRI’s Resilient Home Program, aimed at improving the survivability of American homes to natural disasters. This built on earlier work he did while at Mississippi State University, where he led the University’s efforts to develop programs related to severe weather events.

Dr. Plodinec coordinated development of an action plan for management of woody biomass and debris generated by disasters produced by the federal government’s Woody Biomass Working Group. This effort required input, review and approval by seven federal agencies (Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Interior, the EPA, the US Forest Service, FEMA, and the Corps of Engineers) as well as coordination with state governments in the southeastern US, and other major stakeholders in the American forest enterprise.

Dr. Plodinec is also an internationally recognized expert in nuclear waste characterization and disposal. During his involvement over more than two decades with the Department of Energy’s Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) – the United States’ first and the free world’s largest radioactive waste vitrification facility – Dr. Plodinec had an impact on every aspect of the DWPF process. He personally managed the $40 million dollar DWPF product qualification program within the Savannah River National Laboratory. In this latter role, Dr. Plodinec had responsibility for achieving concurrence from the regulatory community, and acceptance by the public.

Dr. Plodinec’s ability to coordinate technical programs has also served him well in the international arena. He organized a team from Argentina and two national laboratories to demonstrate the destruction of reactor ion exchange resins via vitrification. Dr. Plodinec also headed up a team helping the Indian glass and metal foundry industries to convert to natural gas from coal to prevent further deterioration of the Taj Mahal in India. As part of a NATO-sponsored team, he prepared recommendations that have been followed by the government of Estonia in cleaning up the Sillamae site, reputedly the most contaminated site in Europe. He recently co-chaired a National Academies’ committee advising Congress and the Department of Energy on the technical adequacy of its R/D programs supporting the nuclear waste cleanup enterprise.

A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College (B.A.) and the University of Florida (Ph.D.), Dr. Plodinec is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and honored to be a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Global Resilience Institute. His current research is centered around development and testing of a practically useful model of community resilience.

Len Polizzotto

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: l.polizzotto@northeastern.edu

Dr. Len Polizzotto recently retired as Draper Laboratory’s Vice President responsible for new programs, leading efforts to leverage Draper’s capabilities to solve new important national needs. He was responsible for establishing Draper’s Bioengineering Center on the USF campus in Tampa, a Multichip Module Facility in St. Petersburg, establishing Draper’s energy business and leading two medical consortia. One, IMEDS, was focused on developing systems to provide real time decision support to clinicians at the bedside in the ICU. The other was aimed at developing quantitative bio markers for PTSD.

Prior to joining Draper in 2007, Dr. Polizzotto served for six years as Corporate Vice President for Business Development for SRI International, a world leader in contract R&D services where he established centers for proteomic drug development in Virginia and Port Security in Florida, as well as helped develop and teach a course on innovation to company executives throughout the world. A 25-year tenure at the Polaroid Corporation preceded this, concluding with him as Corporate Vice President for New Business Development.

Between corporate experiences, Dr. Polizzotto directed the Center for the Globalization of Technology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, as well as taught courses in electrical engineering and design. In the past, he founded one and led another high tech start-up, both in the biomedical area. Dr. Polizzotto received his Ph.D. in visual sciences, combining electrical engineering, perceptual psychology, and ophthalmology, from Tufts University. He earned M.S. and B.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with Distinction, and completed The Executive Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and was an NCAA Post Graduate Scholar. He holds twelve patents and is a Charter Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors. He is the author of numerous articles on human color perception, digital imaging, microphotography, and innovation, as well as two books on drum set instruction.

Currently, Dr. Polizzotto is an Executive in Residence at Northeastern University for Innovation. He is also an Executive in Residence at WPI for Value Creation, as well as a partner in The Practice of Innovation, LLC, teaching innovation fundamentals to industry and academia globally.

Liesel Ritchie

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Dr. Liesel Ritchie is a professor in the Department of Sociology and an affiliate of the Center for Coastal Studies at Virginia Tech. During her career, she has studied a range of disaster events, including the Exxon Valdez and BP Deepwater Horizon oil spills, the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash release, Hurricane Katrina, and earthquakes in Haiti and New Zealand. Since 2000, her focus has been on the social impacts of disasters and community resilience, with an emphasis on technological hazards and disasters, social capital, and renewable resource communities, and she has published widely on these topics.

Ritchie has more than 30 years of experience in research and evaluation. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, she served as associate director of the Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events at Oklahoma State University (2018–2020) and as associate director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder (2007–2018). Ritchie was a senior research associate at the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University, and she served for six years as coordinator of the Social Science Research Center’s Evaluation & Decision Support Laboratory at Mississippi State University.

She has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 90 projects and authored or coauthored more than 85 technical reports working with agencies such as NASA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Ritchie is a disaster resilience fellow with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a distinguished senior fellow with Northeastern University’s Global Resilience Institute, and a visiting scholar at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom. She served as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Committee for Measuring Community Resilience. She currently serves on two National Academies advisory boards — one for the Gulf Research Program and another for LabX.

Fred Rosa

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Fred Rosa is Senior Advisor for Homeland Security at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. As a leading university-affiliated center for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E), APL conducts a wide range of cutting-edge homeland protection programs, focused primarily on border control, multi-modal transportation security, infrastructure resilience, cybersecurity, and national preparedness. Located just north of the National Capital Region on a 450- acre campus, APL has more than 6,500 staff members, two-thirds of whom are scientists and engineers.

In addition to his current role with Johns Hopkins APL, Fred Rosa is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at Auburn University and a member of the Board of Directors for The Common Defense. He also served previously as a seminar co- presenter for the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI), a joint undertaking of the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard School of Public Health.

