Speaker Biographies

Akhil Amar

Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University • Author

Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University. Having joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26, he is Yale’s only currently active professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown—the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service. Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than forty cases—tops in his generation. He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several prizewinning books. His latest and most ambitious book, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, has just been published. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds, and video links to various public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com. Along with Andy Lipka, he cohosts a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution.

Jeta Amata

Filmmaker

Jeta Amata is from a Nigerian family of veteran filmmakers and actors. “Though I have often worked in America, I am an African filmmaker who goes back home to shoot; to keep the African light burning. I have hired thousands of African people that werepaidSAGscale.””2002topresent:See IMDb 22 projects in America and Nigeria The Guardian, UK, described Jeta Amata as “Nollywood’s Gift to Hollywood“ and CNN labeled Jeta as “Nigeria’s Crossover.” I have screened films and given lectures in universities around theworldincludingatUCLA,Cornell,GWU,JohnsHopkins,and New York University. Awards: The Amazing Grace: first film on slavery written, directed and produced by a black man. Winner, “Best West African Film”, 2006, Screen Nations Award, UK, and first Nigerian film to be screened at Cannes Film Festival. Dangerous Desire: premier film on DSTV’s Africa Magic, 2004 The Alexa Affair: Berlin film festival, first film on DWTV, 2004 With Game Of Life: first Nigerian director to appear on BBC, 2003 Political Activism My political activism dates to when my grandfather inspired Bobby Rush when he visited Oakland and spoke to students as the President of Africa’s Student Union in the 1960’s. Bobby Rush is an important mentor because of his role with the Black Panthers. Suzanne Jackson Lee, Barbara lee, Maxine Waters are personal friends who have supported my life’s work of improving the lives of the Nigerian citizens. After a screening of DAWN IN THE CREEKS, at the Library of Congress, I was invited as a peace ambassador to address the African Union on “Using film as a tool for conflict mediation.” Invited to speak twice by US Congress, I am also very active in environmental causes. My epic “whistle blower” film, BLACK NOVEMBER,gavemeaplatformfromwhichtobringawareness of the oil industry’s disastrous treatment of Nigerian land. This film led to my becoming a Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti and an offer by the Haitian president, Michael Martelly, to do a film about Toussaint Louvertere, considered the founder of the anti–slavery movement. I wrote the screenplay, and spent months in Haiti scouting locations, the film is not yet funded.

Rick Barton

Ambassador • Lecturer • Co-Director of Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, Princeton University

Ambassador Rick Barton teaches at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where he serves as co-director of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative. Author of Peace Works: America’s Unifying Role in a Turbulent World, Barton was the first Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations, America’s ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York, the UN’s Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva and founded USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives. He led peacebuilding initiatives in over 40 crisis zones across the globe, from Haiti, Iraq, Nigeria, Burma to Pakistan. He serves on the Boards of the Alliance for Peacebuilding and the Institute for Sustainable Communities and is an advisor to numerous non-profits and public service institutions.

Millie Chen

Visual, Audio, and Performative Artist; Professor of Art, University at Buffalo

Millie Chen’s artwork has been shown across North and South America, East Asia andEuropeatvenuesandfestivalsincluding the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, The Power Plant, Toronto, Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, Centro Nacional des las Artes, Mexico City, The Contemporary Austin, Shanghai Expo, Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and FILE-Rio: Electronic Language International Festival, Rio de Janeiro. Her work is in several public collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, University of Colorado Art Museum, Art Bank of Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Toronto Transit Commission, and she has produced a number of permanent public art commissions. Her most recent awards are an Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Grant and a University at Buffalo Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship, both for SRS (Silk Road Songbook). Her writing has appeared in publications in the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and China. Chen is a Professor in the Department of Art, University at Buffalo, SUNY.

Bek Christensen

Programs Director, Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust • President, Ecological Society of Australia

Bek Christensen is passionate about science, people, and the environment, and as a result has focused her career on building collaborations and enabling impact from science. With a PhD in Ecology, Bek has worked in ecosystem research, policy 33

Speaker Biographies

and communication across university, NGO, and government sectors in her home country of Australia. Bek enjoys helping individuals develop and fulfil their potential, while also building bridges between groups of people to enable collective impact. Her current role is Programs Director for the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust (PCT), a not-for-profit organisation that works across Australia’s complex water and environment sectors to develop a national network of courageous leaders, who can work creatively and collaboratively to address Australia’s environmental challenges. Alongside her work with the Peter Cullen Trust, Bek is current President of the Ecological Society of Australia, serves on the STEM Sector Policy Committee of Science and Technology Australia, and is a member of several advisory boards to Australia’s national ecosystem research infrastructure.

Wisdom Cole

National Director, NAACP Youth & College

Wisdom O. Cole is the National Director of the NAACP Youth & College Division. In this role, he serves more than 700 youth councils, high school chapters, and college chapters actively involved in the fight for civil rights. Wisdom brings extensive experience in civil rights advocacy training institute, electoral action training, grassroots organizing, issues toolkits, and webinars at the local, state, and national level. He has managed national campaign efforts focused on building Black political power through youth leadership development, advocacy, and direct action organizing for the past 3 years with the NAACP, formerly as the National Campaigns & Training Manager. In his time at the NAACP, he has worked on campaigns around the cancelation of student debt, removing police from schools, as well as increasing voter access for young Black people. He has been featured on NPR, VICE, NBC Washington News, Brooking Institute, and The Economist as an advocate for Black youth voter turnout through issue-based campaign organizing. In 2020 he was named one of Complex Life’s 32 young activists who are changing the world. Wisdom was previously a field and state conference organizer for the Afrikan Black Coalition (ABC), the largest Black collegiate organization in California. In 2014, he collaboratively organized the Afrikan Black Coalition conference that featured keynote speakers such as Marc Lamont Hill, Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, and Attallah Shabazz. For this effort, he received the Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity in recognition for outstanding contributions to furthering diversity, inclusion, and excellence at UC Santa Cruz. Wisdom grew up in California where he earned a B. A. in Chemistry, with a minor in STEM Education, from UC Santa Cruz as well as a M. A. in Teaching from the University of San Francisco.

Christian Conte

Mental Health Specialist

Dr. Christian Conte is one of the country’s most accomplished mental health specialists in the field of anger and emotional management. A familiar figure on TV and radio, he is also a prolific writer, powerful communicator, and sought-after media expert. He was co-host of the reality shows Coaching Bad on Spike TV and The Secret Life of Kids on USA Network. He was also the resident therapist for Family Therapy on VH1. Dr. Conte produces daily Emotional Management Minutes that air on more than 300 radio stations across the country, as well as hosting his own weekly call-in radio show on KDKA in Pittsburgh. In July 2015 he conducted the TEDx talk, “Why I Chose to Go to Prison.” His latest book, “Walking Through Anger”, was released in October of 2019. Whether it is in his groups for violent offenders, the classroom,orinfrontofcompaniesandorganizations,Dr.Conte always brings his unique energy, unquenchable passion, and a tremendous sense of compassion to his focus on teaching people about why they do what they do, and how they can use knowledge about themselves and compassion for others to transform their lives. Dr. Conte is one of only a handful of people who have level V anger management certification, the highest level possible, and he is the creator of “Yield Theory” –a powerful approach to change, combining radical compassion with conscious education – for the effective treatment of anger issues.Dr.Contecurrentlytrainscorrectionalinstitutions,sports teams, and organizations in the practical application of his Yield Theory Anger Management Program.

Forrest Cortes

Director of Community Engagement, The Illinois Nature Conservancy • Founder, Out In Nature

Forrest Cortes (he/him) holds a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Management but often says that his knowledge stems from hitting the trails, putting his hands in the dirt for habitat restoration, and spending time listening to the wisdom found in communities. Forrest’s interest and expertise are in urban ecology, habitat restoration, volunteer program development, partnership building and community engagement. Forrest has a deep passion for nature in cities and has over 10 years of volunteer and professional experience working with people and nature. He currently works as the Director of Community Engagement for The Nature Conservancy in Illinois, where he leads a team dedicated to fostering the connections between people and nature to improve the health of both. Additionally, Forrest serves on the Chicago Audubon Society volunteer board, and founded Out In Nature, an affinity group for LGBTQIA+ people to build community and connect with the outdoors.

Renée DiResta

Technical Research Manager, Stanford Internet Observatory

Renée DiResta is the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching and policy engagement for the study of abuse in current information technologies. Renee investigates the spread of narratives across social and media networks, with an interest in understanding how platform algorithms and affordances intersect with user behavior and factional crowd dynamics. She studies how actors leverage the information ecosystem to exert influence, from domestic activists promoting health misinformation and conspiracy theories, to the full-spectrum information operations executed bystateactors.AtthebehestofSSCI,Reneeledaninvestigation into the Russian Internet Research Agency’s multi-year effort to manipulate American society, and presented public testimony. A year later, she led an additional investigation into influence capabilities that the GRU used alongside its hack-and-leak operations in the 2016 election. Renee has studied influence operations and computational propaganda in the context of pseudoscience conspiracies, terrorist activity, and statesponsored information warfare, and has advised Congress, the State Department, and other academic, civil society, and business organizations on the topic. Renée regularly writes and speaks about technology policy, and influence operations. She is an Ideas contributor at Wired and The Atlantic. Her tech industry writing, analysis, talks, and data visualizations have been featured or covered by numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Yale Review, Fast Company, Politico, TechCrunch, Wired, Slate, Forbes, Buzzfeed, The Economist, Journal of Commerce, and more. She appeared in the documentary The SocialDilemma.Previously,RenéewastheDirectorofResearch at Yonder. She was part of the founding team and ran marketing and business development at Haven, the transportation management technology platform that’s transforming trade logistics for commodity, CPG, and food shippers. Before that, Renée was a Principal at seed-stage venture capital fund O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV), where she invested in early technology startups with a focus on hardware, manufacturing, and logistics companies. She spent seven years on Wall Street asanequityderivativestraderandmarketmakeratJaneStreet, a top quantitative proprietary trading firm in New York City.

Renée is the author of The Hardware Startup: Building your Product, Business, and Brand, published by O’Reilly Media. Renée has degrees in Computer Science and Political Science from the Honors College at SUNY Stony Brook. She is an Emerson Fellow, a 2018-2019 Mozilla Fellow, a 2017 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Council on Foreign Relations term member, and a Truman National Security Fellow. She is a Harvard Berkman-Klein Center affiliate, and is a Founding Advisor to the Center for Humane Technology, and was previously a Staff Associate at the Columbia University Data Science Institute. She is passionate about STEM education and childhood immunization advocacy, and is one of the cofounders of parent advocacy organization Vaccinate California. For fun, she explores data sets and loves cooking and making things. Renée and her husband, Justin Hileman, are the parents of three feisty little people.

Speaker Biographies

Kamran Elahian

Philanthropist • Chairman and Founder, Global Innovation Catalyst

Kamran is Founder and Chairman, Global Innovation Catalyst, LLC and advises various governments on the needed transition from fossil-based economies to sustainable innovation economies. In the past, as a global high-tech entrepreneur, he co- founded ten companies, had 6 exits, 3 of them were Unicorn IPOs with a total market cap of over $8B. For 15 yrs., he was Chairman of Global Catalyst Partners, a global VC firm ($350M under management) with investments in the U.S., Japan, China, India, Israel and Singapore. Underlying his vision for global philanthropy is the conviction that modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations and bridging the social and political differences among people. This vision was reflected in Schools-Online, a nonprofit he cofounded in 1996 to connect the world, one school at a time (6400 schools in 36 countries were provided with computers and access to the Internet) and merged with Relief International in 2003; Global Catalyst Foundation, co-founded in 2000 to improve lives through effective education and empowerment of the youth (with special emphasis on young women) using the leverage of ICT, and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where he served as Co-Chairman (2009-2011).

