Karissa Bergene, PhD is the Assistant Director of Research Operations, Critical Infrastructure Systems Protection (CISP) Lab, Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering (CEIE) at George Mason University (Mason). Bergene’s current projects investigate the interplay of crime patterns with internet technology, estimation of the acceleration of global coastal population settlements, and U.S. population mortality patterns. Her intellectual interests focus on the intersection between public administration and emergency management, public policy, public safety, critical infrastructure, and community resilience. She holds a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from Mississippi State University (MSU) and a Master of Public Administration and Bachelor of Science-Criminal Justice degrees from Appalachian State University. Before starting at the CISP Lab, she worked as Assistant Director of Research Operations for Mason’s Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities, as Research Associate I and II at the Social Science Research Center at MSU, as a public administrator in local government, and as an intellectual property administrator in the private sector.
