Economic Topic Expert
Dr. Alanah Mitchell is the Aliber Distinguished Professor in the Zimpleman College of Business at Drake University. She holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Professor Mitchell’s research focuses on the design, implementation, and use of information and communication technologies for collaboration, specifically in global virtual teams. Additionally, she researches in areas of e-commerce and information systems pedagogy. She has published in such journals as Business Horizons, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, Electronic Markets, Information Technology and People, IT Professional, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, and Organizational Dynamics as well as others. Alanah is a Distinguished Member - Cum Laude of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) as well as a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). More information can be found on her website: https://www.alanahmitchell.com/
Political Topic Expert
Brenna Bird was elected as the Attorney General in January 2023. Before taking office, Bird served as a prosecutor for six years, first as the Fremont County Attorney and then since 2018 as the Guthrie County Attorney. She was elected by her fellow county attorneys to leadership roles with the Iowa County Attorney Association, most recently serving as the Association's President. Bird has also engaged in the private practice of law, worked in the Iowa Governor's Office and the U.S. House of Representatives, and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. Born and raised on an Iowa farm where she was homeschooled, Brenna graduated from Drake University and went on to receive her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as symposium editor of the school’s law journal. In addition to her law studies, Brenna also helped entrepreneurs on Chicago’s South Side start their own businesses.
ScientificTopic Expert
Dan Hoy has been interested in space and space exploration since watching the NASA Gemini and Apollo missions as a pre-teen in the 1960s and 70s. He currently serves as an officer and founding member of the Iowa Chapter of the National Space Society, an organization that advocates for scientific development and education on outer space topics. Mr. Hoy plays an active role in the NSS, keeping up-to-date on the newest developments in outer space research and expeditions. His special interests include planetary science, cosmology, and developing an interest in space among central Iowa youth. As a civilian, he represents the high level of expertise that everyday people bring to the study of outer space.
Technological Topic Expert
Josh Mandelbaum is a senior attorney with ELPC, based in Des Moines. Josh’s practice focus is clean energy and clean water. His work helps facilitate Iowa and the Midwest’s transition to a clean energy economy, and ensures Iowa’s water is clean and safe. Before joining ELPC, Josh practiced law with Lane & Waterman LLP in Davenport, Iowa. Previously, Josh served as a senior policy advisor to Iowa Gov. Thomas J. Vilsack and Lt. Gov. Sally J. Pederson. Prior to his work in the governor’s office, Josh held a fellowship at the U.S. Department of Transportation in the Secretary’s Policy Office. Josh is a 2000 Truman Scholar, a 2001 magna cum laude graduate of Brown University, and a 2009 honors graduate from the University of Iowa College of Law. Outside of ELPC, Josh currently serves on the Des Moines City Council.
Leslie Schaffer has over 30 years of non-profit management experience across the United States, mostly with the American Red Cross. She has served in several leadership positions throughout her career including Chapter Executive in Northern Nevada in Reno and Deputy Regional Officer in the Mountain Pacific Region headquartered in Las Vegas.
Almost 20 years ago she moved to Des Moines to serve as the Central Iowa Chapter Executive. During that time, she led restructure efforts ultimately consolidating 19 chapters in Iowa into three chapters. She served as the Regional Executive in Iowa for over 10 years leading the Field Realignment initiative as Nebraska and Iowa consolidated into one Region.
No stranger to large Disaster Relief Operations she has deployed in Fundraising, Public Affairs and Chapter Liaison functions but most recently as a member of the Elected Officials Liaison Network for Hurricanes Michael, Ida, Ian and tornado and flood events in Nebraska and Iowa. She was born and raised in Oregon and graduated from Oregon State University followed by graduate school at Washington State University. She lives in Des Moines with my husband Steve Bennett. Together they have a blended family of 5 grown children and 5 grandchildren. During her free time she likes to swim, golf, DIY projects around the house, and entertain.
Colonel Laura J. Calese is a Soldier and Joint Force lawyer in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps who recently completed a tour as Staff Judge Advocate (General Counsel) for United States Strategic Command, a four-star combatant command consisting of over 150,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. She leads a team in an advanced national security law practice involving Strategic Deterrence, Nuclear Planning and Operations, Global Strike, Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations, and the modernization of the Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) Enterprise.
She previously served the Secretary of Defense and Department of Defense (DoD) General Counsel in congressionally mandated work as the dual-hatted Director of the Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces (DAC-IPAD), and Executive Director, Military Justice Review Panel, developing reform options to improve responses to sexual assault in the military justice system.
She served as the SJA for the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), overseeing legal support to operations in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, U.S. border security support, and to the COVID health protection response. She also served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff advising on international and fiscal laws affecting special operations. She represented the DoD in international negotiations for logistics agreements with the European Union and was lead counsel for DoD for new security cooperation legislation implementation. She was the legal advisor for the Chairman’s cross-functional team to address security threats posed by North Korea.
Previous duty assignments include: Legal Advisor, Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, Embassy of the United States, Baghdad, Iraq; Assignments Officer for the Army JAG Corps; and Associate Dean of Students and Professor, Contract and Fiscal Law, The Judge Advocate General’s School, Charlottesville, Virginia. U.S. postings include Colorado, California, Kansas, and Missouri as legal advisor for both operational and training commands, and as a Trial Defense Service litigator representing Soldiers. Overseas tours include Germany and Iraq as a legal advisor to brigade combat teams, and in Afghanistan as SJA to U.S. and NATO forces.
Colonel Calese holds a B.A. in International Relations from the Pennsylvania State University, with a minor focusing on Development Economics. She received her J.D. with honors from the University of Denver College of Law. She earned a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) from the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s School in Charlottesville, Virginia and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy as Honor Graduate from the Eisenhower School, National Defense University, at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. She is an active member of the Colorado bar.
2024 Keynote Speaker
Sara Veldhuizen Sealy
U.S. State Department Diplomat in Residence, Central United States
Sara Stealy joined the Foreign Service in 2008 and currently serves as the diplomat in residence for the Central region, which encompasses North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. Her overseas assignments include public affairs officer in Vilnius, Lithuania; press attaché in Accra, Ghana; consular-political-economic officer in Riga, Latvia; and deputy public affairs officer in Lusaka, Zambia. She has also served in Washington, D.C., as the State Department’s first global new media advisor for Consular Affairs, where she trained consular and public affairs sections on using digital platforms for outreach and crisis communications.
Born and raised in Oskaloosa, Sara was a first-gen college student and earned bachelor’s degrees in theatre/speech and communications from Northwestern College of Iowa. She has worked in the front offices of two minor league sports teams, as a meeting services manager for a hotel convention center, and as a marketing manager for a national accounting and consulting firm. Sara was pursuing a master’s degree in international studies with an emphasis on Africa at North Carolina State University when she joined the Foreign Service. She is accompanied in the Foreign Service adventure by her husband, Dave, an Iowa State grad from Cedar Falls. Sara speaks Latvian, Lithuanian and French and is proud to hold several blue ribbons in horseshoe pitching from the Iowa State Fair.