Dr. Angela C. Incollingo Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor of Psychological & Cognitive Sciences who runs WPI’s Stigma, Eating, & Endocrinology Dynamics (SEED) Lab. Her current ongoing research projects investigate ethnic minority stress and cellular aging, 3D food printing applications, and intergenerational consequences of pregnancy-related weight stigma.
Looking for an advisor for a research project? Have a burning question about SSPS? Our faculty are here to help! From political science and psychology to systems thinking and international development, our faculty comprise a broad range of disciplines and are dedicated to bridging the gap between STEM and society. For more information, check out their individual profiles!
Angela C. Incollingo Rodriguez
Gbetonmasse Somasse
Dr. Gbetonmasse Somasse is an economist and Associate Teaching Professor interested in public policy for the future of work and technology. He is currently working on a WPI signature project through the Public Interest Technology University Network to build a curriculum that prepares engineering students for engagement with policymakers.
Oleg Pavlov
Dr. Oleg Pavlov is an Associate Professor with research interests in economics and system dynamics. Recent topics of research for Dr. Pavlov include game-based pedagogical frameworks for promoting systems thinking skills, structural debriefing, and higher education as a complex service system.
Mahamadou Lamine Sagna
Dr. Lamine Sagna is an Associate Professor interested in the “symbolism of money” and the cultural and social values that underpin monetary exchange. In his book, Money and Society, he explores how poor people in France—often from sub-Saharan and North Africa, the French Caribbean, and other European countries—navigate financial uncertainties through cultural and social capital.
Department Head
Robert Krueger
Head of the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies, ad Interim
Robert Krueger is a human geographer whose scholarship and teaching focus on creating sustainable, socially just, improvements to development projects in the global north and south. His work has taken him around the world. He has worked in countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, on issues of economic development and institutional change. His scholarship and teaching challenge conventional notions of economic development, economy-environment relationships, and social change. ... View Profile
Our Faculty
Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah
Distinguished Statesman in Residence
Crystal Brown
Assistant Professor-Social Science
Crystal H. Brown earned her Ph.D. in Political Science with a focus in the subfields of Comparative Politics, International Relations, and U.S. Foreign Policy at the University of Oregon. She also has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Pennsylvania State University. Her areas of interest include comparative immigration and integration policies, human rights, refugees, race/ethnicity and politics, and international security studies. ... View Profile
James Kevin Doyle
Associate Professor
I am a social psychologist trained in the interdisciplinary field of judgment and decision making. I am particularly interested in how people develop an understanding of complex environmental and societal problems and how their "mental models" of complex systems can best be studied and improved to aid both personal and public decision making. I firmly believe that environmental and social problems can't be solved without understanding how they are represented in the mind and identifying what cognitive processes people bring to bear upon them. ... View Profile
Laureen Elgert
Department Head
Laureen's interest in environmental studies grew as she traveled through Southeast Asia and South America, noticing that local resource users' idea of environmentalism often bore little resemblance to familiar interpretations. She has since been particularly interested in the environment-development nexus, examining how politics shapes global environmental policy that can, and often does, have profound impacts on local livelihoods. ... View Profile
Angela C Incollingo Rodriguez
Assistant Professor
Angela Incollingo Rodriguez is an assistant professor of Psychological & Cognitive Sciences and a faculty member in the new WPI Neuroscience Initiative. In addition to collaborating on interdisciplinary research teams across campus - including the Chronic Pain Research Group - she also directs her own lab - the WPI Stigma Eating & Endocrinology Dynamics (SEED) Lab.
