GRI Team

Stephen Flynn

Founding Director; GRI & DIBI

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 617.470.7675

Daniel Aldrich

Co-Director of GRI; Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs; Director, Masters Program in Security and Resilience

• Email: [email protected]

Daniel P. Aldrich is professor, director of the Security and Resilience Program at Northeastern University, and Co-Director at the Global Resilience Institute.  He has published five books, more than fifty peer reviewed articles, and written op-eds for The New York Times, CNN, Asahi Shinbun, along with appearing on popular media outlets such as CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, and HuffPost. His research has been funded by the Fulbright Foundation, the Abe Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, and he has carried out more than five years of fieldwork in Japan, India, Africa, and the Gulf Coast.

Peter Boynton

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: [email protected]

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.

Qin Jim Chen

Professor, Civil and Environment Engineering & Marine and Environmental Sciences

• Email: [email protected]

Dr. Q. Jim Chen is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering/Marine and Environmental Sciences at Northeastern University (NEU). He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Delaware’s Center for Applied Coastal Research, and doctoral research at Old Dominion University and Danish Hydraulic Institute. Dr. Chen specializes in the development and application of numerical models for coastal dynamics, including ocean waves, coastal and estuarine circulation, wave-structure interactions and sediment transport. His research includes field experiments and application of remote sensing and highperformance computing technologies to solve engineering problems. Dr. Chen has secured over $13.9 million of federal research grants, and more than $1.2 million of research contracts from the state and industry. His federal grants include the NSF CAREER award and five NSF collaborative awards to support interdisciplinary research. He has published more than 70 manuscripts in technical journals, 5 book chapters and 35 conference papers. The impact of his research on coastal engineering and science is reflected in more than 3190 Google Scholar citations of his publications. Dr. Chen serves as an Associate Editor for two American Society of Civil Engineers journals and on the editorial board of an international journal. Prior to joining NEU in 2108, he served as Associate Director of the Coastal Studies Institute, and Head of Coast to Cosmo in the Center for Computation and Technology at Louisiana State University (LSU). He also serves on the LSU Council on Research and the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute Advisory Board.

Laura Kuhl

Assistant Professor, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs

• Email: [email protected]

Laura Kuhl is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the International Affairs Program. Her research examines climate adaptation and resilience in developing countries. Prior to Northeastern, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at the Fletcher School, where she helped establish a new research partnership with the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) on climate policy in developing countries. She has studied innovation, technology transfer and adoption for adaptation as well as mainstreaming adaptation in development policy in East Africa and Central America. Current projects also address climate information and early warning systems, coastal resilience and national adaptation plans. She has conducted fieldwork in Ethiopia, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and New England and has collaborated with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UNDP. She has a PhD and MALD in International Affairs from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a BA in Environmental Studies and Anthropology from Middlebury College.

Alicia Sasser Modestino

Associate Professor, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Economics; Associate Director, Dukakis Center

• Email: [email protected]

Alicia Sasser Modestino is an Associate Professor with appointments in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics at Northeastern University. Since 2015, Dr. Modestino has also served as the Associate Director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy. She is also a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and an invited researcher of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT. Previously, Modestino was a Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston where she led numerous research projects on regional economic and policy issues.

Dr. Modestino’s current research focuses on labor and health economics including changing skill requirements, youth development, healthcare, housing, and migration. Her work has been funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Boston Foundation, the National Security Agency (NSA), and J-PAL. She has published in peer-reviewed publications including Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Human Resources, Labour Economics, Health Affairs, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Regional Science and Urban Economics. Dr. Modestino’s research has been covered extensively in the media including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe, Politico, and Vox. She has appeared on NPR’s On Point, WBUR’s Radio Boston, WCVB’s CityLine, NBC News, and FOX25 News.

Modestino holds both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, where she also served as a doctoral fellow in the Inequality and Social Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government.

Angie Z. Valencia

Director of Executive Operations & Special Projects

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 305.409.7629

Angie Valencia is the Director of Executive Operations & Special Projects. In this position, she serves as a trusted partner to the Institute’s Founding Director, providing strategic and operational support to the Institute Director in advancing the academic, operational & public engagement missions and research initiatives of the Defense Industrial Base Institute (DIBI) and the Global Resilience Institute (GRI). Valencia works closely with Founding Director Flynn to support the development, program management, and execution of all research portfolios under DIBI as well as those of existing, past and future federal research grants (DHS, NOAA, USAID, FEMA) under GRI. Angie helps to mentor a group of talented next generation resilience leaders (Graduate and Undergraduate students) that help to support those efforts.

