Distinguished Senior Fellows

Mel Bernstein

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: m.bernstein@northeastern.edu

Mel Bernstein, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Global Resilience Institute. 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.

Peter Boynton

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: p.boynton@northeastern.edu

Peter Boynton is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at GRI and a former CEO of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University, LLC. The institute is home for co-located industry and academic research labs working together to accelerate innovation related to resilience and security.

Previously, Boynton was the Commissioner of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for the state of Connecticut, appointed by both democratic and republican Governors. He led statewide responses to three Presidential disaster declarations, integrating the government response with private sector task forces to speed recovery.

Boynton also served as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. As Captain of the Port for Connecticut and Long Island, he partnered with industry to implement post-9/11 maritime security measures, led a study with public and industry stakeholders evaluating security for a proposed liquefied natural gas facility, and led the rescue of an oil tanker aground on Long Island, preventing an environmental disaster. He was Commanding Officer of three Coast Guard cutters.

Boynton was a Director on the White House National Security Council staff, and served at the Department of State. He was Federal Security Director for Bradley International airport, where he led the airport from the lowest to the top 10 rated TSA operations in the eastern U.S.

Boynton has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions, has served on numerous non-profit boards and is currently on the national Board of Directors for the Military Officers Association of America. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard and a Bachelor’s Degree in Ocean Engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He also holds an unlimited Master’s License for ocean-going vessels of any tonnage.

Scott Pickens

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: s.pickens@northeastern.edu

Scott Pickens is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Global Resilience Institute as well as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Arlington Healthcare Group. With over 35 years of healthcare industry operational experience Mr. Pickens is a senior executive with an extensive track record leading healthcare enterprise operations including strategic planning/policy, administrative and financial operations, marketing, information technology, and program/product management functions. He has held numerous “C” level senior executive positions in commercial and publicly-funded managed care organizations, consulting & services firms, and software, pharmaceutical, and medical device manufacturing companies. His broad and deep operational and systems experience offers clients a unique, comprehensive, and visionary understanding of how the multiple players and stakeholders across the healthcare industry operate, interoperate, collaborate, and compete. His executive and industry expertise has enabled him to build several successful new businesses and lead payers, providers, and healthcare product and services vendors to achieve the next level of value, performance, and growth. Among other assignments, he has served the Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Plan Consortium, Aon/Hewitt, Amerigroup Corporation, Union Labor Life Insurance Company, District of Columbia Primary Care Association, multiple Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, AmeriHealth Mercy, and Abbott Laboratories. A US Navy veteran, Scott is an entertaining and informative speaker, educator, researcher, and published author on a variety of healthcare, information management, and executive management-related topics.

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.

Robin White

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: r.white@northeastern.edu
• Phone: 857.272.0180

Dr. Robin White is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She previously served as Executive Director for Research at GRI and Executive Director at the Community and Regional Resilience Institute and as Senior Mediator and Program Director at Meridian Institute. She joined Meridian after a 20-year management career in the nation’s national laboratory science and engineering complex.

During Dr. White’s years in the national security world, she was a leader in science and technology fields related to risk assessment and environmental impacts, nuclear nonproliferation, and national and homeland security. She brings from these assignments extensive skill and experience in strategic and operational planning, public/private partnerships, program/organizational management, and collaborative strategies related to government affairs and public policy.

As a senior executive, Dr. White worked with and within large multi-organizational teams in complex collaborative structures, where vision and persuasion were essential in achieving outstanding group performance. Dr. White’s work at Meridian focused on resilience, disaster response and recovery, homeland security, and issues related to national and global stability and security. She has led multi-organizational and multidisciplinary teams in exploring collaborative solutions to improved disaster recovery; has been extensively involved with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s work in disaster recovery and response and in the public/private partnerships necessary for critical infrastructure protection; and has worked closely with local communities seeking to improve their resilience to disasters and crises.

Dr. White has been an integral member of the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) projects to increase the resilience of local cities, towns, and neighborhoods, create a national community of interest, and work with national policy makers and influential stakeholders on policies and practices to nurture resilient communities. A frequent speaker and presenter, Dr. White has made more than 100 presentations to government and nongovernment groups on issues relating to national security, homeland security, nonproliferation, and the risk assessment of environmental impacts. She has numerous publications in various books and journals on assessing human health risks and environmental impacts.

Dr. White holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee.