Maria A. Robson

Maria is a PhD Candidate at Northeastern University in Boston who previously worked as an intelligence analyst in the energy industry in Canada, including working as the Security Analyst at Nexen Energy and, previously, running her own consulting company. She has made it her mission to bridge private sector intelligence and academia. She is currently completing her PhD on public-private sector intelligence sharing and is a Research Assistant at the Intelligence Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, where her research focuses on building understanding of private sector intelligence. She has pursued this goal through teaching, publishing, and non-profit volunteering.

On the teaching front, Maria is currently a Lecturer in the MS in Intelligence Analysis program at Johns Hopkins University. Her publications on Canada’s role in the Five Eyes, World War II signals intelligence, and on private sector intelligence have appeared in Intelligence and National Security, the Journal of Intelligence History, and the Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies, respectively. Outside of teaching and research, she has ten years of experience on non-profit boards, including the inaugural board of the North American Society for Intelligence History, and currently serves as the Chair of the New England Analysts’ Roundtable and the Deputy Chair of the Education Committee for the Association of International Risk Intelligence Professionals.

Maria’s research has been recognized with several honors, most recently including a Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security Doctoral Fellowship from the Government of Canada. She holds a Master’s in Military, Security, and Strategic Studies from the University of Calgary, and a BA in International Relations, Economics, and History from the University of Toronto.