Angie has over 10 years’ experience in applied research, communications, and research development efforts at Northeastern where she has worked closely with DIBI and GRI Principal Investigator on proposal preparation and execution of complex multimillion dollar projects awarded. Under GRI, Valencia has helped to support the engagement with members of the Global Resilience Research Network (GRRN), founded in April 2018 in collaboration with Fraunhofer EMI. This network spans over 27 countries with over 300 members from Industry, government and academia.

Prior to academia, Valencia worked at C-space, a global market research online community, customer strategy and innovation agency, where she helped to project manage international brands such as Santander and Kimberly Clark, drove consumer insights in Spanish and English via curated online consumer communities and in person consumer projects. Angie has over 20 years’ experience in client services, program and project management, marketing and events management. During her time in Miami, Florida she worked for a luxury distributor that helped to build the presence of luxury brands in Latin America and the Caribbean through innovative marketing, events, and retailer support. Born in Isla de San Andres, Colombia, Valencia graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies from Connecticut College in New London, CT.

Robin White

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: [email protected]
• 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.

Mel Bernstein

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: [email protected]

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.

Allison Deese

Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow

• Email: [email protected]

Allison D. Deese is a doctoral student in the Sociology department at Northeastern University. She is passionate about strengthening organizational resilience and empowering community-based organizations in disaster-prone regions. Allison received an en-route MA in Sociology from Northeastern University and a BA in Environmental Policy from Pitzer College. Allison brings an extensive background in community-based research, over 500 hours served in disaster response, with extensive public service and volunteer experience in Southeast Asia and the United States. At Pitzer College, Allison focused her research on the gendered impacts of climate change and disasters in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Following her undergraduate studies, she advanced community-level disaster adaptation and response efforts as a regional preparedness coordinator for the American Red Cross and as a Coastal Resources Management volunteer with the Peace Corps in the Philippines. She is committed to developing sustainable, community-centered strategies that enhance resilience and support long-term recovery efforts. Her research interests include the social impacts of cumulative disaster exposure, climate change adaptation, organizational resilience, communities of practice, and mixed-methods analysis.

Emma Hibbert

Senior Research Associate

• Email: [email protected]

Emma recently completed her Master of Environmental Science & Policy at Northeastern University, during which she participated in a GRI Co-op. Throughout her studies, Emma also held multiple leadership positions in the ESP LiFE student organization, interned at the Office of Environment Justice & Equity as a CAP Fellow, and volunteered with local conservation organizations. As a Senior Research Associate at GRI, Emma primarily supports the CIROH project through communicating updates, drafting resources, and assisting with project management efforts. Prior to GRI, Emma held brief roles in the federal government and peak-body organizations concerned with enhancing Australia’s STEM workforce, innovation and research. Emma also holds a Bachelor of Science (majoring in Biodiversity Conservation) & Bachelor of Development Studies from the Australian National University.

Stella Lin

Graphic Designer

• Email: [email protected]

Stella Lin is the Junior Graphic Designer at the Global Resilience Institute (GRI), where she combines her expertise in design with a passion for creating impactful visual solutions that advance GRI’s mission of fostering resilience and sustainability. She holds a Master’s in Interactive Design with a concentration in Human-Centered Design and a Bachelor’s degree in Advertising.

With professional experience as a Creative Visual Designer at ByteDance, Stella has honed her ability to craft compelling visuals and innovative designs across various platforms. At GRI, she leads the design of engaging materials, including digital artwork, reports, presentations, and website updates, ensuring cohesive and impactful branding. Stella is dedicated to leveraging her creative skills to support global resilience efforts and drive meaningful change.

Bernard King

Executive Assistant

• Email: [email protected]

Kristin Raub

Sr. Research Scientist

• Email: [email protected]

CV: Click to Open

Dr. Kristin Raub is the Sr. Research Scientist at the Global Resilience Institute where she leads several ongoing research studies funded by NOAA and NASA and the development of new projects. Dr. Raub is an interdisciplinary scientist who specializes in social science methodologies. Her background includes degrees in Marine Science (B.A.), Chemical Oceanography (M.S.), Environmental Economics (M.S.), and Natural Resources (PhD) from Boston University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Vermont, respectively. Additionally, she holds a Graduate Certificate of Complex Systems from the University of Vermont and was a 2016 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. This unique background has shaped her present research, which is motivated by the fact that climate change is caused by and is impacting human communities, therefore, it is important to engage with the frontline communities who are key to “doing something” about it. Presently, she works to connect complex science, data, and information with those who need it, often in the context of resilience and planning, by leveraging social science and community engaged methodologies. Examples of her current work at GRI include investigating NOAA’s National Water Model’s applicability to community resilience planning and investigating NASA’s Earth Observation data’s potential to address environmental justice in a community in Puerto Rico. Dr. Raub is based out of Vergennes, Vermont and outside of work enjoys venturing to the ocean as often as possible and traveling to visit friends across the country.