Her research program uses a biopsychosocial approach to study health and health behaviors. ... View Profile
Erin R Ottmar
Assistant Professor
Erin Ottmar is an assistant professor of psychology and learning sciences at WPI. She received her BA in psychology and elementary education from the University of Richmond. After college, she spent several years teaching in Ecuador and Japan. In 2011, she received her PhD in Educational Psychology: Applied Developmental Science from the University of Virginia. After graduate school, spent 3 years as a post-doctoral research scientist at the University of Richmond. ... View Profile
Oleg V Pavlov
Associate Professor
Professor Pavlov earned a BS degree in Physics/Computer Science and a PhD in Economics from University of Southern California and an MBA from Cornell University. He has taught at WPI since 2002. He has been to many universities in the US, Russia and Western Europe, but he thinks WPI is like no other university. The project-based approach at WPI allows him to involve students in research projects. He values the opportunity to include students in his research through IQPs and MQPs. ... View Profile
Michael J. Radzicki
Associate Professor
Professor Radzicki is an economist, creator of WPI’s program in system dynamics, and co-creator of WPI’s program in trading and investment system development. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and his training in system dynamics computer simulation modeling from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, he is a certified Rapid-I Predictive Analytics Analyst. Professor Radzicki’s research focuses on predictive analytics, simulation science, and the application of techniques from these areas to problems in economics, finance, and management. ... View Profile
Derren Rosbach
Associate Teaching Professor
The overarching goal of my teaching and research is to contribute to an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental governance and policy. More specifically, I focus on the building of individual, organizational and institutional capacities to participate in collaborative efforts to address complex social and environmental sustainability problems through the application of science and technology. ... View Profile
Khalid Saeed
Professor
Khalid Saeed is professor of economics and system dynamics. Widely recognized for his work on computer modeling and experimental analysis of developmental, organizational, and governance-related issues, he has written two books and numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of developmental and management agendas, including sustainable economic development, infrastructure planning, political economy, supply chain management, and system dynamics modeling. ... View Profile
Mahamadou Sagna
Associate Professor
Stacy Shaw
Assistant Professor-Social Science
Stacy Shaw's research focuses on understanding creative thinking in mathematics, how anxiety and other threat experiences affect mathematical cognition and reasoning, as well as how classroom experiences can affect performance and learning in STEM. She graduated with her Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA in 2020, and is an Ambassador for the Center for Open Science, Catalyst for the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences, and a part of the Better Book research team for the Coursekata project.
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Jeanine LM Skorinko
Professor- Social Science
Jeanine Skorinko is a professor of psychology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies. She also is the director of the Psychological & Cognitive Science program. She received her PhD in social psychology at the University of Virginia.
Her research program attempts to understand how factors in our social environment, especially those factors we are unaware of, influence decisions and interpersonal interactions. ... View Profile
Alexander D. Smith
Associate Professor
Alexander Smith’s research focuses on altruism, trust, cooperation and honesty. In particular, he is interested in learning how behavior relates to beliefs about the actions of others and how psychology can be used for promoting pro-social behavior. These areas of research provide a better understanding of the factors underlying real-world pro-social behaviors such as volunteering and charitable giving. In essence, they provide insight into how to make the world a better place. ... View Profile
Gbetonmasse B. Somasse
Associate Professor of Teaching
Dr. Gbetonmasse Somasse is an economist and applied econometrician with field experience as a development practitioner. He is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Social Science and Policy Studies at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Prior to joining WPI, he was a lecturer at Clark University. He also served as senior economist statistician at the Central Bank of West African States and a consultant for the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Program. ... View Profile
Elisabeth Anne Stoddard
Associate Professor of Teaching
Prof Stoddard is a human-environment geographer who is interested in the intersection of nature, society, and justice, particularly in the context of climate change. She looks at the ways in which we can design for climate resilience, in terms of infrastructure, location specific practices, and through community resilience. Stoddard also looks at the vulnerability and resilience of food systems to disasters (climate, disease outbreaks, etc.), and the impacts for humans, animals, and ecosystems. ... View Profile
Our Affiliates
Khatera Alizada
Affiliate Research Scientist
Kwabena Kyei-Aboagye
Affiliate Research Scientist
James P. Thompson
Affiliate Research Scientist
Raafat Zaini
Research Scientist
Raafat Zaini is a research scientist at the Social Science and Policy Studies department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). His published research in modeling dynamic systems spans organizational design, dissent, change, strategy, and cognitive learning. Raafat worked as a researcher at the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center and consulted for the Advance Management Group. He reviews for academic journals and conferences, including the Academy of Management, Management Communication Quarterly, and the System Dynamics Society. ... View Profile
Our Staff
Kimberly S. Hollan
Program Coordinator