Current Members:
Tayte Adderley, MPP, He/Him, Research Assistant & PhD Student, Northeastern University
Originally from Freeport, Grand Bahama, Tayte worked for a non-profit called the Organization for Responsible Governance before joining the BARI team as an MPP student. His work is focused on the Common SENSES Project, as he builds his knowledge of civic research methods and the use of data with communities. Now a PhD candidate at Northeastern, Tayte is learning from his work with BARI in hopes of finding pathways for Caribbean people to imagine urban futures for themselves using modeling and data. He has two siblings in The Bahamas and enjoys walking when he’s not studying or working.He is on LinkedIn as Tayte M. Adderley.
Abdullahi Bello, MS, He/Him, Research Assistant & PhD Student, Northeastern University
A member of the Common SENSES team, Abdullahi is a PhD student at Northeastern who has extensive experience in urban informatics and GIS and spatial data. He joined BARI because he wanted to have a data driven role with a high community impact, which aligns with his goal of building resilience in urban systems and driving policies for positive change. Outside of his work and studies, Abdullahi plays and watches soccer and enjoys exploring nature, especially waterfronts. You can find him on LinkedIn at Abdullahi Bello.
Juan Cruz Ferreyra, BS, He/Him, Research Assistant & Master’s Student, Northeastern University
Juan Cruz is originally from Rosario, Argentina, where he worked as a Data Scientist for the Mobility Authority and contributed to projects focused on transportation analytics and urban mobility. With a background in architecture, he sees data and technology as powerful tools to improve how cities work for people and is working with BARI to develop the data pipeline for the Common SENSES network and to update the Boston Data Portal. Juan Cruz is focused on building tools that make quality data easier to collect, share, and use for civic analysis. He enjoys cycling in Boston and can be found enjoying a mate and sharing his strong opinions on soccer, which are his birthrights as an Argentine. On LinkedIn, he is Juan Cruz Ferreyra.
Mahbub Maulaa, BS, He/Him, Research Assistant & Master’s Student, Northeastern University
An urban planner and journalist from Indonesia, Maulaa is pursuing an MS in Urban Informatics at Northeastern and joined BARI to grow his network of social researchers in the Boston area. He works on the Boston Data Portal, ensuring that the data from various sources are cleaned, processed, and visualized for members of the community and researchers to access easily. Within this role, he led an extensive re-design of the data portal’s web site in the summer of 2025. Maulaa has many hobbies, including cooking to relax, performing traditional dances with friends, reading books, and theater performances. You can find him on LinkedIn as Mahbub Maulaa.
Josh Rosen, MS, He/Him, PhD Student, Northeastern University
Prior to joining Northeastern, Josh earned an MS in Data Science from Georgetown University, where he worked for the Massive Data Institute and on Comcast’s Internet Essentials research team. At BARI, Josh works on the MD4C project and is currently focused on understanding how mobility impacts social segregation. More broadly, Josh’s research is centered on understanding how we can use computational methods and empirical research to inform public policy and he is always on the move, connecting with others in the field. At home or on the road, Josh loves breakfast foods, no matter the time of day. He is Josh Rosen on LinkedIn.
Sarah Sanchez, PhD, She/Her, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Northeastern University
With her PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Northeastern, Sarah joined BARI because she was interested in the intersection of data and Boston-based public policy. She enjoys communicating academic research results and outputs to non-academic audiences, making her a perfect fit for the Mobility Data for Communities (MD4C) project, which is democratizing mobility data by providing access to communities and community organizations. Beyond her research, Sarah’s claims to fame are that she had six wisdom teeth and has been summoned for jury duty at least seven times! When she’s not on jury duty, you can reach her via LinkedIn as Sarah Sanchez, PhD.
Danai Toursoglou Papalexandridou, PhD, She/Her, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Northeastern University
Danai’s work is focused on participatory action research, using diverse methodologies to advance social resilience in collaboration with local communities. She has pursued such work in her home country of Greece, as well as in Portugal, Colombia, and the US through collaborations with universities and NGOs. At BARi, she is working on the Common SENSES project, which is a partnership between BARI, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Project RIGHT, Inc., and the City of Boston. Danai supports collective processes among academia, community, and the City towards the creation and management of a network of environmental sensors along Blue Hill Ave to provide the common use of community data and the co-creation of solutions towards environmental justice. In addition to published academic papers and reports, Danai’s work has produced a song, a performance, a community weave, a short documentary, and a community-written book. She enjoys gardening and cycling and is on LinkedIn at Danai Toursoglou Papalexandridou.
Allison Wan, MS, She/Her, Data Consultant & PhD Student, Northeastern University
Allison is currently a PhD student in the Network Science Program where she mostly studies social networks and how people access political information. She is interested in how to leverage the research skills of the academic community in collaboration with local governments and nonprofits to create a city that is better at delivering services and responding to the needs of residents. Allison is at BARI because she wants to make data more accessible so it is easier for people and institutions to make evidence-based decisions. Outside of work, Allison teaches ballet in Cambridge and enjoys cycling, hiking, and crafting. She is on LinkedIn as Allison Wan.