Larissa Marchiori Pacheco

GRI Affiliate Research Scientist & Assistant Professor (DMSB)

• Email: [email protected]

CV: Click to Open

Larissa Marchiori Pacheco is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, specializing in International Business and Strategy. With a PhD in Strategy and International Business from Fundação Getulio Vargas – EAESP, her research delves into non-market strategies and institutional interdependencies in Latin America, focusing on how these influence firm and country outcomes. An active member of the Academy of Management and the Academy of International Business, Larissa also contributes as an Associate Editor for the Innovation & Management Review. Recognized for her scholarly work with multiple academic awards, she continues to impact the fields of strategic management, sustainability, and resilience. At GRI, Pacheco works as a Sr. Research Associate to a plethora of projects, bridging her business expertise to works on climate-related resilience, water hazards and others.

Elizabeth Moore

GRI Affiliate Research Scientist & Assistant Professor (DMSB)

• Email: [email protected]

Elizabeth Moore has had a variety of work experience. Aside from her position within the University she is also a research assistant within the D’Amore McKim school of International Business. Previously she has had a variety of research assistantships for professors at both Providence College and Brown University. Furthermore she has devoted significant time to substitute teaching Spanish, History and Mathematics at her local middle school.

Elizabeth obtained her PhD in Political Science from Northeastern University in 2017. She defended a Dissertation entitled: “Transnational Actors and New Venture Growth: Examining Formal and Informal Entrepreneurship from an Inter-Disciplinary Perspective”

Mark Patterson

Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences and GRI Chief Technology Officer

• Email: [email protected]

Dr. Mark Patterson is Chief Technology Officer of the Global Resilience Institute, and Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences, and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Patterson is leading an interdisciplinary team focusing on communications and digital resilience. The team is developing techniques to make any urban area resilient to loss of cell phone infrastructure through rapid shift to a smart ad hoc mesh networks on cell phone WiFi. An amateur radio operator (WB2OIL), he has been a key participant in disaster response and remote communication operations in the US, Mali, South Sudan, Grenada, and Jamaica.

Patterson’s research also focuses on using advanced underwater robotics to reduce the cost of monitoring the ocean and improving national security in ports and harbors. He was awarded the Lockheed Martin Award for Ocean Science and Technology from the Marine Technology Society for outstanding contributions to ocean engineering of underwater robots, and an Outstanding Faculty Award from the Governor of Virginia during his previous appointment at the College of William & Mary.

With support from the Schmidt Family Foundation, his lab is developing sensing technology for the emerging issue of microplastics in the ocean, one that has global implications for food security. His lab collaborates with government and industry to develop decision support tools to improve environmental management of wetlands impacted by built infrastructure like tide gates. He also works on global change biology of coral reef ecosystems.

Patterson served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and was awarded Member of the Year for his work promoting marine robotics competitions. He also holds an Antarctic Service Medal of the US for work using his robots to assess ecosystem health, and a Public Service Award from the American Radio Relay League for coordinating disaster response during a major hurricane.

He received his A.B. magna cum laude, A.M., and Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University.

Scott Pickens

Distinguished Senior Fellow

• Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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.

Daniela Rincon Reyes

Sr. Research Associate

• Email: [email protected]

Daniela Rincón Reyes is a Sr. Research Associate at the GRI, where she conducts and manages data collection and curation, leads the writing of research papers, and develops communication materials. Daniela rejoined our team after previously serving as the Global Development Coordinator at GRI (Jan 2021 – May 2022), where she led content creation and contributed to research proposals. Most recently, she worked in international development research, managing studies for the U.S. Department of Labor on child labor and migration across Latin America. She previously held roles in immigration law, communications, and research, bringing interdisciplinary experience to her role. She holds an MS in Media Advocacy from Northeastern University and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she double-majored in Journalism and International Affairs. Outside of work, Daniela enjoys traveling and practicing yoga.

Shemilore Daniels

Sr. Research Program Coordinator

• Email: [email protected]

Shemie is a Senior Research Program Coordinator at GRI. Before joining the institute in August 2022, she earned a bachelor’s degree in nutritional science, focusing on food security, policy, and hunger at both macro and micro levels.

Over the past three years, Shemie has worked at GRI as a graduate research assistant and research associate, contributing to several successfully funded proposal development projects, including those for NASA, USAID, and NOAA.

Shemie graduated from Northeastern University in May 2024 with a Master’s degree in Public Health, concentrating on the intersections of public health, international financing, and resilience.