Attendees

Daniella Alaso is a Communications Specialist at the Climate Hazards Center (CHC), University of California Santa Barbara. Her professional activities include communications of CHC’s datasets and services, and scientific contributions to various research activities. She is also a science writer for the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor. Daniella received a BSc. in Meteorology from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and a Masters in Geography from the University of Alabama, where she worked under Dr. Jason Senkbeil. Her master’s research focused on expanding the Spatial Synoptic Classification - a weather classification scheme - to East Africa. She also worked on evaluating the influence of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns on surface weather.

Wendy Angst is the Neumann Family Director of the Powerful Means Initiative and Professor of Management & Organization at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She also directs the Impact Consulting Minor, creating experiential learning opportunities that empower students to drive social impact. Since joining Notre Dame in 2010, Wendy has taught courses in innovation, design thinking, strategy, consulting, and entrepreneurship. She founded the Powerful Means Initiative, which engages students in multi-semester projects tackling pressing global challenges. Her work with Saint Bakhita’s Vocational Training Center in Uganda, featured in Notre Dame’s What Would You Fight For? campaign, focuses on advancing education and entrepreneurship to create pathways out of poverty. 

Lily is a second-year student at the University of Notre Dame, where she is majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Art and preparing for a career in medicine. She is drawn to work at the intersection of service, creativity, and innovation, and she participates in Notre Dame's Innovation for Impact Club. Since 2022, Lily has coordinated an English literacy tutoring program in which high school students support young women at a vocational school in Northern Uganda over Zoom. She now contributes to a malaria research project at Notre Dame, using R for data analysis. Lily brings the perspective of an emerging leader who is committed to using science and community partnership to expand access to education and health.

For over 10 years, Alloysius has been leading Farmerline, a social enterprise that he co-founded to create lasting wealth for smallholder farmers in Africa and beyond through technology and sustainable farming practices. He is an Echoing Green Fellow, a prestigious recognition for smart leaders who are deeply connected to the needs and potential solutions that may work best for their communities. Alloysius oversees Farmerline's vision, fundraising, and strategy, as well as its partnerships with over 3,000 partners across 48 countries. He has successfully scaled Farmerline's Mergdata platform, which was named one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2019 by TIME Magazine, to serve and digitize 1.7 million farmers. 

Dave is CEO of ElizaChat and the builder behind NUE, a daily mental fitness practice designed to help people notice patterns, understand what's driving them, and evolve through small, repeated actions across health, self-connection, and connection with others. He also hosts The Mental Fitness Podcast, extending his work on mental wellbeing into public conversation and education. Dave combines an MBA from BYU's Marriott School of Business with graduate coursework in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and information retrieval from Stanford, giving him a technical foundation he applies directly to building AI-driven tools for mental health. His work sits at the intersection of psychology, product design, and AI, aimed at making daily mental fitness as approachable and habitual as physical fitness.

Terri is an Adjunct Faculty in BYU's Mechanical Engineering Department, where she has taught since 2004. Before moving into teaching, she spent over eight years as a Design Engineer at Ford Motor Company, applying her engineering training to automotive design. She holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from BYU. Terri brings a practical, industry-tested perspective to the classroom, helping students connect core engineering principles to real-world design and manufacturing challenges

Danny leads the International Rescue Committee's Salt Lake City office, bringing more than 15 years of social services experience to the work of refugee resettlement and community integration. Raised by an immigrant mother and shaped by the diverse communities that supported his family, he has built his career around the belief that resettlement only succeeds with strong community partnerships. Before joining the IRC, Danny expanded refugee services in Cache County through his work with the Cache Refugee & Immigrant Connection, building coalitions that brought new and established Utahns together. He is known for translating complex policy issues into clear, actionable guidance for community partners and policymakers alike, and he continues to champion Utah's role as a national model for welcoming refugees.

