Research Team

W. Richard (Dick) Scott is a professor of sociology, emeritus, with courtesy appointments in the Schools of Business, Education, and Medicine. Since 2002, he has played a key role in CRGP research by introducing his broad framework on institutions and institutional differences to our study of global projects. He is lead editor of the book, Global Projects: Institutional and Political Challenges, co-edited with Raymond Levitt and Ryan Orr, published by Cambridge University Press in June, 2011. His major field is organizational studies and among the many types of organizations studied are educational, research, and healthcare organizations. His most recent empirical research project examined changes in the healthcare delivery systems in the San Francisco Bay area during the second half of the 20th century. Changes in five populations of healthcare organizations (eg, hospitals, HMOs, HHAs) were depicted and explained in terms of wider changes in the material resource (eg, demographic characteristics and financial resources) and institutional environments (eg, changes in regulatory, normative, and belief systems). He continues to focus on the general issues of institutional influences on organizational forms and functions, including changes in political regimes and policies. 

Julie Kim is P3 FLIPS Program Developer at the Stanford Global Projects Center and is working to develop sustainable business models for public-private partnerships (P3) in the U.S. market,  drawing upon 30-year P3 experiences and best practices globally and developing new and innovative approaches where needed. Recently, her research focus has been on P3 political risks and infrastructure banking cooperative. She is currently leading GPC’s P3 Financial Literacy in Public Sector (P3 FLIPS) Initiative. Julie has over 25 years of experience in large-scale infrastructure projects in the U.S. and Asia, with a special expertise in transportation sector. She is a founder and CEO of BeneTellus, a consulting firm specializing in infrastructure privatization and financing. Dr. Kim was Senior Researcher and Director of Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Initiative at RAND Corporation. Prior to RAND, she was a senior executive with AECOM and URS Corporation where her experience encompassed all phases of large-scale infrastructure development projects from initial planning phase through design, construction, and operations phases. Dr. Kim was also the founding Executive Director of Collaboratory of Research in Global Projects (CRGP), a predecessor to GPC. Dr. Kim holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from M.I.T. as well as a M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University.

Dane Rook is a Research Engineer at Stanford University’s School of Engineering. Dr. Rook’s work explores the intersection of machine intelligence and long-term investing. Broadly, his research interests are in natural-language processing, alternative data, knowledge graphs, and agent-based models, as well as their applications to responsible finance and asset ownership. Previously, he was a researcher at Kensho (an AI-startup acquired by S&P) and J.P.Morgan. Dr. Rook earned his doctoral degree from the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar. He also holds degrees from the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan. Dr. Rook is an advisor to technology startups in both the US and Europe.

Bushra Bataineh is a doctoral candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Her research focuses on innovative project delivery mechanisms for water infrastructure worldwide. She is focused on private sector participation in water infrastructure projects in developing countries and the emergence of local private water operators. She is also analyzing cases of water sector public-private partnerships in the United States in order to draw lessons from innovative financial structuring. Prior to joining Stanford, Bushra worked on an array of water-related projects in Jordan aimed at addressing various aspects of the water crisis facing the country. Her work included preparation of a bid for a multi-billion dollar water project with conveyance, desalination, and hydropower components, reorganization and expansion of a leading agricultural initiative, and development of water use efficiency plans under a USAID program for water-demand management. Bushra holds a master’s degree in environmental fluid mechanics and hydrology from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in hydrologic sciences and policy from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Kate Gasparro is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow studying Sustainable Design and Construction at Stanford University. Kate has spent the past four years bridging the fields of civil engineering and public policy through extensive academic studies, and has published work on the use of public private partnerships to address failing transportation infrastructure. She has gained an understanding of the complexities of infrastructure development through her work with urban planners, civil engineers, policy analysts, and municipal leaders, and she is pursuing research regarding crowdfunding and microlending for infrastructure projects. In addition to her work in the United States, Kate spent the past three years fostering a collaborative relationship between Engineers Without Borders and a rural community in Nicaragua to address water sanitation and delivery issues and is currently working on a development project in Juarez, Mexico as part of an international research initiative. Recently, Kate was recognized as a Rhodes and Truman Scholarship finalist for her innovative vision and work to address community growth through infrastructure delivery. Kate holds a BS in civil engineering from Clemson University.