Associate Director, Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program, RAND Homeland Security Research Division; Senior Political Scientist; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School
She/Her
Patricia Stapleton is an associate director of the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations (IISO) Program, part of the RAND Homeland Security Research Division (HSRD), a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research interests include science and technology policy, risk perception and regulation of emerging technologies, risk assessment and communication, and R&D management and coordination.
Stapleton's research often focuses on the adoption and regulation of emerging technologies in critical infrastructure sectors, including agricultural and food production and healthcare—with recent attention to CRISPR and human germline editing. She also investigates topics in food security, particularly in the context of climate change. She uses qualitative methods and an historical institutionalist approach to examine the factors impacting the development of risk regulation (i.e., timing, political and institutional contexts, and public opinion).
Before joining RAND, Stapleton was director of the Society, Technology, & Policy Program and an assistant professor of political science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in political science from the CUNY Graduate Center, as well as an M.A. in French literature from Rutgers University.
Ph.D. in political science, City University of New York - Graduate Center; M.Phil in political science, City University of New York - Graduate Center; M.A. in French Literature, Rutgers University; B.A. in French, Ursinus College