Jackson is a Program Specialist at the Utah Office of Homelessness Services, bringing a Master of Public Administration and a deep interest in the policies and philosophies that shape public administration to his work. His background combines applied research with hands-on municipal consulting: as Senior Program Officer for a BYU Grantwell engagement, he led a 10-member graduate team through a feasibility study on transportation utility fees for Eagle Mountain City, delivering a 40-page policy analysis that balanced legal, fiscal, and governance considerations. As a Lab Associate with BYU's Public & Nonprofit Ethics Lab, he coordinated a multi-dimensional ethics survey across local governments and nonprofits, managing outreach to city leaders and translating academic research into practical insights for practitioners. Jackson brings a strong foundation in public finance, stakeholder engagement, and evidence-based policy analysis to his work supporting Utah's response to homelessness.

Heather is a proactive, collaborative executive experienced in fostering strategic partnerships and leading cross-functional teams in Healthcare and Financial Services. She has demonstrated excellence in cultivating client relationships, resulting in robust financial, operational, and clinical outcomes. Heather is adept in leading transformational change, coaching cross functional teams, and implementing strategic initiatives that consistently surpass organizational goals.

Merrily serves as Library Development Program Manager with the Utah State Library, where she acts as a consultant to public libraries across a wide swath of the state, including Davis, Duchesne, Morgan, Salt Lake, Summit, Uintah, and Weber counties, as well as the Murray, Park City, and Salt Lake City public library systems. Her role bridges state-level resources with local library operations, helping library systems across Utah strengthen their services and better meet the needs of their communities. Merrily brings a broad, statewide perspective to library development, supporting both urban and rural communities in building strong public library infrastructure.

Dr. Cardon is a cognitive neuroscientist and audiologist currently working on projects related to atypical sensory processing in autism and other developmental disabilities, as well as cortical plasticity in adults and children with hearing loss. To investigate brain-behavior relationships related to the above, he uses EEG and MRI/fMRI. Dr. Cardon is also investigating how to facilitate empathy between autistic and neurotypical individuals through both scientific and artistic representations of the mind.

Hunter Conrad is a versatile leader with expertise in product management and impact venture capital. As a Senior Associate at the Sorenson Impact Institute, she sources and leads due diligence on investments across sectors such as healthcare and agriculture, aligning financial returns with social and environmental impact. She is also spearheading a project leveraging government funding to support water efficiency initiatives for the Great Salt Lake. Hunter holds an MBA from the University of Utah and a BA from UC Berkeley. She is the winner of the Kellogg Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge and a certified Lightyear Leadership Coach. Skilled in data analytics, strategy, and leadership, Hunter combines technical proficiency with a passion for driving innovation and impact.

Gina has served as Executive Director of Utahns Against Hunger since 2001, leading the state's only statewide anti-hunger nonprofit focused on public policy and advocacy for federal nutrition programs. Her commitment to the issue began as a volunteer through the University of Utah's Bennion Center, which introduced her to UAH's work before she spent five years working on welfare policy at Utah Issues. For more than two decades, Gina has partnered with state and federal elected officials to shape policy around hunger and poverty, advancing the organization's mission to increase food access through advocacy, outreach, and education. Her sustained leadership has made her one of Utah's most experienced voices on anti-hunger policy and a trusted partner to lawmakers working on these issues.

At CPL, Colin analyzes data for multiple projects on homelessness. Colin uses his knowledge of econometrics, proficiency in multiple programming languages, and experience in program evaluation and policy implementation to provide analytical insights to better serve people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. This includes estimating the size of vulnerable groups in County services, such as those with serious mental illness, or measuring how well the system connects individuals to the services and housing they need to escape homelessness. Colin is the co-author of several CPL reports focused on addressing homelessness in Los Angeles. In addition to his role at CPL, Colin is embedded as a consulting analyst at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency (LAHSA), where he provides technical advice on managing and analyzing large administrative datasets.

Shital is a design practitioner and academic professional in interaction design, developing inclusive design solutions, services and technologies for people (including children, older adults and people with cognitive impairment), planet (systems) and futures. She has experience in developing partnerships with industry, research organizations, funding bodies and communities to identify future research directions, Knowledge Transfer (KT) and developing solutions using the Human Centered approach, resulting in several grants, awards and commercialized products.

Yi is an Assistant Professor of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, where she leads the STYLE (Sustainable and Trustworthy computing sYstems and LEarning) Lab. Yi is a Planetary-Aware Computing researcher working at the intersection of AI/ML, computer systems, and human-centered computing. She believes the next generation of computing systems must understand the physical infrastructure, natural resources, and human systems they depend on. Her research develops metrics, systems, and evaluation frameworks to make this vision actionable, with applications spanning sustainability and healthcare.

