Dr. Maria Gonzalez
Dr. Maria Gonzalez
Deputy Director, Policy · Research Fellow
Dr. Maria Gonzalez is Deputy Director for Policy at PLIANT, where she leads research on international supply chain transparency, cross-border data governance, and the legal implications of nation-state targeting in private sector networks. Her work focuses on translating complex regulatory and intelligence frameworks into actionable policy recommendations for government and industry partners.
Before joining PLIANT, Dr. Gonzalez spent six years as a senior policy advisor at the Department of Homeland Security, contributing to the development of the National Maritime Cybersecurity Plan, and prior to that served as a staff attorney at the Federal Maritime Commission.
Dr. Gonzalez holds a JD from the University of Texas School of Law, an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin.
Research Areas
Dr. Gonzalez’s research vertical encompasses four primary domains of inquiry at the intersection of trade regulation and resilient infrastructure:
Latin American Logistics Security
Interdisciplinary Data Methodology
- Structural vulnerabilities of maritime trade routes
- Caribbean and South American corridors
- State policy and private terminal operations
- Open-source intelligence (OSINT) protocols
- Predictive logistics model integration
- Nation-state targeting identification
Ethical Information Governance
Predictive Disruption Forecasting
- Public-private agency information sharing
- Regulatory frameworks for mandatory disclosure
- Cross-jurisdictional compliance standards
- High-frequency logistics data modeling
- Cyber-physical threat mitigation
- Supply chain targeting pattern analysis
Publications
The following selection represents recent and forthcoming research outputs addressing structural vulnerabilities in global trade logistics and maritime infrastructure resilience.
PLIANT Research Series: Infrastructure Resilience, Volume 12.
Forthcoming in Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy.
Contact Dr. Gonzalez
m.gonzalez@projectpliant.com