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Ares Boira Lopez

  1. UNO
  2. National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE)
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  5. Ares Boira Lopez
Ares Boira Lopez

Ares Boira Lopez

  • Assistant Research Professor
email:
aboiralopez@unomaha.edu

Bio

Ares Boira-Lopez, Ph.D., is an assistant research professor at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE). She holds a Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology with a minor in quantitative psychology from the University of Oklahoma.

Prior to joining NCITE as an assistant research professor, she spent more than three years conducting research on online ideological messaging and influence through a DHS-funded NCITE project. Her work examined rhetoric, social identity, emotional appeals, and influence tactics in online extremist communication. She also contributed to DHS-funded work developing and validating psychological assessment tools for targeted violence and terrorism prevention programs.

Her current work focuses on transnational criminal organizations, tactical innovation, malevolent creativity, generative and agentic AI, violence prevention, and workforce readiness. She contributes to DHS-funded projects totaling more than $3.6 million, including work on disrupting cartels and transnational criminal organizations, AI-enabled malevolent creativity, TVTP outcome assessment, and ideological influence online. Across these projects, her work translates organizational psychology, creativity science, and quantitative methods into actionable insights for government partners, practitioners, and policymakers.

Research Interests

Creativity and innovation; generative and agentic AI; workforce readiness; psychological assessment; emotions; leadership

Education

B.A. Psychology; University of Missouri - Saint Louis (UMSL)

M.A. Industrial-Organizational Psychology; Illinois State University

Ph.D. Industrial-Organizational Psychology; University of Oklahoma

Selected Publications

Boira-Lopez, A., Connelly, S. (2026) Thinking Beyond Your Own Experience: How Expert Cases and Guidance Enhance Creativity for Non-Experts. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts Journal. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000837

Boira-Lopez, A., Miranda, S., Sikhondze, B., Stewart, J., Gordon, C., Mery, M., Patel, D., Jensen, M., Connelly, S. (2025). On the Tightrope: Multivocality Use by Extremist Ideological Groups on Digital Platforms. International Journal of Social Media and Online Communities (IJSMOC), 16(1). DOI: 10.4018/IJSMOC.388184

Connelly, S., Jensen, M., Boira-Lopez, A. (2026). Emotional Appeals in Terrorist Propaganda: Understanding Effects on Target Reactions. In G. Ligon (Eds.) De Gruyter Handbook of the Psychology of Terrorism, 40, 301.
 
Boira-Lopez, A., Connelly, S. (2024). The Role of Focal Leaders in Collective Leadership Behavior: A Historiometric Analysis of Socialized and Personalized Leaders. European Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2024.08.006

Additional Information

Bio Research Interests Education Selected Publications

National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE)

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U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Grant Acknowledgement and Disclaimer. The material on this website is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Grant Award Number 20STTPC00001-05. The views and conclusions included here are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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