Teresa Eyring

Executive Director and CEO, Theatre Communications Group the national organization for theatre in the U.S.

Teresa Eyring is Executive Director and CEO of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre in the U.S., with a mission “”to lead for a just and thriving theatre ecology.”” Throughout her career, Teresa has promoted a global approach to theatre, recognizing the interconnectedness of theatre artists and artistry across all borders. She has been a special guest of and delegation leader for numerous international theatre festivals; taught arts leadership workshops in countries like Russia, Sudan, Chile, and Colombia; and she currently serves as an Executive Council member and Vice Chair for the Americas of the International Theatre Institute (ITI).

She is a member of ITI’s Action Committee for Artists Rights and Theatre in Conflict Zones. Under her leadership, TCG co-founded the Global Theatre Initiative with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. This led to sharing the administration of the US Center of the International Theatre Institute. Prior to TCG, Teresa spent more than twenty years as an executive in theatres across the U.S., including the Children’s Theatre Company and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia; and the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. She holds a

Speaker Biographies

BA in International Relations from Stanford University and an MFA in Theatre Administration from Yale School of Drama. In addition to the Executive Council of ITI Worldwide, she serves on the boards of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and the Performing Arts Alliance.

Rachel Faller

Co-Creator, tonlé

Rachel Faller is an entrepreneur by trade and a creative at heart. She dedicates most of her time to rectifying harm within the garmentindustryusingasystemicapproachencouragingpeopletothinkabouttherootof systemic injustice and tackling these issues at their core rather than simply treating the symptoms.

Rachel is a co-creator of tonle – a zero waste, ethical and sustainable fashion line that is both a brand and a manufacturer. Alongside a small but mighty 60-person team, tonlé is setting a newstandardforthefashionindustry:Thatis,tocreateabusiness where everyone benefits and thrives. Tonlé believes in horizontal leadership structures and designing from materials that others consider waste, as well as addressing the root causes of the industry’s problems: namely, capitalism, colonialism, misogyny and white supremacy.

Rachel is also a co-founder at Reclaim Collaborative and writes at Just Fashion, a medium publication that explores the intersection of justice and fashion. Rachel’s personal and community care practices include crafting, painting, mending, gardening, and foraging. She says: “The process of making something or growing something, while in some ways feels like an act of self-preservation or self-reliance — often reminds me of how many people I depend on for my daily existence. I’m reminded of the labor, and hopefully, love, that went into my food and clothing. These practices ground me in reciprocity and the knowledge that, individually — we can’t do much. But collectively, we are powerful.”

David French

American political commentator • Former attorney • Senior editor, The Dispatch

David French is an american political commentator and former attorney. French is a senior editor at The Dispatch and a columnist for Time and is a former major in the United States Army Reserve. He is the author or co-author of several books including, most recently, the No. 1 New York Times bestselling Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore, his new book is Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.

He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and a former lecturer at Cornell Law School. He has served as a senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom. David is a former major in the United States Army Reserve (IRR). In 2007, he deployed to Iraq, serving in Diyala Province as Squadron Judge Advocate for the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Maggie Fox

Co-Founder, Global Biodiversity Narrative Project

Maggie L. Fox is the Founder of MaggieFoxStrategies and Founder of the Global Biodiversity Narrative Project. Her consulting work includes supporting organizations, foundations, and governments in the development and implementation of 21st century strategies with an emphasis on climate change, biodiversity, clean energy, andnarrativecreation.SheisalsotheformerPresidentandCEO of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit organization leading a campaign to help citizens around the world discover the truth about the climate crisis and bring about global change. Along with former Vice President Gore, Maggie has trained hundreds of climate educators from around the world, in Beijing, China, Jakarta, Indonesia, San Francisco, Istanbul, Turkey, and most recently Chicago. She is the past National President of America Votes, and the former Deputy Executive Director of the Sierra Club. With over 30 years’ experience working for progressive change, she is a veteran of numerous political, environmental and national issue campaigns. Maggie has consulted with a number of organizations and foundations on their energy and climate campaigns, including The Hewlett Foundation, The UN Foundation, The Western Conservation Foundation, Western Resource Advocates and The Better World Fund. She currently serves on the board of the Green Fund and Energy Future Coalition and was honored by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment as the 2010 Woman of the Year.

Elena Gaby

Documentary Director and Producer

Elena Gaby is an award-winning director and producer, known for her expertise in documentary film-making. In 2019, she made her feature-length directorial debut with the sci-fi documentary, I AM HUMAN, co-directed by Taryn Southern, which follows three of the world’s first cyborgs as they receive brain-computer interfaces. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and received numerous awards and praise from Wired, The Verge, People, CBS News, The Big Think and Forbes. As a producer, Gaby has collaborated with directors such as Emmy winner Judd Ehrlich and Oscar nominee Morgan Spurlock. Her television credits include Showtime’s Seven Deadly Sins, CNN’s The Hunt, with John Walsh, and CNN’s Inside Man. Her unique identities as a tri-lingual, first generation Brazilian-American, native Nantucket Islander and proud New Yorker all come together to inform her craft. While studying film at Vassar College, she embedded with four undocumented teenagers as they navigated the path to college. This work became her first short film, which won Best Student Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.

Victoria Garrick

Mental Health Advocate, Podcast Host, and former Division I Athlete

Victoria Garrick is a TED Talk speaker, mental health advocate, podcast host, and former Division I Athlete who has amassed 1.5M+ followers across social media where she’s known for her unfiltered campaign, #RealPost. Victoria first began sharing her story of how she battled and overcame depression & anxiety as a student-athlete in her 2017 TED Talk, “The Hidden Opponent,” which has been viewed over 420,000 times. She delivered the talk as a sophomore member of the University of Southern California Women’s Volleyball Team, where she was a four year starter, PAC-12 Champion, and finished her career with the top five most digs in program history. She has been featured in The New York Times’, The Players’ Tribune, E! News, People, Access Hollywood, and is the Founder & CEO of mental health non-profit, The Hidden Opponent, which was recognized as a standout resource for athletes by Kobe Bryant in his novel, “”Geese Are Never Swans.”Shealsobringshermessageofauthenticitytolifedaily on her social media platforms as well as her raw and relatable podcast, Real Pod. Victoria now tours the country speaking at universities and high-schools throughout the country in hopes of de-stigmatizing the conversation around mental health and encouraging all people to be their unfiltered selves

Maurizio Geri

Dr. NATO Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation

Dr. Maurizio Geri is a former analyst on the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) at the NATO Allied Command Transformation in the US, NATO Southern Hub in Italy and NATO HQ in Belgium. He is currently an Assistant at the NATO Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation inLaSpezia,Italy.Dr.Gerihasmorethan20yearsofexperience in research and operations on peace and security, stability operations, democratization and human rights, particularly in the MENA region. He has delivered research for various think tanks including The Carter Center, The Washington Institute for the Near East Policy, the Euro Gulf Information Center, the Italian Center for the High Studies of Defense, Three Stones International and others. He is the author of “”Ethnic minorities indemocratizingMuslimcountries””(PalgraveMacmillan,2018) and he holds a PhD in International Studies from Old Dominion University in Virginia.

Raymond Gifford

Denver Managing Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP

Ray is a former state PUC chairman, think tank president, and First Assistant Attorney General. Through all these “formers,” he has learned a great deal about closely regulated industries from electricity to broadband to natural gas to railroads. His law practice takes him to multiple places: state PUCs, state and federal courts, the FCC, and FERC. Among his lovably academic quirks is an insistence that every regulatory issue confronted in the 21st Century has as its precursor issues that arose with railroads in the 19th Century. That is to say, the economics of network industries remain fundamentally the same whether it involves railroads, transportation, broadband networks, the electric grid, or gas pipelines. While President of The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, Ray co-founded the Institute for Regulatory Law and Economics, an annual seminar for state regulators and staff. He continues to serve as an Executive Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Law School, and regularly teaches a seminar on the law and economics of regulation at CU.

Speaker Biographies

Leo Glaze

Middle School History Teacher, The Waverly School

Leo teaches middle school history at The Waverly School in Pasadena, Ca. He has a B.A. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. in political science and M.A. in history from Arizona State University. Leo has been a middle school history teacher in independent schools for 15 years and this is his 6th year at Waverly. He teaches history from the perspective of traditionally marginalized groups and uses student inquiry and collaboration to create content within various units and concepts. Aside from teaching, Leo spent 2+ years as a member of Waverly’s DEI committee, has facilitated BIPOC high school student and faculty affinity spaces, as well as helped create anti-racist professional development at Waverly. Aside from teaching, Leo presents aspects of his curriculum at numerous education and history conferences across the country. He is an independent equity, education & justice consultant who helps teachers develop and enhance their courses of studies, as well as advises non profit organizations and corporations.

Matija Goljar

Head scout, Silicon Gardens venture fund • Founder, Ustvarjalnik • Creator and Host, Start it up Slovenia!

Matija Goljar is a serial entrepreneur from Slovenia who launched his first company at age 19. After selling it, he became a teacher and founded Ustvarjalnik, a social venture that teaches high schoolers how to earn a living by doing what they love. The program expandedacrossone-thirdoftheschoolsysteminSloveniaand into several other countries. More than a thousand businesses have been formed by the teenagers since its inception. Goljar’s entrepreneurship program was the inspiration of a highly successful TV show, which he hosts every Sunday night, that follows the stories of young entrepreneurs as they put their products into supermarkets around the country. He currently works as the head scout for future startups for the largest private investment fund in Slovenia - Silicon Gardens Fund.

Speaker Biographies

Brad Goode

CWA Musical Director • Associate Professor, Jazz Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Called “the lyrical genius of the trumpet’ by the Chicago Tribune, Brad Goode is a trumpeter, bassist, drummer who has recorded on more than 100 jazz albums. Originally from Chicago, he has performed worldwide as a soloist and as a member of groups led by Jazz legends Eddie Harris, Jack DeJohnette, Curtis Fuller, Ira Sullivan and others. Brad is recognized as a master teacher of trumpet technique, and makes frequent appearances as a soloist and clinician at universities and high schools. His 18 recordings as a leader can be heard on the Delmark, Sunlight, SteepleChase and Origin labels. His latest is “The Brad Goode Quintet Featuring Ernie Watts, That’s Right!” (2018) Brad Goode has served on the faculties of the American Conservatory of Music, New Trier High School, Cuyahoga Community College, the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts and the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is currently associate professor of jazz studies.

Michele Goodwin

Bioethicist • Constitutional Law Scholar • Executive Committee Member of ACLU • Author

Michele Bratcher Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for BiotechnologyandGlobalHealthPolicy.She is the recipient of the 2020-21 Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California. She is also the first law professor at the University of California, Irvine toreceivethisaward.SheisanelectedmemberoftheAmerican Law Institute as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center (the organization central to the founding of bioethics). She is an American Law Institute Adviser for the Restatement Third of Torts: Remedies.

