Meet the Women Shaping AI & Data Science

Speaking at

Keynote

October 26, 2026, 9:15 AM - 10:00 AM (America/Chicago)

About

Meredith Broussard is a professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University and the research director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology. She is the author of the book, More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech (MIT Press, 2023), as well as the awardwinning 2018 book Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence in investigative reporting, with particular interests reporting, with particular interests in AI ethics and using data analysis for social good. She appears in the Emmy-nominated documentary “Coded Bias,” now streaming on Netflix. Her work has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute of Museum & Library Services, and the Tow Center at Columbia Journalism School. A former features editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, she has also worked as a software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and the MIT Media Lab. Her features and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Vox, and other outlets.

Speaking at

Beyond the AI Title: Why Responsible AI Needs All Women Across the Organization

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Dr. Elizabeth M. Adams is an award-winning global responsible AI strategist, keynote speaker, author, educator, and fifth-generation Minnesotan. She helps leaders build more human-centered, trustworthy approaches to AI adoption and governance. Dr. Adams is a LinkedIn Top Voice, a Forbes-recognized AI ethics leader, and the author of In the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Choosing Purpose Before Code.

Speaking at

The Judgment Advantage: Leading When AI Has the Answers

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Amber Ansari is an AI Governance leader, TEDx and keynote speaker, and AI educator with over 15 years of experience in advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. She helps enterprises translate AI innovation into responsible business outcomes by building practical governance, risk management, and AI adoption strategies. Alongside her industry leadership, Amber has spent years teaching AI and data science to professionals, making complex concepts accessible to both technical and executive audiences. Through speaking, writing, and executive education, Amber empowers modern day enterprises to lead in the age of AI by asking better questions, making better decisions, and keeping people at the center of technological change.

Speaking at

The Women's Health Data Gap: What Menopause Reveals About AI

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Dr. Robin Austin is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and Director of the Center for AI and Nursing Informatics. With more than 20 years of clinical experience and dual training as a nurse and chiropractor, she integrates nursing informatics, data science, and artificial intelligence to advance whole-person health. Her research focuses on building data infrastructure for women's health, with emphasis on menopause, patient-generated health data, standardized terminologies, and AI-ready healthcare. Dr. Austin is a Research Mentee with The Menopause Society and a Fellow of both the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA) and the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN).

Speaking at

What Training 500 Non-Technical Professionals Taught Me About Why AI Pilots Stall in Regulated Industries

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Michelle Fields is CEO and Co-Founder of AI Mentors, a certified Women-Owned Small Business helping regulated industries move from AI experimentation to confident, governed adoption. Her clients span healthcare, legal, finance, and the nonprofit sector, including executive AI training for a national teleradiology practice and a 26-session generative AI accelerator delivered with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Before founding AI Mentors, Michelle spent more than 20 years leading enterprise marketing at brands including Nike, John Deere, and Eddie Bauer, and she holds AI credentials from the Wharton School. She is a board member and founding member of MN Women in AI. Her philosophy for AI adoption is simple: confidence instead of crossed fingers.

Speaking at

AI Readiness Is Not a Technology Problem: Building Organizations Capable of Turning AI Into Business Value

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Jamie Johnson is an enterprise technology and data leader with more than 15 years of experience spanning software engineering, enterprise architecture, data engineering, governance, analytics, and technology transformation. Most recently, she led data engineering and strategy across international businesses at Travelers, leading multidisciplinary teams and large-scale modernization initiatives across North America and Europe.

Her work focuses on translating business strategy into technology and data capabilities that deliver measurable outcomes. She has led greenfield cloud platforms, enterprise modernization programs, and transformations spanning data, governance, and operating models.

Jamie’s current work explores a persistent enterprise challenge: why technically successful transformations often fail to deliver their intended business value. Her focus is on what must exist beyond the technology—across organizational readiness, data, governance, adoption, and decision-making—to turn AI capability into sustainable business value.

Speaking at

Angle-based clustering

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

HJ is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Statistics at the University of Minnesota. Her research develops optimization‑driven methods for unsupervised learning, with a focus on convex clustering, structured regularization, and interpretable models for high‑dimensional data. She is advised by Prof. Aaron J. Molstad.

Speaking at

The State of AI Laws in the US

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Melissa Krasnow is a Partner at VLP Law Group LLP who is based in Minneapolis.

She is recognized by Chambers in Global and USA Privacy & Data Security for Cybersecurity and Privacy and VLP Law Group is ranked as a firm in California for Technology.

Melissa advises companies on privacy, data security, artificial intelligence, big data, technology matters, and cyber governance, including data incidents, prepares written information security programs, devises incident response plans, and facilitates and participates in tabletop exercises.

Melissa negotiates and renegotiates in the wake of data incidents technology and commercial transactions, including master services agreements (MSAs), non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), data security addenda (DSAs), business associate agreements (BAAs), data processing agreements (DPAs), and California Consumer Privacy Act/California Privacy Rights Act and other state privacy law agreements.

Speaking at

Fine-Tuning and Distillation for Domain-Specialized Language Models

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Sona Maniyan is an AI Engineer at Thrivent with 10+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, and AI systems across finance, software, and retail industries. Her work focuses on building and deploying models at scale, combining strong model engineering workflows with a deep understanding of how to connect underlying data to use cases that generate business value.

She is passionate about demystifying advanced AI systems and fostering open, community-driven learning, and has organized learning cohorts and several workshops in collaboration with organizations that support the tech community in Minneapolis. Sona holds Master's degrees in Software Engineering and Finance.

