GRI Team

Nalini Gunawardena

Undergraduate Research Assistant

• Email: n.gunawardena@northeastern.edu

Nalini is a fourth-year International Business and Economics major with a minor in International Affairs at Northeastern University. She has gained diverse research experience through her involvement with the Northeastern University International Relations Council (IRC), where she has traveled both domestically and internationally to debate and research topics such as global access to education, water security, and economic development. Prior to joining GRI, Nalini organized conferences with the National Council of US-Arab Relations, studied the migrant crisis in Palermo, Sicily, and worked in talent acquisition for finance and economic consulting.

Alec O'del

Graduate Research Assistant

• Email: odel.a@northeastern.edu

Allison Deese

Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow

• Email: donine.a@northeastern.edu

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.

Bernard King

Executive Assistant, DIBI

• Email: be.king@northeastern.edu

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.

Emma Hibbert

Graduate Research Co-op

• Email: e.hibbert@northeastern.edu

Emma is currently completing her Master of Environmental Science & Policy at Northeastern University. This master’s program builds off her undergraduate studies in biodiversity conservation and development studies she completed at the Australian National University in 2022. Throughout these programs, she has developed an interest in environmental justice, sustainable development, and climate resiliency. Emma is also passionate about developing inclusive and equitable policies with community participation. During her co-op, Emma will be supporting the USAID and CIROH projects at GRI. In future she hopes to contribute to evidence-based climate policies and projects as well as ensure that science continues to justly serve our communities.

Stephen Flynn

Founding Director

• Email: s.flynn@northeastern.edu
• Phone: 617.470.7675

Stella Lin

Jr. Graphic Designer

• Email: s.lin@northeastern.edu

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.

Heather Quinlan-Baron

Director, Finance & Administration

• Email: h.quinlanbaron@northeastern.edu
• Phone: 857-204-5422

Heather received her Bachelors in Management Studies at Boston University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Higher Education Administration.  She currently lives in the North Shore of Massachusetts with her husband and two rescue Pit Bulls/American Staffordshire terriers.  She’s the proud mother of two adult children and has a passion for Boston sports teams, interior design, any/all things Italian and advocating for and promoting of pet rescues and adoptions.

Isha Ramesh

Graduate Research Assistant

• Email: i.ramesh@northeastern.edu

Isha is a graduate student pursuing her Master’s in Engineering Management at Northeastern University. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and a Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights Law.

After completing her bachelor’s, she worked at Accenture for two years, specializing in product development, troubleshooting, and Agile project management. Recently, she completed a co-op at Insulet, where she gained hands-on experience in data analysis, process improvement, and Lean manufacturing principles. She has a solid background in technical problem-solving, project management, and cross-functional collaboration, allowing her to effectively balance technical and business priorities. In her free time, she enjoys reading and exploring diverse cuisines.

Jon Glass

Executive Director, Defense Industrial Base Initiative (DIBI)

• Email: jon.glass@northeastern.edu

Bio: Click to open

Jonathan (Jon) Glass is the Executive Director of the Defense Industrial Base Initiative (DIBI), which he helped launch in early 2025 with a mission of catalyzing public-private partnerships and engaging the whole of society to ensure a robust, resilient and dynamic defense industrial base for our nation and our allies. He brings over twenty years of executive leadership experience in business development, venture capital and private equity investing, strategic partnerships, technology commercialization, new business creation and IP licensing.

Prior to joining Northeastern, Jon served as the Deputy Director for Commercialization at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), the United States’ disruptive energy technology funding arm. In this role, he led a team of 20 technology commercialization professionals to oversee the transition and scaling of transformative new energy technologies out of laboratories and into markets.

From 2018 to 2022, Jon was the Director of Venture Accelerations at National Grid Partners, the strategic venture capital investment arm of National Grid plc, one of the world’s largest investor-owned utilities. In this role, Jon oversaw the NextGrid Alliance, a global network of over 80 power utilities that National Grid launched to foster industry-wide innovation and collaboration to accelerate the energy transition. He also worked closely with National Grid Partners’ portfolio of over 40 energy technology startups to identify and execute commercial opportunities with National Grid’s utility businesses in the United States and United Kingdom.

Before National Grid, Jon served as a leader at several technology start-up companies. He was the chief commercial officer at Vener8 Technologies, where he structured new corporate partnerships, identified candidate technologies for licensing from each partner, and developed new businesses around licensed technologies. He also co-founded and led Wise Labs, an open innovation platform company that connected world-class scientists and engineers to businesses seeking to scale technology innovations and to leverage deep technical expertise.

From 1998 to 2014, Jon served in multiple executive roles at General Electric. He was the business development leader at GE Licensing, GE’s intellectual property monetization arm; managing director at GE Equity, GE’s venture capital and private equity investment arm; and managing director for new business creation at GE Commercial Finance, GE’s leveraged lending business. In these roles, Jon directly structured and executed over $500 million in strategic investments, joint ventures and acquisitions.