Professor Goodwin is an acclaimed bioethicist, constitutional law scholar, and prolific author. She is credited with helping to establish and shape the health law field. She directed the first ABA accredited health law program in the nation and established the first law center focused on race and bioethics. Her constitutional law scholarship appears or is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review,CaliforniaLawReview,MichiganLawReview,NewYork Law Review, and Northwestern Law Review among others. Her books include Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood (2020); Baby Markets: Money and the Politics of Creating Families (2010); and Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts (2006).

Professor Goodwin is a sought after public commentator and has been featured in print, radio, and television news, including Politico, Salon.com, Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Vox, Mother Jones; ABC News; NBC News; NPR, HBO’s Vice News, and Ms. Magazine among others. She is host of the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast at Ms. Magazine. She is an Executive Committee member of the ACLU.

Dave Grusin

American Composer, Arranger and Pianist

David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and he has won numerous awards for his soundtrack work. Although he has worked in many musical styles, Grusin is often thought of as a jazz artist. Grusin has a filmography of about 100 credits. His many awards include an Oscar for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War, as well as Oscar nominations for The Champ, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Firm, Havana, Heaven Can Wait, and On Golden Pond. He also received a best original song nomination for “It Might Be You” from the film Tootsie. Six of the fourteen cuts on the soundtrack from The Graduate are his. Other film scores he has composed include Three Days of the Condor, The Goonies, Tequila Sunrise, Hope Floats, Random Hearts and his timeless classic The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

For television, he was the conductor for The Andy Williams Show (1963-1965) and the composer of the theme songs for such series as Dan August (1970), Maude (1972), Good Times (1974), Baretta (1975), and St. Elsewhere (1982). He also composed music for individual episodes of each of those shows. His other TV credits include It Takes a Thief, The Wild Wild West, and Columbo - Prescription: Murder (1968). He also did the theme song for One Life to Live (1968) from 1984-92.

Don Grusin

Jazz Keyboardist, Composer, and Record Producer

Don Grusin truly epitomizes the term visionary._ Artist, innovator, educator, performer and advocate for social change, Don Grusin Music and Bad Dog Music are the production houses and publishing entities for this esteemed American composer, producer, arranger and pianist with3Grammy’s,20CD’sandanunstoppableglobalvisionthat infuses everything he does from recording to teaching._ Born in Colorado and influenced mightily by his immigrant father from Latvia, Don grew up as a wannabe cowboy, played sports in school, and always had music as something to fall back on - if you grew up in the Grusin household, you had to play (read: practice) piano. Don started when he was 6, and his musical influences came from square-dancing to country bands at the local grange; from pianists Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Vladimir Horowitz; to his dad’s strolling through the house playing 2nd violin parts of Bartok string quartets.

AlsoofinfluencewastheirsmalltownR&Bradiostationwhere Don digested the music of the great soul and funk bands and singers and immersed the ‘Groove’ into his playing trademark. This early experience was also how his interest in African and Latin American music was born. Adding to this was his older

brother Dave’s influence, who pointed him, unwittingly really, to the great jazz players of the 1950’s-60’s. To complement his interest in world music, Don obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Colorado. He taught as a Fulbright Professor of Economics at the Autonomous University in Guadalajara, Mexico,beforereturningtotheU.S.toenterthemusicbusiness full-time after joining Quincy Jones’ band for a Japan-U.S. tour in the mid 1970s. Don was the creative spark-plug for the acclaimed Atlantic Records fusion ensemble Friendship, and from there proceeded to record and produce scores of albums over the course of the next 35 years – including 20 of his own as well as composing for and producing Ernie Watts’ Grammywinning Quest CD, Musican.

Wendy Guillies

President and CEO, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Wendy Guillies is the president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. With more than $2.5B in assets, the Kauffman Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. The Foundation approaches its work from the middle of the country with a solid Midwest mindset – working to build practical and workable solutions to today’s challenges. Guillies leads the Foundation’s work to boost student achievement in the Kansas City region and to accelerate entrepreneurship across the country. Before becoming CEO, she played an instrumental role in building the Foundation’s local, national, and global reputation as a thought leader and innovator in its fields. Guillies has worked at the Foundation since early 2000 and was named president and CEO in 2015.

Guillies has deep expertise in communications, marketing, organizational development, and talent management. She serves on the boards of Saint Luke’s South Hospital, Folience, Enterprise Bank & Trust, and the Economic Club of Kansas City. The Kansas City Business Journal has named her to the Power 100 list since 2016, and TechWeek KC named her to the Tech 100 list. She was also selected for the 2017 class of the KC Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business. Guillies is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, and a graduate of the University of Nebraska. She lives in Overland Park, Kansas, where she and her husband are the proud parents of two daughters.

LaMont Hamilton

Artist, CU Art Museum’s 2022 Artist-InResidence

LaMont Hamilton (b. 1982) is a multidisciplinary artist. Hamilton’s work deals with the spiritual, ecological and subconscious through sound, installation, performance, poetry and lens based medium. Hamilton has been the recipient of several fellowships and awards including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Artadia Award, ArtMatters Grant and more. His residencies include Skowhegan (’17), Camargo Foundation, MacDowell Colony (MF ’15), MFAH Dora Maar and is currently exhibiting at Colorado University Art Museum.

Speaker Biographies

Laura Harder

Cloud Solutions Architect Technical Strategist for VMWare

As an experienced cyber-security leader, Laura Harder has worked across multiple commercial and government agencies in both large and small firms. Laura’s career has spanned 21 years of military service in both the Army and the Air Force Reserves and over 18 years of private sector experience. She supports multiple agencies and roles including leading the Northern Colorado ISSA chapter. With a passion for cyber security, Laura has focused her military and civilian career around protecting critical information systems. Currently she managing Strategies and Capabilities for the Equinix Cyber Threat Intelligence group, the Equinix Threat Analysis Center (ETAC). Previously, she has served as the Director of Cyber for Xela, LLC, and Director of Industrial Control Systems for Securicon LLC. As a reservists, she is currently serving as a 17S Cyberwarfare officer as the Enterprise Services Flight Commander for the 53rd Network Operations Squadron. She and her team support the the Air Force Information Network for over 950,000 users worldwide.

She has provided insight and experience from multiple roles in information security and cybersecurity projects for government agencies, private sector, and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) environments. Laura’s experience includes leading teams through the RMF process for Assessments and Authorizations (A&A), penetration testing, social engineering, phishing exercises, security assessments (software, hardware, application and mobile) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) assessments. She holds multiple certifications in Information Technology certifications including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification, CompTIA Security +, Scrum Agile Product Owner and Scrum Master Certification, and Microsoft certifications.

Tyrone B. Hayes

Professor & Department Chair of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Professor and Department Chair of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, Tyrone Hayes is best known for his research on the agricultural herbicide atrazine that demonstrates its interference with the development of amphibians’ endocrine systems. In addition to a significant body of research, Tyrone has been the subject of books, articles, and short films including the children’s book, The Frog Scientist, articles in Mother Jones, the New Yorker, a mini-documentary, What’s Motivating Hayes? by film director Jonathan Demme, and a recent academic paper that highlights

Speaker Biographies

Tyrone’sexperiencesasanexampleofhowindustryundermines inconvenient research to the detriment of human health and the environment.

Tyrone Hayes grew up in South Carolina, and, as a child, one of his favorite pastimes was observing and studying the frogs, snakes and other wildlife that lived in the wetlands near his home. His fascination with frogs continued at Harvard University, where he studied organismic and evolutionary biology. He later received a Ph.D. in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Hayes was elected in 2021 to the American Academy of ArtsandSciences(AAAS),a241-year-oldorganizationhonoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders who help solve the world’s most urgent challenges. His research reveals the crucial link between conservation and health and the impacts of agricultural practices on biodiversity.

John Heffernan

President, Foundation for Systemic Change

John Heffernan has over three decades of experience in non-profit leadership roles on five continents. He is currently the president of the Foundation for Systemic Change. Previously he served as: Executive Director for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’ Speak Truth To Power (STTP), the Director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where he established the Genocide Prevention Task Force, Senior Investigator with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) where he led three investigations to the Darfur, Sudan and Afghanistan, where he discovered a mass grave, and was the Chief of Party for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Guyana, South America. He was the founding Executive Director of the DC-based Coalition for International Justice.

John served as Country Representative for the former Yugoslavia for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and managed IRC’s refugee resettlement program in Khartoum, Sudan. John also served as the Vice President of the Business Council for the United Nations in New York City. He was a Coro fellow in San Francisco and has a Master’s from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and BA from UCSB. He is also the board chair for Disability Rights International and board president of Educator’s Institute for Human Rights.

Heather Hurlburt

Director, New Models of Policy Change, New America

Heather Hurlburt directs the New Models of Policy Change project at New America’s PoliticalReformprogram.Herworkexplores the intersection of international affairs policy and domestic political polarization and develops policy approaches that respond to those challenging conditions on topics from trade, climate and political violence to nuclear security. New Models has also become a leading site for analysis and convening around questions of diversity, gender and equity in international affairs.

Inside government and out, she has been a leading participant in and analyst of efforts to shape internationalist foreign policy in the United States. She was a Special Assistant and speechwriter to President Bill Clinton, served in the State Department as a speechwriter and member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning staff, and worked on Capitol Hill and on the US Delegation to the OSCE. She has also held senior positions in international affairs advocacy, including at the International Crisis Group, National Security Network and Human Rights First.

Hurlburt frequently appears in print and broadcast media. She is a co-founder and executive committee member of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, serves on the boards of Saferworld and the Scoville Fellowship, and holds degrees from Brown and George Washington Universities.

Asher Jay

CEO, Hive and Hamlet

Asher Jay is an international adventurer and public figure whose compelling paintings, sculptures, installations, animations, ad campaigns and films have a single purpose: to incite global action on behalf of wildlife conservation.Hertravelstothefrontlinehave madeherwitnessandstory-teller,combating illegal wildlife trafficking, promoting habitat sanctuaries and illuminating humanitarian emergencies. Her core message, again and again, is biodiversity loss during the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. Jay’s laterally associative vision deliversonaclient’scommitmenttoofferservicewhileensuring a healthy planet and a collective wild future. Harnessing the arts to address simple disconnects that prevent individuals from understanding the complexity of the whole, her work is the nexus of storytelling, marketing, public relations, corporate social responsibility, nonprofit impact and philanthropy. Her background in fashion design and development, marketing and merchandising and being the managing director of a company that managed both production lines and large-scale factory planning has equipped her with both business acumen and genuine immersion into the corporate world.

Much of her best-known work spotlights the illegal ivory trade. Recently, Jay opened two permanent exhibits at National Geographic Encounter in New York’s Times Square: a largescale, wall-mounted installation entitled, “Piece of the Planet” and an immersive, soundscaped installation called “Message in a Bottle.” From big name brands like Prada, Biotherm and Adidas to well known nonprofit organizations like WWF, Business for Social Responsibility and National Geographic Society, she is fluent in sensorially evocative visual discourse that transcends normative communication barriers.

Peter Kelly-Detwiler

Energy Professional • Author • Thought leader

Peter Kelly-Detwiler has 30 years of experience in the electric energy industry, with much of his career in competitive power markets. He’s currently a leading consultant in the electric industry, providing strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate the rapid evolution of the electric power grid. Mr. Kelly-Detwiler offers numerous keynotes and workshops on a wide range of topics. He has also written widely on energy issues for Forbes.com and GE, with over 300 articles to his credit. His book on the transformation of electric power markets - “The Energy Switch” - was published by Prometheus Books in June of 2021.

