Sabrina Pagano Polansky

Principal Research Scientist

As a project leader and principal investigator with extensive experience both in industry and academia, my work has spanned a wide variety of topics and multidisciplinary projects. At NSI, my work has focused in four main areas: 1) contributing to, or leading, tasks for the DoD’s Strategic Multilayer Analysis (SMA) program, 2) serving as the principal investigator and project manager for a multi-year contract investigating progress in conflict environments, 3) ensuring coordination, quality, and timeliness as a project manager for two AAA titles at a top gaming company, and 4) providing thought leadership as one of two developers for a corporate offering focused on enhancing dignity in interactions with customers and employees. Prior to NSI, I served as the Director (Acting) of a growing behavioral sciences program, as well as a Faculty Fellow Researcher and Lecturer at UCLA. My training and initial research provided depth in topics including intergroup relations, basic and moral emotions (e.g., empathy, moral outrage), and prosocial/antisocial behavior, while my experience on multidisciplinary teams and projects has enabled me to add significant breadth to my knowledge base. I earned my Ph.D. in Social Psychology (minor in Statistics) from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a dual BA with highest honors in Psychology and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.