Past Members:
Daniel Engelberg (he/him) Postdoctoral Research Associate
Daniel L. Engelberg asks on how we imagine climate just futures and how those future imaginaries aid climate action driven by diverse urban communities. Mr. Engelberg utilizes community-based research approaches and participatory modeling to imagine futures with communities, qualitative methods to understand present long-range planning processes, and quantitative methods to model pathways towards more just and sustainable futures. At BARI, Daniel leads research for the Common SENSES project developing green infrastructure solutions for climate justice with community partners along Blue Hill Avenue. Mr. Engelberg holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from MIT, a Masters in Community Planning from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Bates College.
David Jefferson (He/him) PhD Student in Public Policy, Northeastern University
David is a doctoral student within the Policy School at Northeastern University pursuing his PhD in Public Policy. He is a passionate food justice advocate who believes that food can be used as a unifier, community builder, and a tool for empowerment and political resistance. In addition to his passion for food and agriculture policy, David’s research interests also include mass incarceration and its impact on communities of color and reentry programming for formerly incarcerated individuals. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Georgia Southern University and a Master of Arts in Urban & Public Affairs from the University of San Francisco.
Yunus Emre Tapan (he/him), PhD Student in Political Science, Northeastern University
tapan.y@northeastern.edu
Yunus Emre currently serves as the Data Consultant for The Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI), aiding community organizations with their data-related initiatives and enhancing their capacities for data analysis. As a Ph.D. student at Northeastern University with a focus on Political Methodology and Comparative Politics, he delves into online political behavior using machine learning, computational text analysis, and network analysis. His academic background includes a graduate certificate from Northeastern, an MSc from Middle East Technical University, and a BA from Bogazici University in Turkey. Prior to his Ph.D. journey, he was a Visiting Lecturer at Kadir Has University and contributed to policy insights at a non-partisan think tank in Ankara.
Forrest Hangen (he/him) PhD Student in Public Policy, Northeastern University
forresthangen@gmail.com;
Forrest, research focuses on inequalities, especially related to housing. Specifically, he is interested in furthering our understanding of how multiple facets of urban life (e.g., landlord ownership structures, crime and disorder, eviction, etc.) combine to create disparate living conditions for tenants and examining solutions to these problems. He hopes this work will help policy makers act in informed and equitable ways to create stable, safe, and affordable housing.
Shunan You (she/her) PhD student in Sociology, Northeastern University
Shunan serves as a research assistant and the Data Consultant at the Boston Area Research Initiative. Her research areas are globalization, transnationalism, spatial mobility, and highly skilled labor migration. Shunan aims to unpack how global mobile workers change organizational management, complicating family lives, dissolving traditional community, and cultivating individualism. She is interested in both qualitative methods and computational social science methods.
Rylee Smith (she/her) Master Student in Architecture, Northeastern University
Rylee is working with the CommonSENSES team & building geographic data infrastructure. Rylee has a Bachelor of science in Architecture, from Northeastern University
Mai Waziry (she/her) Master Student in Urban Informatics, Northeastern University
Mai is analyzing heat data from different sources both locally and from cities across the US to measure variations in heat across space.
Brooke Glatzhofer (They/Them)
Their recent research includes an intersectional analysis of housing discrimination among transgender identities using the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, revealing that less educated Black trans women experience the most severe outcomes. They have worked as a Research Assistant at BARI, updating Housing datasets on the Boston Data Portal.
Marjan Moradimehreh, masters student in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University
moradimehreh.m@northeastern.edu;
Marjan is a graduate research assistant at Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI). She is interested in uncovering patterns of crime and disorder in the city of Boston. In particular, she is analyzing the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic across Boston neighborhoods by conducting quantitative research using R on a variety of administrative databases.
Saina Sheini PhD Student in Public Policy, Northeastern University
sheinimehrabzadeh.s@husky.neu.edu
Saina is a PhD candidate in public policy. She is interested in discovering the underlying patterns of urbanization and development along with urban sustainability and resilience. She has done research on the resilience of the energy and transport sectors in the metro-Boston region under normal operating conditions and in light of a shock to these sectors, such as an extreme weather event, developing a network that captures how various agencies and other entities interact with each other. She is now helping to develop a social media-based methodology for measuring and observing the social resilience of communities.
Riley Tucker PhD student in Criminology, Northeastern University
Riley is a Criminology Ph.D. student who serves as a research assistant and the Data Consultant at the Boston Area Research Initiative. His research considers how the behavior of individuals is shaped by neighborhood context and social processes. Specifically, he is interested in how communities act to prevent crime and how neighborhood crime shapes the lives of local residents.
Alina Ristea PhD in Geo-Informatics, University of Salzburg
a.ristea@northeastern.edu
Alina is a Postdoctoral Research Associate for Boston Area Research Initiative, with a PhD in GeoInformatics from the University of Salzburg, Austria. She is interested in spatiotemporal analyses of urban phenomena with special emphasis in criminology. Her present research projects include understanding patterns of problem properties from a crime and disorder points of view, spatial distribution of crime around sporting events, administrative data manipulation and integration in the Boston Data Portal, and impact of COVID-19 on people’s social activities. In addition, she is interested in data visualization, predictive analytics, and building an in-depth understanding between academia and public/private sectors.”
Jesse DiValli PhD in Sociology, Northeastern University
Jesse is a fourth-year graduate student, pursuing his PhD at NEU after completing a M.A. of Sociology at Howard University. His studies focus on environmental policies and impacts, particularly in the areas of resilience and sustainability. He is especially interested in conducting social science research that responds to the needs of disadvantaged communities and informs public policy in urban environments