GHI’s  staff is comprised of experienced professionals with diverse backgrounds, including earthquake science, engineering, medicine, law, communications, finance and international development. 

Ms. Espinal is a structural engineer specializing in seismic vulnerability assessment. Prior to joining GeoHazards International, she was executive director of the Dominican Foundation for Risk Management (FUNDOGER), an NGO that supports Santiago de los Caballeros municipality in developing its resilience strategy, including implementing risk management for natural or anthropomorphic hazard impacts and providing intervention plans for communities at risk. She served as a structural engineer for the Dominican Republic National Housing Institute for ten years and on a number of projects for private firms. She managed the Santiago de Los Caballeros office of the D.R. National Office of Seismic Evaluation, Vulnerability of Infrastructures and Buildings; this office evaluated buildings and conducted seismic structural rehabilitations in the Cibao region, and evaluated all schools and hospitals in the northern region with Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) adapted for the Dominican Republic. She volunteers for Citizen Corporation Santiago Solidario, an NGO that supports communities from the emergency to the recovery phase of a disaster. She holds a Master of Science in structural engineering from Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo and a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra. She is fluent in Spanish and English, and she has basic French and Italian language proficiency.