New BERI Deputy Director Elizabeth Cooper

I'm excited to welcome Elizabeth Cooper as BERI's new Deputy Director!

Elizabeth joined BERI on February 24 to support operations and grow new collaborations. In her previous roles, she worked as a Chief of Staff at various tech start-ups, including Corvid Technologies. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Peace, War, and Defense from the University of North Carolina. In her free time, she is an avid hiker, scuba diver, and home chef.

Elizabeth starts at ~20 hours per week, but we're planning to increase that to full-time later this year.

After three years of running BERI by myself, I started to feel that further expansion would have jeopardized the success of our existing programs. Meanwhile, risks to human civilization from emerging technologies are more salient than ever, and the need for more research on these issues is only increasing. Bringing Elizabeth on board will ensure that BERI is able to continue supporting the expanding field of x-risk research.

In addition to allowing for a greater quantity of university collaborations, Elizabeth will also enable improvements in the quality of BERI's services. This means a more structured and proactive approach, and a smoother and more comprehensive experience for the academic researchers we support.

Finally, I'm looking forward to Elizabeth enabling and taking the lead on entirely new BERI programs, leveraging existing BERI networks and expertise to support the field of x-risk research in whatever ways seem most promising.