Jodie King

Founder & CEO of Jodie King Media

Many of us remember the feeling of being a young child in art class. We can recall the early wonders of a paintbrush, the magic of making a mess. We can return back to what it felt like to spread tiny wet hands onto a white page, coloring in the spaces until we made the perfect Thanksgiving turkey. And we remember the one kid in class whose work always seemed to be exquisite, with enviable edges, gorgeous lines, and colors that inspired the teacher to hang it on the wall with pride. Jodie King was not that child.

Now a teacher, entrepreneur, and professional artist, multihyphenate Jodie King never grew up expecting to see her art hanging on walls. The South Louisiana-raised wild child was more interested in getting her feet dirty in the bayou than rubbing her elbows in paint. However, ambitious from an early age,Jodieneverhesitatedwhenitcametorollinguphersleeves in order to build the future she desired. When asked how many businesses she’s spearheaded, she responds, “Started, or ran?” From managing one of Houston’s premier restaurants at 23, to starting her own organic clothing company in 2004, Jodie has independently conceived, founded, and ran to epic heights three separate businesses. At 35 she felt the sudden urge to come to the canvas, and soon found it impossible to leave. Her entrepreneurial spirit neighboring that of her passion for painting, she now finds herself at her most ambitious, triumphant, and authentic evolution yet: empowering fellow artists to challenge their status quo and build creatively and financially fulfilling businesses.

Though she carries nearly 20 years of artistic experience under her belt, the genesis of her art business was not exactly based on intuition alone. Several years ago, after suddenly arriving at both a professional and personal impasse, Jodie found herself at a crossroads. Ultimately it all came down to a simple decision: to stay in the safety where she’d been for years, or to listen to the still small voice that had long been gently tapping on her chest. Ultimately, Jodie chose to listen inward, whipping out her easel and paints with a vigor unlike ever before. However, when she first began telling people about the prospect of turning her longtime passion for art into a serious business venture, she was met with the same hesitation societyhasgreetedartistswithforyears.Buthowwillyoumake money? Never one to spend too much time concerned with the opinions of others, Jodie got to work the way she always has. Now with three high-demand online courses, nearly 30k Instagram followers, a spread in Vogue, and workshops all over the world, she wants to teach others how to do the same.

Speaker Biographies

Brad Lancaster

Author • Educator • Designer • Activist • Organizer • Storyteller

Brad Lancaster is the author of the awardwinning book series “”Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond”” and co-founder of NeighborhoodForesters.org. Since 1993 Brad has run a successful permaculture education, design, and consultation businessfocusedonintegratedregenerative approaches to landscape design, planning, policy, and living.

In the Sonoran Desert, with just 11 inches of annual rainfall, he and his brother’s family harvest about 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year on an eighth-acre urban lot and adjoining public right-of-way. This harvested water is then turned into living air conditioners of food-bearing shade trees, abundant gardens, and a thriving landscape incorporating wildlife habitat, beauty, medicinalplants,andmore.Thegoalofhisbookseriesandoverall work is to empower his clients and community to make positive change in their own lives and neighborhoods—by harvesting and enhancingfreeon-siteresourcessuchaswater,sun,wind,shade, community,andmore–inawaythatreciprocallycollaborateswith thenaturalsystemsthatsustainus.It’scatchingon,asevidenced bytensofthousandsofpractitionersanddemandforBrad’swork around the world.

Josh Larsen

Co-Host, Filmspotting • Film Critic, Think Christian

Josh Larsen is the cohost of the radio show and podcast Filmspotting, author of Movies Are Prayers and editor/producer/ podcast host at Think Christian, a website exploring faith and pop culture. His next book, tentatively titled Fear Not! A Christian Appreciation of Horror, is expected in 2023. Larsen’s career began in the newspaper business, where he started as a beat reporter for a weekly community newspaper and eventually became the film critic for the Chicago-based Sun-Times Media. In 2011, he joined the Christian media landscape as editor of Think Christian, and in 2012 he joined the long-running weekly podcast Filmspotting on WBEZ in Chicago. A veteran of the Sundance, Toronto and Chicago international film festivals, he has spoken on film at various colleges and conferences. He has led “Ebert Interruptus”” at the Conference on World Affairs since 2017. Larsen lives in Chicagowithhiswifeandtwodaughters.Youcanconnectwith him on Facebook, Twitter, and Letterboxd as @larsenonfilm.

Speaker Biographies

Dr. KangJae “Jerry” Lee (이강재: 李康在) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management at North Carolina State University. Lee holds a Ph.D. and M.S. degree from the ) is an Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. Lee’s scholarly activities have focused on the issues pertaining to social and environmental justice, racial and ethnic diversity and Assistant Professor in the Department of inclusion, racial discrimination, subjective well-being, and interracial interaction in the context of parks, recreation, tourism, and sport. His research and teaching have been recognized by 2020 Best Research Paper Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management Award from The Academy of Leisure Sciences, the Golden Apple Award in Excellent Teaching and Mentorship at the University of Missouri, the U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship (the highest recognition at North Carolina State University. Lee for doctoral students at Texas A&M), Diversity Scholarship from National Recreation and Park Association, and Korean American Scholarship Foundation. His scholarly activities have been covered by a number of media outlets such as CNN, Bloomberg CityLab, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Defender, and KABC-TV.holds a Ph.D. and M.S. degree from the

KangJae “Jerry” Lee Name

Assistant Professor, Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management, North Carolina State University

Dr. KangJae “Jerry” (

Bio

Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. Lee’s scholarly activities have focused on the issues pertaining to social and environmental justice, racial and ethnic diversity and inclusion, racial discrimination, subjective well-being, and interracial interaction in the context of parks, recreation, tourism, and sport. His research and teaching have been recognized by 2020 Best Research Paper Award from The Academy of Leisure Sciences, the Golden Apple Award in ExcellentTeachingandMentorshipattheUniversityofMissouri, the U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship (the highest recognition for doctoral students at Texas A&M), Diversity Scholarship from National Recreation and Park Association, and Korean American Scholarship Foundation. His scholarly activities have been covered by a number of media outlets such as CNN, Bloomberg CityLab, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Defender, and KABC-TV.

Nicole Masters Author • Regenerative Soil Educator and Soil Coach • Director, Integrity Soils

Nicole Masters is an independent agroecologist,systemsthinkerandeducator. She has a formal background in ecology, soilscienceandorganizationallearning.She has been providing agricultural consulting and extension services since 2003. Nicole is recognized as a knowledgeable and dynamic speaker on the topic of soil health. Her team of soil coaches at Integrity Soils work alongside producers in the U.S., Canada and across Australasia. Supporting producers in taking their operations to the next level in nutrient density, profitability and environmental outcomes. She is one of a growing number of people who are facilitating a rapidly expanding world of quality food production and biological economies.

Jonathan Lundgren

Director, Ecdysis Foundation

Dr. Lundgren is an agroecologist, Director ECDYSIS Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm. One of his priorities is to re-envision how science is conducted to help fuel a revolution in regenerative agriculture. He regularly interacts with the public and farmers around the world regarding ecologically intensive farming and how diversity fuels the resilience and productivity of an agroecosystem and rural communities.

Moses Ma

Managing Partner, FutureLab Consulting

Moses Ma is attempting to live the life of a modern Taoist. Over the years, he has enjoyed being a videogame designer, an artist, an internet visionary, a high tech entrepreneur, a filmmaker, a physicist, a Buddhist and a martial artist. Today, he runs FutureLab, a venture studio with startups in blockchain, enterprise computing, mobile apps, quantum computing and most recently focused on the pandemic management space. But, he says, “In my heart, I’m just a mediocre poet, but one who is deeply fulfilled by an unconventional life.”

Here are three little known facts about Ma: He says, “My earliest memory is of my brother and sister lighting firecrackers and dropping them off the balcony in Hong Kong. I must have been 18 months old, as we immigrated to American the following year. When I was seven, I met Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner on the set of the film Morituri, which was shot on a freighter that my Dad’s pal worked on. Brando was so worried about gaining weight, he’d only eat one hard boiled egg a day during the shoot. Brynner was quite gregarious and loved food. And, in college, I wanted to witness ball lightning, so during thunderstorms, I’d go into nearby mountains hunting for ball lightning or St Elmo’s fire.”

Michael D. McCarty

Black Panther Party alumni • Multicultural story teller

MichaelD.“Mac”McCartywasbornin1950 inChicago.Asayoungman,heattendedSt. Ignatius College Prep, where he started a Black Student Union and was subsequently expelled for his involvement in protests. In 1968, he joined the Black Panther Party as part of the education cadre. He left the party after the assassination of Fred Hampton. He joined the Army in 1972 to avoid being a target of the FBI. After leaving the military, he became an acupuncturist.

In 1992 he discovered the world of professional storytelling, and he has been telling stories and teaching storytelling around the country and around the world ever since. He specializes in stories of African and African-American history and culture, as well as multicultural stories. Since 2014 he has worked in California prisons as part of the Arts In Corrections program, teaching inmates to find, develop and tell their stories. In 2019 McCarty was the subject of the award-winning film, “”The Story of Michael D. McCarty: A Belonging in the USA Documentary”” which shares the life journey of McCarty who even in the face of great obstacles spreads joy wherever he goes. The film follows Michael as he evolves from aspiring scientist to Black Panther Party member, from FBI target to soldier, from drug addict to health nut. The twists and turns of Michael’s life will fill you with hope, laughter and a living example of resilience.

Katrina Miller

Owner, Blackat Video Productions

With an investigative yet artistic lens, Blackat takes an intimate look at the world in which we live. These films often juxtapose the present and the past or are driven by a historical element with the purpose of connecting communities of today. Katrina Miller, owner of Blackat Video Productions! Katrina has been featured in Boulder Lifestyles Magazine, a speaker and panelist at the Rocky Mountain AVExpo, a guest on the KGNU / NAACP radio show, Black Talk, and is currently directing the documentary “This Is [Not] Who We Are,” which explores racial equity and inclusion placing Boulder as a microcosm of the US as a whole.

Justin Moore

Civil Rights Attorney

BorninDallas,TX,JustinMooreisagraduate of Morehouse College and SMU Dedman School of Law. He studied human rights law at University College at the University of Oxford in Oxford, U.K. Moore served as a prosecutor at the Dallas County District Attorney’s office prior to establishing his private practice, which focuses on criminal law,civilrightslitigation,prisonerclemency,policebrutalitycases, sports contract negotiation and campaign management. Some of Moore’s cases have been featured in media outlets in Dallas/ Fort Worth. His work has garnered national media attention in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NBC’s Today Show, CBS Evening News, ABC’s Nightly News, BBC, CNN, Fox News,BETandTheROOT.“Throughmypractice,Iseeknotonly to obtain justice for my clients, but I hope to use each case as a tool to make our justice system equitable and fair for all who may come in contact with it,”” he says.

Outside of his professional endeavors, Moore advocates for mental health awareness, criminal justice reform and social justice.HeisamemberoftheBMWFoundationHerbertQuandt World Responsible Leaders Network. Moore serves as a board member for the prestigious Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture’s Achieve Inspire Motivate program, a unique second chance program for non-violent offenders. He is a partner for Social Venture Partners Dallas. Along with his professional and philanthropic endeavors, Moore speaks regularly about criminal and social justice reform.