Speaking at

Welcome

October 26, 2026, 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM (America/Chicago)

About

Genevieve B. Melton-Meaux, MD, PhD, FACMI, is a colorectal surgeon who serves as McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor of Surgery and Core Faculty Member of the Institute of Health Informatics. She is also Senior Associate Dean for Health Informatics and Data Science in the Medical School, Deputy Director of AI Hub, and Director for the Center for Learning Health System Sciences. Her national leadership includes being a Past President and elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), a Past President of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and a current Board Member of HL7 International.

https://healthinformatics.umn.edu/staff/genevieve-melton-meaux

Speaking at

MOSS: A Production Framework for Monitoring and Diagnosing Semantic Failures in Search and Recommendation Systems

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Alina Nesen is a data scientist on Target’s Personalization team, where she works on recommendation models, recommendation quality, and LLM/GenAI-based evaluation systems. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and focuses on building practical AI systems that improve customer-facing product discovery. Her recent work includes MOSS, a production framework for using LLMs to monitor and diagnose semantic failures in recommendation, search, and offer surfaces. She is especially interested in making recommender systems more reliable through rigorous evaluation, human-in-the-loop review, model observability, and responsible deployment of GenAI tools in real production environments.

Speaking at

Inference Optimization for Generative AI: Improving Cost, Latency, and Quality

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

"Jothsna Praveena Pendyala is an AI Platform Architect and Senior Data Scientist specializing in production-scale agentic AI systems, LLM infrastructure, inference optimization, and AI observability. She currently architects an enterprise multi-agent AI platform using LangGraph, MCP-based integrations, Python, and Azure Kubernetes Service. Her prior experience includes working with Amazon’s AGI team on the Nova family of large language models.

She is also a published researcher, IEEE Senior Member, ACM community leader, former Assistant Professor, technical speaker, and mentor. Her work focuses on building reliable, scalable, and efficient AI systems while helping practitioners and students understand emerging AI technologies through workshops, research, and community programs."

Speaking at

From Prediction to Action: Using Meta Learners to Measure Incremental Impact

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Gowthami Peri is a Lead Data Analyst at Target with over 10 years of experience spanning machine learning, analytics, and decision science. Her work focuses on building data-driven solutions that improve business decision-making across retail operations and customer experiences. She is an inventor on a U.S. patent in analytics and the author of The Practical Data Scientist, where she writes about machine learning, causal inference, experimentation, and practical applications of data science.

Speaking at

Right-Sizing Intelligence: A Guide to Model Selection and Tokenomics

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Anitha Perumalla is Senior Vice President, AI Executive Delivery Manager at U.S. Bank, with over 20 years of experience in enterprise software engineering and technology leadership. She currently focuses on AI platform strategy and delivery, helping teams make informed, business-aligned decisions as they adopt new technology at scale. An active mentor and coach, she has served as Chair of Women in Technology at U.S. Bank, championing the growth of women in tech.

Speaking at

The Human Advantage in an AI World: Using AI to Deepen Relationships, Not Replace Them

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Jen Simon is a Strategic Sales Leader at Verus, a Minnesota-based technology consulting and managed services firm, where she helps mid-sized organizations modernize infrastructure, strengthen security, and prepare for an AI-driven future. With more than a decade of experience spanning Microsoft and enterprise technology sales, Jen works closely with business and IT leaders to turn emerging technologies into practical business outcomes.

A passionate advocate for relationship-building and community, Jen is known for her popular ""Networking with Humans"" talks, where she challenges professionals to build authentic connections in an increasingly digital world. Today, she combines that perspective with hands-on experience using AI every day to prepare for meetings, research prospects, create content, manage priorities, and strengthen customer relationships.

Jen is actively involved in Minnesota's technology community through organizations including Women Leading in Technology (WLiT), MnTech, MentorMash and Genesys Works, where she mentors the next generation of technology leaders. She believes the most powerful use of AI isn't replacing people—it's creating more time for meaningful human connection."

Speaking at

Building an Enterprise AI Digital Front Door and Transforming HR Services

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

As Director of AI and Digital, I lead enterprise transformation through data science and generative AI platforms, driving innovation across HR and business functions. My passion lies in bridging cutting-edge technology with human-centered design, ensuring that every digital initiative enhances the employee experience and empowers decision-making at scale. From predictive analytics to generative AI, I thrive on turning complex data into actionable insights that shape the future of work.

Speaking at

Be a multigenerational charmer: lead your team from those who remember the first television to those who've never known a world without smartphones

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

Michelle Smeby is Transformation Leader of wHolistic Change, Inc. with 25 years of experience implementing enterprise solutions at Fortune 500 companies. Michelle is an author, speaker, trainer, and consultant who specializes in helping corporations deliver transformational change.

Michelle has a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Michelle is the author of two books: "wHolistic Change: Delivering Corporate Change That Lasts," and "The Tenacious Leader: Your Map to Overcome Change Fatigue."

Speaking at

Beyond the Demo: How to Evaluate Whether an AI System Actually Works

October 26, 2026, 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM (America/Chicago)

About

I am an engineer with 3+ years of software engineering experience and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from San José State University. My work spans applied AI, LLM evaluation, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, semantic search, and intelligent recommendation systems. As part of an SJSU–IBM research collaboration, I evaluated multiple language models within Watsonx AI RAG pipelines, using systematic experimentation and comparative analysis to understand model and pipeline performance. I have also built AI-powered recommendation and semantic-search systems using embeddings, vector retrieval, and ranking methods.I am interested in the intersection of reliable AI, evaluation, and practical product engineering—building systems that are not only impressive in demonstrations, but measurable, inspectable, and useful in the real world.