Robin Dillon-Merrill

Robin L. Dillon-Merrill is a Professor and Area Coordinator for the Operations and Information Management Group in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. She is also the co-chair of the Georgetown Environment Initiative. In her research, Professor Dillon-Merrill seeks to understand and explain how and why people make the decisions that they do under conditions of uncertainty and risk. This research specifically examines critical decisions that people have made following near-miss events in situations with severe outcomes including hurricane evacuation, terrorism, cybersecurity, and NASA mission management. She has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security through USC’s National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis for Terrorism Events. She has served as a risk analysis and project management expert on several National Academies Committees including the review of the New Orleans regional hurricane protection projects and the application of risk analysis techniques to securing the Department of Energy’s special nuclear materials. She has a B.S./M.S. from the University of Virginia in Systems Engineering and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. From 1993-1995 she worked as a systems engineer for the Fluor Daniel Corporation.

Education

• Stanford University - Ph.D.
• University of Virginia-Main Campus - M.S.
• University of Virginia-Main Campus - B.S

Publications

Articles in Journals (29)

Peter M. Madsen, Robin L. Dillon, and Catherine H. Tinsley. "Airline Safety Improvement through Experience with Near-Misses: A Cautionary Tale." Risk Analysis, 36, 5 (2016): 1054-1066.

Robin L. Dillon, Catherine H. Tinsley, Peter M. Madsen, Edward W. Rogers. "Improving Recognition of Near-Miss Events Through Organizational Repair Of The Outcome Bias." Journal of Management, 42, 3 (2016): 671-697.

Robin L. Dillon and Catherine H. Tinsley. "Near-miss events, risk messages, and decision making." Environment Systems and Decisions, 36, 1 (2016): 34-44.

1. Robin L. Dillon and Peter M. Madsen. "Faster-Better-Cheaper Projects: Too Much Risk or Over-reaction to Perceived Failure?." IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 62, 2 (2015): 141-149.

Robin L. Dillon, Catherine H. Tinsley, and William J. Burns. "Evolving Risk Perceptions about Near-Miss Terrorist Events." Decision Analysis Journal, 11, 1 (2014): 27-42.

Robin L. Dillon, Catherine H. Tinsley, and William J. Burns. "Near-Misses and Future Disaster Preparedness." Risk Analysis, 34, 10 (2014): 1907-1922.

Robin L. Dillon, Genevieve Lester, Richard S. John, and Catherine H. Tinsley. "Differentiating Conflicts in Beliefs vs. Value Trade-offs in the Domestic Intelligence Policy Debate." Risk Analysis, 32, 4 (2012): 713–728.

Catherine H. Tinsley, Robin L. Dillon, Matthew A. Cronin. "How Near-Miss Events Amplify or Attenuate Risky Decision Making." Management Science, 58, 9 (2012): 1596-1613.

Catherine H. Tinsley, Robin L. Dillon, and Peter M. Madsen. "How to Avoid Catastrophe." Harvard Business Review (2011): 90-97.

Robin L. Dillon, Catherine H. Tinsley, and Matthew A. Cronin. "Why Near-Miss Events Can Decrease an Individual’s Protective Response to Hurricanes." Risk Analysis, 31, 3 (2011): 440-449.

Robin L. Dillon and Joseph Mazzola. "Management of Disruption Risk in Global Supply Chains." IBM Journal of Research and Development, 54, 3 (2010): 10:1-10:9.

Robin L. Dillon and Robert M. Liebe. "Invited Response to Cox’s Comment: Improving Risk-Based Decision Making for Terrorism." Risk Analysis, 29, 3 (2009): 342-343.

R. Dillon, R. M. Liebe, T. Bestafka. "Risk-Based Decision Making for Terrorism Applications." Risk Analysis (2009)

Robin L. Dillon, Gregory S. Parnell, Donald L. Buckshaw, William R. Hensley, and David J. Caswell. "Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Decision Support Frameworks for Department of Defense Analyses." Military Operations Research, 13, 2 (2008): 19-32.

Robin L. Dillon and Catherine H. Tinsley. "How near-misses influence decision making under risk: A missed opportunity for learning." Management Science, 54, 8 (2008): 1425-1440.

M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell and Robin L. Dillon. "The Respective Roles of Risk and Decision Analyses in Decision Support." Decision Analysis, 3, 4 (2006): 1-13.

Robin L. Dillon and M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell. "Including Technical and Security Risks in the Management of Information Systems: A Programmatic Risk Management Model." Systems Engineering, 8, 1 (2005): 15-28.

Robin L. Dillon and Catherine H. Tinsley. "Interpreting Near-Miss Events." Engineering Management Journal, 17, 4 (2005): 42-46.

Robin L. Dillon, M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, Seth D. Guikema. "Optimizing Resource Allocations in a Project's Development Phase: The DAPRAM model." IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 52, 3 (2005): 382-395.

Bonnie R. Montano and Robin L. Dillon. "The Impact of Technology on Relationships within Organizations." Journal of Information Technology Management, 6, 2/3 (2005): 227-251.

M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, Robin L. Dillon, Seth D. Guikema. "On the Limitations of Redundancies in the Improvement of System Reliability: The Case of the Mars Rovers." Risk Analysis (2004)

Robin L. Dillon, M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, and Seth D. Guikema. "Programmatic Risk Analysis for Critical Engineering Systems Under Tight Resource Constraints: Applying APRAM." Operations Research, 51, 3 (2003): 354-370.

Robin L. Dillon, Richard John, and Detlof von Winterfeldt. "Assessment of Cost Uncertainties for Large Technology Projects: A Methodology and an Application." Interfaces, 32, 4 (2002): 52-66.

Robin L. Dillon and M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell. "APRAM: an advanced programmatic risk analysis method." International Journal of Technology, Policy, and Management, 1, 1 (2001): 47-65.

M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell and Robin L. Dillon. "Probabilistic Risk Analysis for the NASA Space Shuttle: A Brief History and Current Work." Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 74, 3 (2001): 345-352.

M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell and Robin L. Dillon. "Success Factors and Future Challenges in the Management of Faster-Better-Cheaper Space Missions." IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 48, 1 (2001): 25-35.

Robin L. Dillon and Detlof von Winterfeldt. "An Analysis of the Implications of a Magnetic Field Threshold Limit Value on Utility Work Practices." American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 61, 1 (2000): 76-81.

Robin L. Dillon, Blake Johnson, M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell. "Risk Assessment Based on Financial Data: Stakeholders' Response to Airline Accidents." Risk Analysis, 19, 3 (1999): 473-486.

Robin L. Dillon and Yacov Y. Haimes. "Risk of Extreme Events via Multiobjective Decision Trees: Applications to Telecommunications." IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 26, 2 (1996): 262-271.

Articles in Books (1)

Greg Parnell, Robin L. Dillon, Terry Bresnick. "Integrating Risk Management with Homeland Security and Antiterrorism Resource Allocation Decision-Making." The McGraw-Hill Handbook of Homeland Security, 431-461. McGraw-Hill, 2005.