Jon received an MBA, with honors, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an AB, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. He is a co-inventor on two issued US patents and a former member of the Research Advisory Committee of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Jules Grelot

Undergraduate Research Assistant

• Email: grelot.j@northeastern.edu

Jules is a rising senior at Northeastern University studying Behavioural Neuroscience and International Business with a concentration in social innovation and entrepreneurship. He’s previously worked as an intern Investment Analyst at Glasswing Ventures. Jules has joined the Global Resilience Institute team every summer since his freshman year. He spends his free time with family, friends and loves to meet new people to acquire a new lens to see the world through. Jules is always open to a tennis game (although he’s not the best), and finding new buddies to watch live music and ski with.

Justin Guthrie

Undergraduate Research Assistant

• Email: guthrie.j@northeastern.edu

Justin Guthrie is a fourth-year Business Administration and Data Science student, with a particular interest in GIS and geospatial analytics. He has always had an international focus, embarking on his first semester in Rome, Italy. His first co-op was at Keolis Commuter Services, focusing largely on data architecture, data science, and more conceptually, rail transportation planning. His second co-op built on this geospatial awareness as an Informatics Co-op at Northeastern University, where he organized GIS Day to celebrate the use of GIS across Northeastern University’s global campuses. Justin’s research thus far has been with the African Built Heritage Hub, focusing on the digital preservation of sub-Saharan architecture in Porto-Novo, Benin. When not working, you can find Justin at a metal show, relaxing in a cafe, or exploring Boston and beyond.

Kristin Raub

Sr. Research Scientist

• Email: k.raub@northeastern.edu

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

Assistant Professor (DMSB) & GRI Sr. Research Scientist

• Email: l.marchioripacheco@northeastern.edu

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

Assistant Professor (DMSB) & GRI Sr. Research Scientist

• Email: e.moore@northeastern.edu

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”

Neel A. Kinariwala

Graduate Research Assistant

• Email: kinariwala.n@northeastern.edu

Neel Kinariwala is a graduate student pursuing a Master’s degree in Urban Informatics at Northeastern University. His passion lies at the intersection of urban planning, data analysis, geospatial technology, and research. With a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning, Neel has gained valuable academic and professional experience, working on recent projects such as the Africa Built Heritage Hub (digital preservation of Porto-Novo, Benin’s architecture), the Boston Harbor Habitat Atlas, and the Pune Non-Motorized Transportation Master Plan, among others. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music and doodling.

Mark Patterson

Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences and GRI Chief Technology Officer

• Email: m.patterson@northeastern.edu

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: 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.

Daniela Rincon Reyes

Sr. Research Associate

• Email: d.rinconreyes@northeastern.edu

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, exploring new cuisines, practicing yoga, and spending quality time with her family in Colombia.

Shemilore Daniels

Sr. Research Program Coordinator

• Email: s.daniels@northeastern.edu

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.

Shivangi Basu

Graduate Research Assistant

• Email: sh.basu@northeastern.edu

Shivangi is pursuing her master’s program in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University. Her interests lie at the intersection of policy, resilience, community impact and political phenomena at global and local scales. She has completed her baccalaureate education with a Bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of Delhi in India in 2022.  She has also been affiliated with the Black Reparations Project in a research role due to her interest in restorative justice advocacy.

As a Research Assistant at GRI, she is supporting USAID and CIROH projects as well providing overall research support to the team. She plans to work on advancing resilience advocacy in the policy process and in community development in the future.

Angie Z. Valencia

Director of Executive Operations & Special Projects

• Email: a.valencia@northeastern.edu
• 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 Founding Director, helping him to manage operational priorities across GRI, supporting research and industry strategy development, and coordinating cross-functional collaboration. Valencia works closely with the Founding Director to support the development and execution its strategic research goals under the newly launched Defense Industrial Base Initiative (DIBI) as well as those of existing, past and future federal research grants (NOAA, USAID, FEMA) under the Global Resilience Institute. Angie mentors 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 Higher Education research at Northeastern, helping to manage all initiatives of the Global Resilience Institute (2017 -now) and the Global Resilience Research Network (GRRN), founded in April 2018 in collaboration with Fraunhofer EMI.

Angie has previously worked at Marriott, Bank of America and at C-space, a global customer research collaboration agency, where she helped client services teams in project management, supported work with international brands,  and helped to drive consumer insights in Spanish and English via online communities. Angie has over 15 years experience supporting in person consumer projects, large and small scale events in person/remote. 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 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: 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.

Yian Ge

Graduate Research Assistant

• Email: y.ge@northeastern.edu

Yian Ge is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science in Software Engineering Systems at Northeastern University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. During his undergraduate years, Yian engaged in mathematical research, focusing on root-finding algorithms and their computational applications. He is passionate about leveraging technology and data to drive positive societal change and enhance individual well-being.

Yian has contributed to a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing loneliness through psychotherapy, education, and community-building initiatives. Additionally, he spearheaded a data-driven project to help students make informed decisions about housing near campus. In his free time, Yian enjoys listening to music, exploring parks, and spending time with friends. He is also currently learning Spanish to broaden his cultural horizons and communication skills.