Christina Lee

Assistant Professor

• Email: chr.lee@neu.edu
• Phone: 617.373.2470

Dr. Lee’s programmatic research focuses on the investigation of behavioral treatments for substance use and its dissemination to under-served populations, with the mission of reducing health inequity related to poor mental health among racial and ethnic minorities. Dr. Lee has a national reputation for her work bridging evidence based treatment with health disparities research. Her clinical approach to adapting evidence based treatments for addiction has been cited by SAMHSA as a best practice, and she serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (2016) for her areas of expertise. She has been invited to give talks at the Public Health Institute at University of Berkeley, California, Robert Wood Johnson (New Connections), and the National Hispanic Science Network. As a PhD student, Dr. Lee was awarded a NIH F31 award to conduct dissertation research on clinician bias and alcohol-involved minority adolescents, and then completed her post-doctoral training in addiction treatment research as a NIH fellow at Brown University. In 2013, Dr. Lee received the Kenerson Faculty Scholarship at Northeastern for her interdisciplinary research and community service in co-establishing an integrated primary care practice at the South End Community Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Boston, MA. In 2015, she was selected to be a NIH Fellow in Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials (NHLBI). In 2016, Dr. Lee was asked to co-establish a Suboxone Support Service at the South End Community Health Center, in collaboration with Dr. Liz Davis, Director. Dr. Lee has an active practice-based research program that examines the effects of system and individual level interventions on public health: at the South End Community Health Center, and at a methadone maintenance program. Dr. Lee supervises and supports her Counseling PhD students conducting their practice-based research studies, and several have been selected to give presentations at the American Psychological Association for their work. From her research lab, the Motivational Interviewing Health Disparities (ADD WEBSITE), two of her students have received the Kenerson Graduate Student Awards for their service. She has funded graduate students (bilingual/non) and is currently collaborating with students on several manuscript. She has been a MINT (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers) member since 2006, has established a bilingual treatment fidelity lab for Motivational Interviewing at Northeastern, and is certified in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. In teaching her classes, Dr. Lee has developed training modules for students to practice their evidence-based assessment and treatment skills for addiction, in the Arnold Goldstein Simulation Laboratory at Bouvé.

Earlene Avalon

Assistant Teaching Professor

• Email: e.avalon@northeastern.edu

Dr. Earlene Avalón grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and attended the Boston Public Schools. She received her Bachelor’s of Science degree from Suffolk University in chemistry and secondary education and her Master’s degree in Public Health from Tufts University School of Medicine. While working in public health, Dr. Avalón realized the correlation between post-secondary education, workforce diversity and health disparities and has since dedicated much of her career to the development of workforce diversity initiatives. Prior to completing her PhD in Health Professions Education at Simmons College, Dr. Avalón held positions at the Latin American Health Institute, Bunker Hill Community College and the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers. She was also the Chair of the Parent Advisory Group for Massachusetts General Hospital for Children’s Connect 4 Health/PCORI Project.

In 2010, Dr. Avalón was featured as a “Women of Excellence” by Unity First Magazine, a publication targeting corporations, cross-cultural communities and the multicultural media. She was named to the Honor Roll of Harvard Medical School’s Biomedical Sciences Careers Program in 2015. Dr. Avalón has authored and co-authored various publications including a chapter for the Association for Nursing Professional Development 5th edition textbook as well as prestigious journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics and the Journal of Nursing Administration (JONA). Dr. Avalón has served on the Board of Directors for The Boston Club, the YWCA Boston and New England Sinai Hospital. She is also the former President of the Public Health and Professional Degree Programs Alumni Association at Tufts University School of Medicine. As the former Director of Nursing Diversity Initiatives at Boston Children’s Hospital, she helped to secure a $5 million endowment, the largest gift ever awarded to the Department of Nursing and Patient Care Services, to develop and implement a workforce development initiative designed to increase and support nursing diversity and inclusion. Dr. Earlene Avalón is currently an Assistant Professor and the Lead Faculty member of the Health Management and Health Sciences Programs at the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University.

Francesca Grippa

Teaching Professor, intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship and organizational behavior

• Email: f.grippa@northeastern.edu

Francesca Grippa is Teaching Professor and Faculty Director for the Global and Social Enterprise portfolio, which includes the MS in Commerce and Economic Development, MS in Global Studies and International Relations, MS in Nonprofit Management, BS in Finance and Accounting Management, and BS in Management. She teaches courses such as Business Strategy, New Venture Creation and Principles of Management.

The focus of her academic expertise is at the intersection of innovation and change management, entrepreneurship and organizational behavior. Dr. Grippa is also Faculty Affiliate at Northeastern’s Global Resilience Institute and Visiting Scholar at MIT’s Connection Science (https://connection.mit.edu/).

Dr. Grippa’s research interests include collaborative innovation networks; entrepreneurship and change management. She is a long term research collaborator at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence on themes related to Collaborative Innovation Networks (http://cci.mit.edu/coinsresearchpage.html).

Prior to joining Northeastern University, Dr Grippa was Assistant Professor of Innovation Management at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy. She holds a PhD in e-Business Management, a Master’s Degree in Business Management and a BS in Communication Sciences. In 2005 and 2006, she was a visiting scholar at the MIT Center for Digital Business in Cambridge, MA.

Cordula Robinson

Teaching Professor, spatial science with an emphasis on applications pertaining to the human-condition and welfare

• Email: c.robinson@northeastern.edu

Cordula Robinson is a professional in the geospatial field offering extensive research experience in spatial science with an emphasis on applications pertaining to the human-condition and welfare. She serves as lead-by-example with prowess in machine learning to extract information from remote sensing datasets at scale. Her ability to adapt to newly emerging technologies, necessary to handle ever-increasing amounts of data, greatly contributes to her success. Cordula is armed with competitive edge and qualifications in analyzing not only Earth, also the surfaces of Mars and Venus. Such innovative work experience enabled her to thrive throughout her career.

As a visionary and trusted colleague in the geospatial circle, Cordula continues to serve as lead faculty while a full teaching professor at Northeastern University, living by her principles and perspective based on objectivity. In this role, she devises an original curriculum for the geospatial analytics master’s programs while allowing room for creativity, critical thinking, and integrative thought. Valuing what her experiences have taught her, Cordula strives to support and lead students toward academic success. With the years of experience in experiential learning integration, she believes these approaches also challenge and encourage students to move out of their comfort zones. Cordula is dedicated to empowering students to be independent scholars and well-informed citizens all while the world is driven by constant change.

Her strong understanding of complex technical scenarios enables her to be continually productive and original. To cite an example, Cordula uses her skills in designing and implementing spatial infrastructures that support unique needs with realistic goals (currently to address the opioid crisis in MA through spatial data-driven analysis and community resilience). From 2015 to 2018, Cordula gained a nationally-recognized geospatial sciences center of excellence designation from the NGA-USGS. She also gained student nominations for the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011, 2015, and 2018.

Cordula has hosted 2 Fulbright scholars from Lebanon at Northeastern University and is a faculty affiliate of Northeastern University’s Global Resilience Institute and Kostas Research Institute