Dr Erin McFee

Erin, founder of the Corioli Institute, is a Professor of Practice at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at the National Defense University. She specializes in climate security, migration, and the reintegration of formerly armed actors (FAA) such as military veterans and ex-insurgents. A political anthropologist, Erin has published widely across peer-reviewed, popular, and practitioner platforms in over 20 countries. Her research focuses on the climate change, conflict, and migration nexus, with an emphasis on FAA reintegration and security-building. Since 2010, Erin has conducted extensive fieldwork with formerly armed actors, from living alongside ex-guerrillas in Colombia to consulting on al Shabaab reintegration in Somalia. Her work spans research with former cartel members in Mexico, supporting NGOs for ex-gang members in El Salvador, and helping U.S. military veterans with restorative justice.

Dr Terrell Odom

Terrell, a U.S. Navy veteran with over 19 years of experience, serves as the Director of the Office for Military-Affiliated Communities (OMAC) at the University of Chicago. In this role, he has expanded support for veterans, created the Department of Defense SkillBridge Program, and established partnerships with Army Medicine to aid military transitions. His broader work includes developing the Utility Military Assistance Program, which has helped over 800 veterans secure careers in the utility sector. Terrell also founded Veterans Serving Our Communities (VSOC), where he continues to mentor veterans and their families, focusing on education, career transitions, and holistic support systems.

Dr Lyla Kohistany

Lyla is an inclusion strategist, cultural intelligence advisor, and former U.S. Naval officer with over two decades of experience in the security sector, working with international military, government, and civilian organizations on issues such as countering violence extremism and counterterrorism. Her lived experience as an Afghan refugee of the Soviet War and as a U.S. veteran underpin her refugee advocacy efforts and commitment to improving the lives of conflict-affected communities across the globe. She is a sought-after speaker and facilitator, has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, NPR, PBS, and The Washington Post, and contributed to numerous podcasts.

Jonathan Röders

Jonathan joined Corioli’s predecessor, the Trust After Betrayal project, in September 2022. Since then, he has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Colombia and Mexico, collaborating and coordinating projects with local partners and contributing to the Institute’s academic and policy research. He has also played a key role in organizing conferences, workshops, and other events. Additionally, Jonathan has been working on the Institute’s brand identity, overseeing its social media, newsletter, and website, and serving as editor of Corioli's Research Brief Series.

Rimjhim Agrawal

Rimjhim holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and currently works as the Director of Sustainability for the Corioli Institute. She has delivered projects on the Climate Change, Disaster, Conflict, and Migration Nexus in Kenya and the Arab Region. She spent a summer in Erbil, Iraq, developing a Sustainable Procurement Blueprint for the Prime Minister’s Office and designing economic diversification initiatives. Rimjhim has also worked with the World Bank and the DC-based education nonprofit Genesys Works, and she previously served as a climate and disaster risk analyst in an international context.

Dr Pauline Zerla

Pauline is a fellow in the department of Foreign Policy and Global Security at the School of International Service. Her research is situated within the fields of security studies, political geography, and feminist international relations. Her research primarily focuses on war trauma, the environmental, social and emotional legacies of war, and the politics of warmaking. She earned her PhD in War and Security Studies at King’s College London where she explored everyday experiences of war and reintegration in Central Africa. From 2020-2023, she was a research assistant on XCEPT, a FCDO-funded project that examines violent and peaceful behaviors in conflict contexts, with a focus on trauma. Her background is in peacebuilding, mental health, and security studies.

John Gordon Sennett

John has lived in Ukraine since 2020, witnessing the full-scale invasion firsthand. Co-author of the Accidental Ukrainians series and co-developer of the Narrative Processing methodology, John bridges the gap between raw conflict experience and the path to post-traumatic growth to include addressing moral injury. He has taught the methodology to military psychologists and chaplains on the ground.

Renata Mustafina

Renata holds an MSc in Global Health Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is a Research Fellow at the Corioli Institute. Her dissertation examined strategies to strengthen Ukraine’s health system for veterans with limb amputations, with a focus on rehabilitation, recovery, and health system resilience. Her broader research interests include health systems in conflict-affected settings, mental health, disability, and veteran reintegration.

John Mueller

John leads primary-source field research and in-country research teams for the Corioli Institute across the Arab region. His work centers on qualitative and mixed-methods research into how communities experience conflict, displacement, and local political and social change. Over the past several years he has built and managed multinational research teams and helped design humanitarian programming for conflict-affected populations across the region. He works not only through local researchers and partners but on the ground himself, regularly traveling into the communities his research focuses on — an approach grounded in sustained fieldwork and close local relationships rather than remote analysis. John holds an MA in Statecraft and International Affairs with a Middle Eastern specialization from the Institute of World Politics, completed a directed study on conflict in the Middle East and Horn of Africa at Oxford's Trinity College, and earned a BA in International Studies from Fordham.