Shalini Nataraj

Vice President, Programs, ING Foundation

Shalini Nataraj is currently Vice President of Programs with the Ing Foundation, a private philanthropy focused on advancing human rights. Prior to this, she was with the Global Fund for Women for nine years as Vice President of Programs, leading a global grantmaking program. She then led GFW’s Advocacy and Partnerships program, focusing on partnerships with international organizations like the United Nations, corporations and other funders.

Shalini came to GFW from the Reebok Human Rights Award Program where she was the Associate director for six years focusedonyounghumanrightsactivistsaroundtheworld.Shalini hasdeepexperienceindesigningandimplementingprogramsto promote human rights and systemic, positive change in the lives of marginalized communities, primarily through grant making. She has strong expertise in program design and management, evaluating social change initiatives and in engaging donors in innovative philanthropic enterprises. Shalini has extensive experienceworkingonhumanrightsissues,withaspecificfocus on women’s rights and on addressing societal inequalities with a feminist lens. Shalini’s interests include exploring other cultures throughtravel,musicandfood,biomimicry,doughnuteconomics – a framework for sustainable development combining the concept of planetary boundaries with the complementary concept of social boundaries.

Speaker Biographies

Emma Needell

Filmmaker and Writer

Emma Needell grew up on a solar-powered cattle ranch in rural Colorado. She didn’t have cable television, but thanks to her cinephile parents, she had a robust collectionoffilmstowatchgrowingup.Now, Emma Needell is a writer-director-producer who champions original storytelling. Her talent caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey, who came on to produce her Blacklist script, ‘The Water Man,’ when Needell was 24 years old. The Water Man had its world premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Following its summer theatrical run, the film is now available on Netflix. Needell has since worked in Television in the writers room for Steven Spielberg’s AMAZING STORIES, and with Oscar-winning directors and producers like Ava DuVernay, and on original projects in partnership with Netflix, Anonymous Content, MGM/Orion, Amblin, Apple, and Gaumont TV. Most recently, she was featured on the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and is currently in post-production on a short film that uses virtual production.

Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb

Marriage and Family Therapist • Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist

Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, board certified dance/movement therapist, Laban Movement Analyst and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She is also a Somatic/Body Therapist and uses alternative healing modalities to address psychological, somatic, and spiritual transformation. She currently teaches at the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College. She has a private practice with individuals, families and couples specializing in attachment, trauma, depression, anxiety,identityandlifetransitionissues.Herdiversityexpertise includesworkingwithLGBTQclients,women’sissues,andwith a range of different nationalities, cultures and religious/spiritual practices.HerinternationalDance/MovementTherapyteaching experiences include courses in Vilnius, Lithuania (1997), Tallinn

Speaker Biographies

University, in Tallinn Estonia through a Fulbright Scholar’s Grant (2011) and Inspires Institute in China (2014-present). She has also co-lead students on study abroad programs in the Middle East (2000 & 2009) and Asia/South East Asia (2004-5). She is chair of the American Dance/Movement Therapy Association Alternate Route Educators’ Subcommittee.

Steven Olikara

Founder & President, Millennial Action Project • Candidate for United States Senate in Wisconsin

Steven Olikara is a proud Wisconsinite, the son of Indian immigrants, an entrepreneur, and a nonprofit leader. He attended Wisconsin public schools and graduated as a University of Wisconsin Badger. Steven found his path to public service through music. Growing up in the Greater Milwaukee area, he played in multiple bands and became a DJ for a community-focused radio station—through these experiences, he discovered the power of bringing diverse people together to positively impact communities.

Steven is the founder and former CEO of the Millennial Action Project (MAP), a multi-million dollar national organization launched a decade ago to train young elected officials at the state and congressional levels to build diverse coalitions for real change. MAP’s coalitions have passed forward-thinking legislation that lifts up communities often left out of politics — from voting and criminal justice reforms to entrepreneurship and clean energy.

In 2018, Steven testified before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business on protecting workers in the gig economy. And when the COVID-19 pandemic threatened 2020 elections, he successfully advocated for safe voting reforms as a leader in the Vote Safe Wisconsin Coalition and organized the only statewide bipartisan public service announcement to promote voting.StevenisfeaturedinthenewdocumentaryTheReunited States, which follows Americans who are on the difficult journey of bridging political and racial divides, and hosted the Meeting in Middle America podcast in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center. He has also advised multi-platinum recording artists on youth empowerment and sustainable energy initiatives in Africa. Steven was a member of the U.S. delegation to Kenya for President Obama’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Steven resides in Milwaukee and remains active in his local community, serving on the Boards of The Community, which helps provide opportunities for justice-impacted people, as well as the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Performing Arts in Brookfield, where he grew up performing throughout grade school. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of UW–Madison’s International Division and serves on numerous boards and commissions advancing democracy, national service, and human rights.

George Odhiambo Otieno

Storyteller • Critical Care RN

GeorgeOtieboisaCriticalCareRNwithroots in Kenya and branches in India and Detroit. He has a graduate degree in Accounting and a degree in Nursing. His hobbies are telling African stories, riddles and proverbs to children and adults in hospitals to bridge cultural gap and preserve oral literature for the next generation. He has worked with leading healthcare systems in Detroit and Houston but currently work as an independent Traveling Nurse. His YouTube channel calledFishmongerStorieshasbeenfeaturedinWXYZDETROIT TV Station.

Tina Owens

Organic Farmer, Snowehaven Farm • Former Senior Director of Food & Agriculture Impact at Danone

Throughout her 20+ year history spanning CPG’s Kellogg’s/Kashi and Danone North America,Tinahasworkedattheintersection of regenerative business, financing on farm regenerative transitions, sustainable sourcing, supply chain management, fueling soilcarbonsequestration,costsavings,andtoplinegrowth.She hasbeenattheforefrontofseveraltransformationalshiftswithin thefoodsystem,includingtheNon-GMOProjectmovement,the massive growth of organic brands from the natural food store to mainstream grocery, launching of the Certified Transitional standard, emerging Regenerative Agriculture certifications and unfolding brand carbon neutrality claims.

Tina is passionate about the intersection between soil health, humanhealthandnutrientdensityandtheunlockofregenerative agriculture for on-farm profitability and inter-generational transfer. Since 2016 she has worked within a network of leading thinkers on the links between soil health + human health and is passionate about helping others understand what is at stake within this movement. She has also worked with those who are unlocking the looming molecular mapping of food and other large technological shifts which will drive future food system transparency and consumer understanding of the connection between soil, climate change, and their own health.

Most recently she has focused on developing one of the first comprehensive regenerative finance programs, including kicking off an on-farm ROI tool and securing grant, philanthropic and impact investing dollars to fund the on-farm/ dairy conversion to regenerative agriculture. Tina is a board member at Regenerative Rising, a member of GOOGLE Food Labs, and an advisor to the Culinary Institute of America for their Master’s degree in Sustainable Food Systems. Tina helped return $2M +in profitability to farms through consumer purchases to convert over 7,000 acres to organic certification across 6 commodities (wheat, corn, almonds, sorghum, rice, and dates) at a time of high-single digit growth fueled by this brand initiative. Tina resides in Michigan at Snowehaven Farm where she and her husband raise heritage, organic pork, turkeys, lambs, ducks and more.

Jernej Pangersic

Technical Specialist in Education at Microsoft • Former CEO, Katapult • Co-Founder OPTICYBER3

Jernej Panger_i_ is a Technical Specialist in Education at Microsoft, covering 33 countries in Central & Eastern Europe and some countries in Asia. He works with various stakeholders in transforming education for the 21st century, deploying Microsoft education solutions, which are crucial in the age of remote/hybrid learning. Jernej has been passionate about entrepreneurship from an early age. He was trying different business ideas throughout high school and applied to Watson Institute (headquartered in Boulder) in college. He was one of the first Europeans and the first Slovenian accepted to the program.

Early in his career, Jernej was the Head of mentorship at Ustvarjalnik, a social venture running a network of high school accelerators where students met once per week after classes to discover what they love to do and to turn this into a real business. Over the course of the program, students launch their first startups, thus learning how to transform their ideas into reality. After that, Jernej became the youngest CEO in Slovenia, leading Katapult, the business accelerator focused on helping hardware entrepreneurs bring their idea from the prototype to a finished product stage, between 2016 and 2018. His passions for technology and helping others led him to cofound OPTICYBER3, a cybersecurity startup that focuses on penetration testing and social engineering to help their clients to better secure their infrastructure.

Eliot Peper

Novelist & Strategist

Eliot Peper is a novelist whose speculative thrillers explore the intersection of technology and culture. He is the author of Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Cumulus, True Blue, Neon Fever Dream and the Uncommon series. His books have been praised by The New York Times Book Review, Popular Science, Businessweek, San Francisco Magazine, io9, Boing Boing and Ars Technica. As an independent adviser, Peper has helped build technology businesses, launch publications, design games, make venture investments, publish bestselling books, pioneer new media formats, commercialize new science, refine strategic plans, earn audiences and inspire teams to challenge the status quo. He pursued graduate studies in international affairs, survived dengue fever, translated Virgil’s Aeneid from the original Latin, worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence at a venture capital firm and explored the ancient Himalayan kingdom of Mustang. His writing has appeared in publications like Harvard Business Review, TechCrunch, VICE, Tor.com, The Verge, OneZero and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He has been a speaker at Google, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Comic Con, Future in Review and SXSW.

Speaker Biographies

Debora Plunkett

Cybersecurity Leader • Board Director

Debora Plunkett is a leader with more than 30 years of experience leading large, complex organizations. Culminating a career of U.S. federal service in 2016, she currently is Principal of Plunkett Associates LLC, a consulting business. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and Technology and an Adjunct Professor of Cybersecurity in the University of Maryland’s Graduate School. She serves on the corporate boards of CACI International, Nationwide Insurance, BlueVoyant and Mercury Systems. She is a founding member and Chairman of the Board of Defending Digital Campaigns, a non-profit entity focused on providing free or low-cost cybersecurity services to federal election campaigns. Ms. Plunkett serves on the New York State Cybersecurity Advisory Board and on the Board of Visitors of Towson University. As a federal senior executive, Ms. Plunkett served first as the Deputy Director and thereafter for over four years as the Director of the National Security Agency’s Information Assurance Directorate. As the leader of NSA’s cyber defense, cryptography and information systems security missions, she directed thousands of personnel across NSA’s worldwidepresenceandmanagedamulti-million-dollarbudget. Her efforts enabled continuous innovation and development of strong security solutions and policies for the protection of the classified communications of the United States government, serving the needs of a wide range of consumers from the White House to the war fighter.

Ms. Plunkett also served as the first Senior Advisor to the DirectoroftheNationalSecurityAgency(NSA)forEqualitywhere sheledeffortstodevelopanddeliversolutionstoimproveequality, inclusion and diversity for the highly technical NSA workforce. Her efforts resulted in the identification and implementation of new strategies to address systemic issues. In one year, her breakthrough leadership resulted not only in new NSA policies and processes, but also extended to the broader Intelligence Community (IC) where the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) mandated two of her initiatives for the entire IC. Ms. Plunkett hassignificantexecutiveexperienceinworkingwithindustryand at the senior-most levels of the U.S. government. She served as Director on the National Security Council at the White House in the Administrations of Presidents William Clinton and George W. Bush where she contributed to the development of national cybersecurity policies and programs. Among her many awards are the ranks of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Cryptologic Executive Service by President George W. Bush in 2007 and Distinguished Executive by President Barack Obama in 2012. In 2015 Debora was recognized with the Intelligence Community Equal Opportunity and Diversity Exemplary Leadership Award from the Director of National Intelligence and the Exceptional Civilian Service Award from the NSA Director. A graduate of Towson University with a Bachelor of Science degree, Debora alsoearnedanMBAfromJohnsHopkinsUniversity,andaMaster of Science in National Security Strategy from the National War College. She also completed the Harvard Law School program in Conflict Management and Negotiations, and the Leadership at the Peak program at the Center for Creative Leadership. She values remaining current on best practices in leadership.

