Robin E. Mays Ph.D. is an experienced humanitarian practitioner and ethnographic researcher with over 18 years of experience in rapid response operations and logistics. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy - PhD and an MS in Human-Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington and a BS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on the human and contextual factors of disaster and humanitarian response systems that lead to effective response. In this context, she explores the balance of structure and flexibility in effective rapid response, the role of decision-making and the design of technology within the humanitarian sector. Her contributions include identifying principles for designing better ICT for social agency and adaptation and calling for ways to assess and incorporate moral values into ICT design.

Robin has worked in various roles, including Senior Emergency Logistics Manager/Head of Preparedness & Planning, Global Rapid Response Team at World Vision International, Chief of Logistics at World Vision Pakistan, Logistics Manager, and DART Team at the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, the US Agency for International Development, and WFP (UN World Food Programme) Liaison to UNMEE, among others. As a graduate research fellow at the National Science Foundation and Marie Curie research fellow at the University of Muenster/European Research Center for Information Systems, Robin has shared her insights on humanitarian systems with a broad audience. With her insider perspective and theoretical framework drawn from human-centered theory and effective real-world practice, Robin's expertise in the humanitarian sector is unmatched.