A U.S. Armed Forces veteran with extensive operational, emergency response, and national security policy experience, Rear Admiral Rosa’s military career culminated as Commander of the Fifth Coast Guard District headquartered in Portsmouth, Virginia. In this capacity, he led an integrated team of military, civilian, and auxiliary personnel in carrying out the full range of Coast Guard maritime safety, law enforcement, and security operations throughout America’s mid- Atlantic region, extending across six states from central New Jersey down through North Carolina.

Prior to the Fifth District assignment, he was Deputy Director for Coast Guard Intelligence and Criminal Investigations in Washington, DC. He also served at The White House on the National Security Council staff during two successive Administrations in several different capacities, including Director of the International Crime Group in the Transnational Threats Directorate and Special Assistant to the President for Border and Transportation Security.

Additional military assignments included: Deputy Commander, Seventh Coast Guard District, headquartered in Miami, Florida; Legal Advisor, Coast Guard Enforcement of Laws and Treaties Program, Washington, DC; and Deputy U.S. Representative, Legal Committee, International Maritime Organization, London, England.

Rear Admiral Rosa received numerous military awards during his Coast Guard career, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Coast Guard Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Medal. He also received a Director’s Award for Distinguished Service from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and a Unifying Best Practice Award from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Fred Rosa received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut; a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut; a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law in West Hartford, Connecticut

Josh Sawislak

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Email: j.sawislak@northeastern.edu

Josh Sawislak is an internationally recognized expert on climate and disaster resilience and sustainable development and is the principal of Clio Strategies LLC. He advises governments, corporations, international organizations, and NGOs on building sustainable and resilient infrastructure and business opportunities in both the developed and developing world. His expertise includes the emerging efforts around assessing and pricing climate and disaster risk in financial portfolios and corporate facility assets as well as continuity planning and disaster risk reduction for communities and the private sector. He holds concurrent appointments as a distinguished senior fellow of the Global Resilience Institute (GRI) at Northeastern University, a professional affiliate of the Center Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES) at Florida Atlantic University, and a Senior Advisor to the Honolulu-based Hawai’i Green Growth and the American Flood Coalition.

Mr. Sawislak served briefly in the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden as a senior advisor on executive actions and the COVID-19 response during the first 120 days of the administration. He also served in the Biden-Harris presidential transition team working on agency review and climate and economic issues. Previously, in the Obama administration, he was the Associate Director for Climate Preparedness at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he developed U.S. federal policy on climate adaptation and resilience and worked with foreign governments and international organization on multilateral efforts.  He led the development of the infrastructure recommendations for President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. In a previous federal role, Mr. Sawislak supported the development and execution of the National Continuity Policy as well as the federal response, recovery, and mitigation frameworks. He also served on the White House response coordination team for the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009-2010.

After leaving the White House in 2015, Mr. Sawislak served as the global director of resilience for the infrastructure services firm AECOM. In this role, he worked across the entire enterprise of AECOM’s offerings to public and private sector clients in planning, design, construction, finance, operations, and development to help create and leverage resilient strategies to address issues such as sustainability, climate change, disaster preparedness, and enterprise risk management.

He was a speaker at the first US-China Climate Leaders’ Summit in preparation for the global climate negotiations in Paris in 2015 (COP 21) and led a delegation to Paris and to COP 23 in Bonn, speaking at multiple sessions at both events. He spoke at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2016 and 2018, the UN Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, and gave lectures and participated in symposia in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. He serves as a subject matter expert on infrastructure, community resilience, sustainable development and served as a member of the Transportation Research Board executive committee task force on resilience and sustainability and an advisor to the Rockefeller and Clinton Foundations.

Mr. Sawislak is an environmental and transportation planner and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and earned a degree in political science from The George Washington University and completed a program in infrastructure development at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Keith Stalder

Distinguished Senior Fellow

LtGen. Keith Stalder, USMC, retired has over 40 years of success and leadership in numerous cabinets level departments, agencies and private sector organizations. He brings a broad and deep appreciation for, and understanding of, the fundamental challenges of organizations and businesses, both in government and the private sectors. He is a Senior Fellow at both the Center for Naval Analysis (CNA) and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. Further, he is the National Commander of the Marine Corps Aviation Association, and a member of the Golden Eagles.

While on active duty he became one of the military’s most experienced commanders and operational planners, serving as the Commanding General of seven separate organizations. He was the Commanding General of U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Forces Pacific when he retired in 2010 and before that the Commanding General of II Marine Expeditionary Force. In these positions, he managed and led 90,000 military and civilian employees, with annual budgets exceeding $3 billion dollars. Prior to that he was the Commanding General of USMC TECOM managing a student population of 60,000 students and 65 domestic and international training and education activities.

General Stalder led independent organizational assessments for DHS Office of Policy, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger is Visiting Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, a Fellow of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy and of MIT Connection Science and Adjunct Professor at the Imperial College Business School and member of the Advisory Board of its Data Science Institute.

He retired from IBM in May of 2007 after a 37 year career with the company, where his primary focus was on innovation and technical strategy. He led a number of IBM’s companywide initiatives including the Internet, Supercomputing and Linux. He’s been Adviser on Digital Strategy and Innovation at Citigroup, at HBO, and at MasterCard.

Since 2005 Dr. Wladawsky-Berger has been writing a weekly blog, irvingwb.com, which has also been published in the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal since April of 2012.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab; and the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives.

He was co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, as well as a founding member of the Computer Sciences and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council. He is a former member of the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratories, of the Board of Overseers for Fermilab and of BP’s Technology Advisory Council. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as a Fellow of London’s Royal Society of Arts. A native of Cuba, he was named the 2001 Hispanic Engineer of the Year.

Dr. Wladawsky-Berger received an M.S. and a Ph. D. in physics from the University of Chicago.