Speaker Biographies

Jack Powers

Professor and Interim Dean, Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College

Jack Powers has 20+ years of college teaching experience and is the Interim Dean oftheRoyH.ParkSchoolofCommunications at Ithaca College. In that capacity, he oversees a school of 1500+ undergraduate students across 10 media programs. Previously, he served as Chair of the Department of Media Arts, Sciences in The Park School. The department includes all of the television, film, and photography programs and collectively has more than 1,000 majors. He is first and foremost a teacher and that is what drove him to the field of higher education. Primarily teaching students about the business of the entertainment media industry, he adopts a “learning is doing” pedagogical philosophy. In terms of scholarship, he is interested in media & behavior and ways to improve teaching about entertainment media and has presented at national academic conferences consistently over the past 20 years, most regularly at the Broadcast Education Association’s annual conference. Jack has been able to keep a foot in the industry with regular visits to Los Angeles to be on set on shows such as Modern Family, The Odd Couple, and various network television pilots.

Carl Quintanilla

Anchor, CNBC

Carl Quintanilla is an anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” (M-F, 9AM11AM ET) and “TechCheck” (M-F, 11AM12PM ET/8AM-9AM PT). Since joining NBCUniversal in 1999, Quintanilla has covered a wide range of stories for both CNBC and NBC News — where he was a New York- and Chicago-based correspondent for “Today” and “NBC Nightly News” — including five Olympic games, US Presidential elections, and international military conflicts from Israel to Iraq. As part of NBC’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he shared a national Emmy Award, a DuPont Award, a RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award and broadcast’s highest honor, The Peabody Award. In addition, Quintanilla has reported several primetime, one-hour documentaries on subjects ranging from Twitter and Costco to McDonalds, BMW and Harvard Business School. He also for several years served as a correspondent for HBO’s “”Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.”” Prior to joining NBC, Quintanilla spent six years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Colorado.

Dave Rank

Senior Fellow, Yale University Jackson Institute for Global Affairs • Senior Advisor, The Cohen Group

Dave Rank is the head of the China practice at The Cohen Group, a global business strategy consultancy, a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and teaches at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the University of Wisconsin’s La Follette School of Public Policy. He spent 27 years as a State Department Foreign Service Officer, including his final assignment as Deputy Chief of Mission and, following the 2016 election, as the Charge’ d’Affaires (acting Ambassador) at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. In addition to six Foreign Service assignments in greater China (including Beijing, Shanghai and the American Institute in Taiwan), Dave served in Washington and at the U.S. embassies in Kabul, Athens, and Port Louis (Mauritius). In 2015, he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award for his role in the release of the only AmericanservicememberheldbytheenemyinAfghanistan.Mr. Rank speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, Dari and Greek and received the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Award for the study of languages and their related cultures. He and his wife, Mary, have three children.

Joshua Rhodes, PhD

Research Associate, University of Texas at Austin • Founding Partner, IdeaSmiths LLC

Joshua D. Rhodes, Ph.D. is a Research Associate at The University of Texas at Austin, a non-Resident Fellow at Columbia University, and a Founding partner of IdeaSmiths LLC. His current work is in the area of smart grid and the bulk electricity system,includingspatialsystem-levelapplicationsandimpacts of energy efficiency, resource planning, distributed generation, and storage. He is also interested in policy and the impacts that good policy can have on the efficiency of the micro and macro economy. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes and is an AXIOS Expert Voice. He sits on the boards of the Texas Solar Energy Society and Pecan Street Inc. (Data Advisory Board). He holds a double bachelors in Mathematics and Economics from Stephen F. Austin State University, a masters in Computational Mathematics from Texas A&M University, a masters in Architectural Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He enjoys mountain biking, rock climbing, and a good cup of coffee.

Ed Roberson

Author & Poet, Guggenheim Fellow

EdRobersonistheauthoroftwelvebooksof poetry, most recently MPH and Other Road Poems (Verge Books, 2021) and Asked What Has Changed (Wesleyan University Press, 2021). A former special programs administrator at Rutgers University’s Cook Campus, Roberson has lived in Chicago since 2004 and is an emeritus professor in Northwestern University’s MFA creative writing program. He has also held posts at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Cave Canem retreat for black writers. His honors include the Jackson Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, and the African American Literature and Culture Association’s Stephen Henderson Critics Award. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Roberson has worked as a limnologist’s assistant (conducting research on inland and coastal fresh water systems in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and in Bermuda), as a diver for the Pittsburgh Aquazoo, in an advertising graphics agency, and in the Pittsburgh steel mills.

A’Dae Romero-Briones

Director of Programs Native Agriculture and Food Systems, First Nations Development Institute

A-dae (Kiowa/Cochiti) was born and raised in Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico and comes from the Toyekoyah/Komalty Family from Hog Creek, Oklahoma on the Kiowa side. Mrs. Romero-Briones works as Director of Programs-Native food and Agricultural Program for First Nations Development Institute and Cofounder/director of the California Tribal Fund. She is formerly the Director of Community Development for Pulama Lana’i. She is also the co-founder and former Executive Director of nonprofit for Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico. Mrs. Romero-Briones worked for the University of Arkansas’ Indigenous Food and Agricultural Initiative while she was getting her LLM in Food and Agricultural Law. She wrote extensively about Food Safety, the Produce Safety rule and tribes, and the protection of tribal traditional foods.

A U.S. Fulbright Scholar, Ms. Romero-Briones received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Princeton University, and received a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University’s College of Law, and LLM in Food and Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas. President Obama recognized Adae as a White House Champion of Change in Agriculture. She formerly sat on the National Organic Standards Board (2016-2021) and the Sustainable Ag and Food Systems Funders Policy Committee and a steering committee member for the Funders for Regenerative Agriculture. She is co-chair of the California Foodshed Funders group. And board member at the California Institute for Rural Studies.

Speaker Biographies

Amanda Russell

Entrepreneur • Strategist • Author • Educator

Amanda is widely respected as a leader in business education and an accomplished scholar. By the age of32, she built and sold two businesses, an online fitness subscription community for women and a digital marketing and production company working with some of the biggest names in fitness. After selling her company in 2018, Amanda spent two years in-house as the Chief Marketing Officer responsible for the rebrand of their various acquisitions. She channeled her deep experience, strong industry reputation, and dissatisfaction with the status quo into developing the world’s first fully accredited Influencer Marketing program at UCLA. Her international experience is vast, having taught at some of the top schools in the world, including Bocconi University (Milan), London Business School, Harvard, Wharton School of Business, HEC (Paris),New York University, and The University of Stockholm Business School. Amanda’s novel approach to marketing and influence has made major waves in higher education. Known for breaking barriers, in less than one year Amanda has been the first to create and accredit new MBA and Executive MBA programming at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management(consecutively ranked #1 in the world for marketing). She has been inducted into the Kellogg global executive MBA faculty and is launching the program across institutions and corporations across the world in 2022. Simultaneously, Amanda partnered with the esteemed Kellogg Dean Mohan Sawhney to create a first-of-its-kind influencer marketing program backed by Northwestern and the highly regardedEmeritusExecutiveCertificateprogramwhichisbeing taught across 45 counties.

Russell advises some of the top companies in the world on influencer marketing including Lamborghini, Cedars Sinai , LionsgateandSILK-FAW(thesoon-to-launchworld’sfirsthybrid super sports car) and speaks across the globe on influence and the future of marketing. She also serves as a board member and advisory councils for several organizations including Lamborghini and The University of Richmond Business School.

Her latest book, The Influencer Code, became the official resource for influencer marketing for university programs worldwide, complete with proprietary case studies, exemplary methodologies, and original frameworks. Amanda is currently publishing the official Harvard Business Case for the subject of influencer marketing on a company she consulted for: ZICO Coconut water. She has been interviewed and featured in over 100 media and podcast interviews in the past year alone for her work in influence and marketing. As a former world class runner who came to the United States from Canada, Amanda strongly believes in providing youth opportunities in sports to teach life skills and discipline. In addition to volunteering independently, she holds a board position in the Andy Roddick Foundation.

Speaker Biographies

Maggie Mitchell Salem

Senior Resident Director, National Democratic Institute (NDI)

Maggie Mitchell Salem is NDI’s senior resident director in Tunisia. Maggie has more than 25 years of experience providing assistance to civil society organizations and other groups engaged in civic education; elections; political transitions; and human rights.AstheregionaldirectorfortheMiddle East and North Africa (MENA) at IFES, Maggie oversaw the implementationofvariouselection-focusedprograms,including supporttoIraqiparliamentariansdebatingelectorallawreforms, skills training for poll workers in Jordan, and the development of a groundbreaking online election resource in Farsi. During her 11 years serving as the founding executive director of Qatar Foundation International, Maggie partnered with major global media companies to produce civic education materials and launch online debate programs viewed by millions. In addition to her work with international development organizations, Ms. Salem served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Mumbai and Tel Aviv, and as staff in the Executive Secretariat of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Maggie was a Fulbright Scholar in Syria while studying for her Masters in Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. She received a Bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology from The Johns Hopkins University.

Gavriella Schuster

Executive Board Director • DEI Advocate • Former Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

Gavriella Schuster is a visionary and mission-focused executive and public company director with broad influence on the leading edge of technology-enabled business innovation. A Microsoft veteran who ran its partner ecosystem, Gavriella is a strategic business leader recognized for changing businesses and business models. She has extensive sales, marketing, and product development expertise helping thousands of client companies transform through technology. Gavriella also champions DE&I, as a TEDx Speaker launched #BeCOME and #ALLIES platforms. Over 25 years at Microsoft, Gavriella led significant change initiatives while transforming its relationships with partners and customers. As Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, she reimagined the global partner program, growing it into a powerhouse with more than 90,000 cloud services partners and over 12,000 published marketplace solutions. Earlier roles include the US Enterprise and Cloud Business as well as the global Windows Client Business.

She is also focused on DE&I as a founding executive sponsor and board advisor of the Women in Tech Network and Women in Cloud. She continues to serve on the boards of both organizations as well as the Women Business Collaborative and SHE Community. Strategic advisor for the Berkshire Partners private equity firm, Gavriella is a Member of the Board of Chinasoft International and several leading industry boards.

Danielle SeeWalker

Artist, Writer & Co-Founder of The Red Road Project

Danielle SeeWalker is Hú_kpap_a Lak_óta and a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. She is an artist, writer, activist, and most importantly, mother of two, based in Denver, Colorado. Her visual artwork often incorporates the use of mixed media and experimentation while incorporatingtraditionalNativeAmericanmaterials,scenes,and messaging. Her artwork pays homage to her identity as a Lak_ óta wí_ya_ (woman) and her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America while still acknowledging historical events. Alongside her passion for creating visual art, Danielle is a freelance writer and recently published her first book, titled “Still Here: A Past to Present Insight of Native American People & Culture.” She is also very dedicated to staying connected and involved in her Native community and currently serves as Co-Chair for the Denver American Indian Commission. Danielle has also been working on a personal, passion project since 2013 with her long-time friend called “”The Red Road Project”” which has recently been formed into a 501C3. The focus of the work is to document, through words and photographs, what it means to be Native American in the 21st century by capturing inspiring and positive stories of people and communities within Indian Country.

Elizabeth Shackelford

Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Chicago Council on Global Affairs • Former Diplomat, U.S. Department of State

Elizabeth Shackelford is a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She was a career diplomat with the US Department of State until December 2017, when she resigned in protest of the Trump administration. Her resignation letter was the first to draw widespread attention to the declining state of diplomacy under Donald Trump. As a Foreign Service Officer, Shackelford served in Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, Poland, and Washington, D.C. For her work in South Sudan during the outbreak of civil war in 2013, she received the Barbara Watson Award for Consular Excellence, the Department’s highest honor for consular work. Shackelford is the author of The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age, winner of the 2020 Douglas Dillon Book Award. Shackelford’s op-eds and commentary have been published in numerous outlets including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and Slate. Shackelford has a BA from Duke University and a JD from the University of Pittsburgh.

Vamsi Sistla

Nike, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Reusable Products

In the past Vamsi has founded startups as founding CTO, 15 years of product and technology experience, 5 years of Data Science & Machine Learning experience, including AI and Machine Learning leadership positions for Fortune 100 companies. In the past he mentored entrepreneurs at Microsoft Ventures and Techstars London. Vamsi earned his Masters in Data Sciences from UC Berkeley.

Vamsiisonapersonalmissiontosolveplanetscalechallenges (any of the billion + people problems) by inspiring more youth to take shots at solving planetary challenges, increase the odds of success for those entrepreneurs who are solving such challenges and support them in their growth. He is a donor and mentor for Watson Institute, Uncharted, Women in Voice and an active angel investor.

Petra Škarja

Writer • Bestselling Author • Creator of Publishing House 5KA

“”Be who you are; do what you love!”” is my motto, which I try to live every single day (well, still trying – but I believe every day I am closer to it). Petra Škarja is an author of nine books so far, all of them are bestsellers inSlovenia.Oneofherbookswastranslated in English, Russia, and Croatia, copyrights were sold in China. But more important is the story of her book CAMINO - From Slavery to Freedom, her life story, how she tarnsformed her biggest childhood trauma (years of sexual abuse from mentaly ill uncle) in her biggest strength. She loves nature (especially mountains), sport (especially mountain climbing), and traveling (Myanmar, Shrilanka, China, Venezuela, Mexico ... - you named it).

Her love of books and written words and strong promotion of entrepreneurial mindset (even in artistic areas) motivated her to make a very innovative publishing house named 5ka (“”high five””). 5KA Publishing House received a gold award from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for innovation - could that be a next ground on how to transform worldwide publishing houses?ComingfromtheformersocialisticcountryofYugoslavia she strongly supports an entrepreneurial way of thinking and acting. “”We should be more entrepreneurial because that gives you freedom and creativity in work. Everyone should work what they love to do.”” She was also one of three founders of the company 500 women entrepreneurs, where they organized the biggest event for women entrepreneurs in Slovenia. After a few years, they sold the company, because: “”My heart is in books. I strongly believe there are stories that deserve to live forever – so why not put them in a book. Yes, by it, you can change someone’s life and do something good for others and with it for the whole world. Isn’t that the point of living? Doing good for yourself, for others, and for the whole world.”

Speaker Biographies

Donna Sollenberger

EVP & CEO, University of Texas Medical Branch

Donna Sollenberger founded The Sollenberger Group in 2020 to assist healthcareleadersandboardswithstrategic and operational planning, operational assessments and implementation plans to identify and achieve opportunities to deliver high quality services at market competitive costs. As an executive leader of major academic healthcare organizations for over twenty-five years, Sollenberger’s understanding of healthcare’s challenges and what it takes to develop and implement successful strategies to respond to market and competitive forces provide a solid foundation for assisting executive leaders and boards in achieving exceptional results. She actively coaches healthcare leaders and teams. From 2009 through August 2019, Donna K. Sollenberger served as Executive Vice President and Health System CEO of UTMB Health, where she was responsible for clinical and financial strategy and operations of six hospitals, 90 clinics and 83 correctional managed care clinics and infirmaries, as well as institutional planning, finance and operations.

During her tenure, UTMB Health expanded from one campus with two hospitals and several dozen clinics to four campuses with six hospitals and 173 ambulatory and correctional care clinics throughout Texas. She led planning and occupancy of the UTMB Jennie Sealy Hospital in April of 2015 and the UTMB League City Hospital in June of 2015. Her tenure was marked by significant organizational growth. Sollenberger led collaborations for clinical care, chief among them the collaboration between UTMB Health and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center at the UTMB Health-League City Campus. Prior to UTMB Health, Sollenberger served as EVP and CEO of Baylor Clinics and Hospital, President and CEO of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, EVP and COO of CityofHopeCancerCenter,andVicePresidentforHospitaland Clinics at MD Anderson Cancer Center. During her career, she planned major hospitals at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Alkek Hospital),theCityofHopeCancerCenter(HelfordHospital),the American Family Children’s Hospital at UW Health in Madison, WI, the Baylor Hospital in Houston, and the Jennie Sealy Hospital and the League City Hospital, both at UTMB Health. Ms. Sollenberger served on the board of America’s Essential Hospitals from 2013-2019 where she also served as the board chairandwasamemberoftheFinance,Nominating,andPolicy Advisory Committees. She was a member of Vizient’s Data and Analytics Committee and the Vizient Quality and Accountability Committee, as well as various boards and committees of the American Hospital Association and Wisconsin Hospital Association. She continues to serve on the University of IllinoisChicago Health’s Chancellor’s Advisory Council, the University of California San Diego Health System Chancellor’s Advisory Board, the Oregon Health Sciences University Health System Advisory Board, and is a member of the board of Nordic Consulting. She is a past member of the University of Illinois Alumni Board, Inacom IT Consulting, and Madison Gas and Electric Company (traded as MGEE).

Duringhercareer,shereceivedmanyawardsandrecognitions, chief among them the University of Illinois Distinguished Alumni 49

Speaker Biographies

Award (2005) and Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women in Healthcare (2007). She was the 2016 commencement speaker at the University of Illinois – Springfield. Sollenberger earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois-Springfield.

Michael Spencer

Freelance Performance Maker, Director and Writer

In 1991 Michael become the first person in the UK to receive an MA in Theatre Design, which became the catalyst for a teaching career alongside continuing professional practice. For fifteen years Michael was responsible for leading what was the BA Theatre Design course at Central Saint Martins in London into an expanded field embracing the idea of the designer as auteur. He went on to run the MA Performance Design & Practice course for a further six years. His art practice, like his teaching, reflects the shift in the role of designer. Highlights includes: a site specific ‘Attempts On Her Life’ (MartinCrimp)featuringthesimultaneouspresentationofthe17 scenes in a disused gas facilities building in Colorado Springs, a devised solo performance triptych, Variation, Verification & Vindication and a performing role within his own design for ‘The Anatomy of Integers & Permutations’ (Andrew and Jennifer Granville), a text based on a mathematical theory, performed at both Princeton and Berkeley. His practice provokes questions surrounding the definition of performance in works such as p e r f o r m 2 4 1 1 1 5 (London) and p e f o r m 2 3 0 6 1 9 (Prague) where people passing through a public space were given the option to perform through the intervention of chairs suggesting a silent auditorium. He also recently completed Transformation Exchange, a residency in Granary Square, London, attempting to connect those regularly inhabiting a newly created public space to the rapid changes taking place. Now semi-retired, his recent work is based around improvisation for wellbeing, most notably for participants who are over 65 years old. He is currently director of the Southwark Playhouse Elders Company in London. Michael has presented at USITT conferences, spoken at two previous CWA conferences, represented the UK at the OISTAT symposiums, written various articles for the Society of British Theatre Designers journal, ‘Blue Pages’ and attended the last five Prague Quadrennials, co-curating the UK schools exhibit on three occasions and creating a unique series of student workshops.

Margo Squire

International Affairs Consultant • Retired Foreign Services Officer, U.S. Department of State

A career diplomat for thirty years with the US Department of State, I served in Munich, Moscow, Melbourne, Baku, Ankara, and Washington. Retired in 2014, I returned to the State Department from August 2020July 2021 as Cultural Affairs Specialist in our embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, supporting 27 American Corners across the country and organizing civic education programs directed at students and young adults. Highlights of myStateDepartmentcareerincludemanagingUSgovernmentfunded democracy building programs throughout the former Soviet Union, including rule of law, policing, civil society, elections and free media. I also supported the press work of our 54 US embassies across Europe and Eurasia, and developed communications strategies for major events across the region, suchasthecolorrevolutionsinUkraineandGeorgia.AsDirector of the Office of Strategic Communications and Outreach of the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, my work included building public and congressional support for US-led efforts to remove chemical weapons from Syria and strengthening treaties for nuclear and biological weapons. I have a BA from Dartmouth College and an MA from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Since retiring, I have worked as a consultant in international affairs, speaking with groups on US foreign policy and threw myself into my life-long passion for art history, leading tours at three Minneapolis art museums. I am married to another former diplomat, Ross Wilson and have two adult sons.

Mark Joseph Stern

Supreme Court Correspondent, Slate Magazine

Mark Joseph Stern is a staff writer covering courts and the law for Slate Magazine. Based in Washington, D.C., he has covered the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate and district courts, and state and local courts since 2013. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Mark holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in History and Art History from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Maryland Bar. His areas of expertise include LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights, criminal justice, U.S. territorial law, and Supreme Court jurisprudence. Mark is the author of American Justice 2019: The Roberts Courts Arrives, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. He has published articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Week, The American Prospect, and coauthored several law review articles. When Slate writers chose to unionize in 2018, Mark served on the publication’s organizing and bargaining committee. He and his husband have one rescue dog, Lucy, and three adopted parakeets: Limoncello, Lorenzo, and Bianca.

Matthew Stinchcomb

Co-founder and former CEO, Etsy.com • Co-founder, Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley

Matt Stinchcomb is a director and cofounder of Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley, an organization that provides human, social, and financial capital to local communities who are working to repair our natural systems and tackle the climate crisis.

Stinchcomb was part of the founding team at Etsy. com, an online marketplace for 4.5 million craftspeople and entrepreneurs. Over his ten years with the company, he served in several executive roles, most recently as VP, of Values and

Impact, where he oversaw the stewardship of the company’s mission, and sought to give all employees the means and the desire to maximize the benefit their work has on people and the planet. Etsy was the first certified B Corporation to go public. He later became the Executive Director of etsy.org- a non profit, now called the Good Work Institute, that supports people to work in ways that advance just economic transition.

Additionally,heisaco-founderofPlaceCorps,aneducational program for 18 to 22 Year olds dedicated to cultivating a call to know, love, and serve our places.

Stinchcomb serves on the board of directors for the Schumacher Center for New Economics (Chair) and the Hawthorne Valley Association (Co-Chair). He lives in Gallatin, NY with his wife and three children.

Ty Tashiro

Author and Social Scientist

Ty Tashiro, is a social scientist, relationship expert, and the author of two books: The Science of Happily Ever After and Awkward: TheScienceofWhyWe’reSociallyAwkward and Why That’s Awesome. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota and has been an award-winning professor at the University of Maryland and the University of Colorado. He lives in New York City.

Robin Thompson

Expert in Infectious Disease Epidemic Modelling • Dr, University of Warwick, UK

DrRobinThompsonisanexpertininfectious diseaseepidemicmodellingattheUniversity of Warwick, UK. He leads a research group that is interested in developing and analysing mathematical models for guiding control interventions during outbreaks of pathogens in populations of humans, animals and plants. In 2019, Robin helped to develop one of the main approaches used to estimate the “R number” – at a time when no-one had heard of the R number! In January 2020, Robin wrote one of the first scientific research articles about the COVID-19 pandemic, when cases had only been observed in China. This research highlighted the pandemic potential of the novel coronavirus, indicated the need for rigorous surveillance and interventions to prevent global transmission. It was selected as one of the World Health Organization’s “must read” publications in February 2020.

Since then, Robin’s research has continued to focus on COVID-19, including conducting research for the UK Government advisory group SPI-M. He has been interviewed on the radio and television about infectious disease epidemic modelling, and featured in newspapers and magazines including Time Magazine and New Scientist. One of Robin’s public lectures about epidemic modelling has been viewed over 100,000 times across different platforms. Robin enjoys travelling, and he collaborates with researchers and policy advisors in countries including USA and Japan. When not doing research, Robin enjoys playing cricket.

Speaker Biographies

Kara Mitchell Viesca

Associate Professor of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Kara Mitchell Viesca, PhD, is an associate professorofTeaching,LearningandTeacher Education at the University of NebraskaLincoln. Her scholarship focuses on advancing equity in the policy and practice of teacher development, particularly for teachers of multilingual learners. She has served as the lead PI on $4.6 million of federal grants focused on supporting teacher development for teachers of multilingual learners and published her scholarship in many leading journals for educational research. Her work takes a particular focus on racial equity, which is why she was selected to be one of six scholars to colead the anti-racist journey called for by her campus leadership. She is also a member of the leadership team offering Racial Literacy Roundtables each semester for pre-service teachers in her college.

Shawn D. Walton

C.E.O., Everybody Eats Together • Executive Director, Wecycle Atlanta Inc.

Shawn Walton is the Atlanta native who graduated from Tri-Cities High School and Morehouse College. Two historic institutions connected by one road in South West Atlanta. Shawn is an Outkast loving, community activist, mentor, humanitarian, entrepreneur and father of a 6-year-old. Walton is an educator with a strong focus on bettering the city of Atlanta, especially the historic Ashview Heights community. In July of 2011, Walton founded WeCycle Atlanta Inc., a coop bike shop that provides access to bicycles, fresh local produce, cycling, and agricultural education to youth and lowincome residents. As the Executive Director, he collaborates with families and institutions in order to help create a more responsive neighborhood economy. By using his background in education to help educate others on the importance of utilizing sustainable resources, he is not only giving back to the community, but he is cultivating a safe space that allows families to increase their productivity levels and overall success rates by simply presenting opportunities.

He currently holds the title of Atlanta Developer in life and project; spearheading the Everybody Eats Together Food Hub Iniative. This food coordinating collective and community development agency specializes in revitalizing low-income and degraded black communities using agriculture as an economic driver and engagement tool. Their work and consultation has aided the City of Atlanta and surrounding institutions obtain over $33 Million in Federal funding to revitalize black communities in West Atlanta, most notably through their revitalizing of Ashview Heights through their work in the Ashview Community Garden. Their current project has turned their crime attracting corner store into a community

Speaker Biographies

owned and operated food hub after a successful 500k investor round to complete Atlanta’s 1st Black owned and operated food hub in Atlanta 1st planned African American community of Ashview Heights; while providing access to nutrients rich food to neighbors in Ashview Heights.

Nancy Wang

Founder and CEO, Advancing Women in Tech • General Manager at Amazon Web Services Backup and Data Protection Services

Nancy Wang is a General Manager at Amazon Web Services, where she leads P&L, product, engineering, and design for its data protection and governance businesses. Prior to Amazon, she led SaaS product development at Rubrik, the fastest-growing enterprise software unicorn and built healthdata.gov for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Passionate about advancing more women into technical roles, Nancy is the founder & CEO of Advancing Women in Tech, a global 501(c) (3) nonprofit with 16,000+ members spanning three continents.

Nancy is an angel investor in data security and compliance companies and is an LP of seed- and growth-stage funds such as Operator Collective and IVP. As an Advisor for Felicis Ventures, she works closely with startup teams on product and earlytechstackdevelopment.Sheearnedadegreeincomputer science from the University of Pennsylvania, where she serves on the Board of Directors for the UPenn School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Ernie Watts

Jazz Musician & Composer

Two-time Grammy Award winner Ernie Watts first picked up a saxophone over sixty years ago, at 13. At 14 he first heard John Coltrane, and his course in music was set. While learning classical saxophone, he taught himself jazz by ear, and won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. When there he was asked to join Buddy Rich’s band, and began his professional career at 20. In 1968 he moved to LA, recording in the studios for film, TV, and music. He played on over 500 recordings ranging from Cannonball Adderley to Frank Zappa, and films like The Color Purple, always with his unforgettable trademark sound. When chosen by Charlie Haden’s Quartet West in 1985, Watts began a return to live jazz as his primary work. He tours extensively with his own quartets in the US and EU, as a feature artist, and with college and university groups.

He and his wife Patricia began Flying Dolphin Records in 2004, for creative control of his music. In 2014, he received the prestigious Frankfurt Music Prize, one of only 6 winners in 30 years to be jazz players. In 2017, he was Guest of Honor at the Telluride Music Festival. Based in California, he is rarely home, but shares his jazz sound worldwide. (COVID-19 has kept him home since March 2020, but slowly work is returning now, in April 2021.) He is healthy at 75, and filled with joy in music. “He is one of the greatest living tenor saxophonists, not only at the top of his game, but the top of the game.” Ian Patterson, All About Jazz.

Jevin West

Associate Professor, University of Washington

Jevin West is an Associate Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. He is the Director of the new Center for an Informed Public at UW aimed at resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society and strengthening democratic discourse. He is alsotheco-founderoftheDataLabatUW,aDataScienceFellow at the eScience Institute, and Affiliate Faculty for the Center for Statistics&SocialSciences. Hisresearchandteachingfocuson the impact of technology on science and society, with a focus on slowing the spread of misinformation. He is also the co-author of the new book, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a DataDriven World, which helps non-experts question numbers, data, and statistics without an advanced degree in data science.

Marc White

Founding Partner, Rid-All Green Partnership

Marc White - Fashion Designer, Humanitarian, Regenerative Specialist, Farmer, and Founding Partner of The Rid-All Green Partnership. As a student of life, Marc has spent his career drawing inspiration from nature and the creation to form his unique design aesthetic. He has a philosophical vision of “traditional” clothing and culture that translates into completely modern sartorially pleasing and covetable wear. He brings vitality and art to a segment of this industry that was considered out of touch with the urban community for years. His products are classified green, focusing on providing sustainable and affordable articles made with longevity in mind.

As with clothing, Marc saw early on that the human body is the original canvas of God’s creative expression. He also saw that contemporary standards of beauty were not favoring the innate resident beauty that every human naturally possessed; creating low self-esteem and identity crises in many people. To echo Marc “We are an outer reflection of an inner condition.” Optimum health through nutrition and righteous thinking plays a major role when it comes to our aesthetic beauty and overall wellness.

Living abroad between 1990 and 2010, Marc had the opportunity to reside in West Africa, Israel and Europe. Steeped in the deep rich culture of his journeys, he has gleaned much creative inspiration from this exposure. In 2003 Marc CoFounded the Dimona Greening Company, an urban greening company in Southern Israel whose objective was to raise the greenstandardsandpracticesofthepeoplethere.Thisinitiative fostered personal and environmental consciousness towards a more sustainable and regenerative life. In the Fall of 2011

Marc was propositioned by longtime friends, fraternity brothers and Rid-all Co-founders Keymah, Damien and Randy to come back to Cleveland, manage the project and bring his spirit to the farm. Marc has produced a line of clothing and products that demonstrated a combination of utility and elegance called “Reconstructed”, as well as a regenerative juice and food product line called “The Urban Farm Doctor’s” super food product line. Marc specializes in growing relationships, healing herbs and succulent plants seen and experienced every time you come by their farm.

Thomas Chatterton Williams

Author, Contributing Writer at the New York Times Magazine, Columnist at Harper’s, 2019 New America Fellow, Visiting Fellow at AEI

Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of Losing My Cool and Self-Portrait in Black and White. He is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, a Columnist at Harper’s, a 2019 New America Fellow and a visiting fellow at AEI. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, Le Monde and many other places, and has been collected in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing. He has received support from Yaddo, MacDowell and The American Academy in Berlin, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. His next book, Nothing Was the Same: The Pandemic Summer of George Floyd and the Shift in Western Consciousness, will be published by Knopf.

Ross Wilson

Ambassador • Chargé d’Affaires to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Ross Wilson is an American diplomat who served five times as a US chief of mission abroad – as ambassador to Azerbaijan (2000-03) and to Turkey (2005-08) and as chargé d’affaires in Turkey (2014), Georgia (2018-19), and Afghanistan (from January 2020 until the embassy’s suspension of operations on August 30, 2021). A career Foreign Service officer, Ambassador Wilson also had postings at the US embassies in Moscow (twice) and Prague and as consul general in Melbourne, Australia. Among Washington assignments, he was deputy executive secretary of the State Department; principal deputy to the ambassador-at-large and special advisor to the Secretary of State for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union; chief US negotiator for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.

From 2010 to 2014, Ambassador Wilson was director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, where he led Council work on Turkey, the former Soviet states, and regional energy and economic issues. He has held positions as a visiting lecturer in international affairs at George Washington University, Bigelow teacher-in-residence at Carleton College, chair of the Board of Directors of Global Minnesota (a World Affairs Council affiliate based in Minneapolis), chair of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Turkish Studies, and on advisory councils for the Eurasia Foundation and American Voices.

The recipient of a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and master’s degrees from Columbia University and the US National War College, Ambassador Wilson has been awarded the president’s Meritorious Service Award and numerous State Department awards and honors. He holds memberships in the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, and the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs. A descendant of Choctaw Indians, he is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He is married to Margo Squire, also an American Foreign Service officer, and lives in western Wisconsin.

Speaker Biographies

Nitida Wongthipkongka

Venture Director, Rippleworks

Nitida Wongthipkongka is a social impact strategist. Currently, she is a Venture Director at Rippleworks, a foundation that supports scaling social ventures. She works to identify the most impactful social ventures in the world to drive the growth of Rippleworks’ projects portfolio and expanding the business performance of these ventures. She also builds relationships with leading investors, funders, and ecosystem partners globally to identify and assess impactful social ventures to support their growth and scale. Prior to Rippleworks, Nitida was a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group and had several roles building health-focused social businesses in emerging markets. At SC Johnson (SCJ) she provided strategic direction to support the delivery of the Base of the Pyramid team’s mission, which is to enable mosquito-borne disease prevention in global communities by creating access to and delivering affordable product offerings through market-driven models. She led the development of partnerships, design and delivery of new business models, and new product launches in Asia and Africa. Prior to SCJ, she worked at a water and sanitation nonprofit in Kenya where she supported the development of social businesses in Ghana and Kenya. Nitida holds an MBA and SM in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and Africa and travels extensively.