Suzanne Duncan is the Chief Operating Officer at Te Hiku Media, a community-owned tribal media hub in Kaitāia, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is part of the leadership team for Papa Reo, a groundbreaking multilingual natural language processing platform for te reo Māori. Suzanne's expertise spans the entire AI development pipeline, from curating high-quality training data to addressing failure modes in automatic speech recognition models. She was previously a researcher at the University of Otago, serving as a Lecturer in Te Tumu: School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies. Her research and teaching interests focused on indigenous economic development and contemporary applications of tikanga Māori. Suzanne also serves in governance roles, currently as Chair of Northland Inc, the regional economic development agency for Te Tai Tokerau, and previously as Chair of KPH, a construction subsidiary of her iwi, Te Rarawa.

Lorie serves as Senior Advisor and Legal Counsel for U.S. Senator John Curtis, focusing on special projects related to water, tribal affairs, and grant coordination. She previously spent 14 months as State Director and more than seven years as District Director for Senator Curtis, building deep relationships with local leaders and stakeholders across Utah. In her current role, she leads key initiatives including the Conservative Climate Summit, the Small Business Expo, and grant writing workshops held throughout the state. Lorie brings extensive experience navigating the intersection of federal policy and local community needs, with a particular focus on issues critical to Utah's water resources and tribal communities

Ibrahim earned his S.J.D. at the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. He has graduate training in philosophy and international human rights law. He has also completed fellowships in bioethics, health policy, and regulatory science. Ibrahim’s research interests in ethics have included the implications of precision (personalized) medicine for public health, the ethical conduct of health research in low-resource settings, and the use of Indigenous samples in biomedical research. His legal scholarship has explored the evolution of collective rights in international law and how these rights provide a governance framework for collectives (especially Indigenous Peoples) to participate in the development of policies that affect them. Ibrahim has taught philosophy in the United States and high school literature in his home country, Nigeria.

Michaelann is the Senior Director of Marketing & Data at United Way of Utah County, where she brings together communications, partnerships, and data to strengthen the organization's community impact. She is a partnerships and communications professional with a career built on creating long-term relationships, building project roadmaps, and leading teams. Her technical toolkit spans business intelligence (Power BI), CRM systems such as Salesforce, project management platforms, digital marketing, grantwriting, and fundraising. Michaelann has also created a range of projects outside her core work, including mental health video lessons for parents, a podcast, and a conference on futurist technology and environmentalism. She brings a practical, data-informed perspective to the question of how nonprofits can use technology to serve their communities.

Eric is a PhD Applied Anthropologist deeply interested in finding ways to translate social science insights into actionable data for organizations and ensuring that research findings are implemented in ways that improve outcomes for everyone involved. The proper implementation of scientific insights requires the rapid ability to learn about and assess relevant implementation contexts and build interventions to fit those spaces for the greatest positive impact. His topical interests include medical anthropology/healthcare delivery, organizational anthropology, the regulation of human difference, and science and technology advising. He went on to get my PhD in applied anthropology at Texas State University. While there, he led teams of undergraduate and MA level researchers on applied projects for various local nonprofits. These included program evaluations and helping organizations to implement program changes using anthropological insights. Eric also taught courses, mentored students, and worked on research projects on COVID-19 and vaccination decision-making processes.

Alex Guzzwell is a Humanitarian Emergency Response Specialist with the Welfare and Self-Reliance Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His current work focuses on disaster monitoring, emergency project management, humanitarian logistics, and the development of data-informed tools and processes to support strategic planning and effective response. He has contributed to humanitarian initiatives addressing disasters, displacement, food insecurity, and other emerging needs. Alex holds an MSc in International Relations from Kingston University, London, and he served as a United States Army officer, with responsibilities including operational planning, logistics and supply management, and instructional development. He currently serves in the Utah Air National Guard. His interests center on improving humanitarian response systems, strengthening operational coordination, and applying research and data to complex humanitarian challenges.

Riley Hales is a water engineer working in hydrology and hydraulics with a love for using the computer to improve how science is done. He is  also experienced in remote sensing, statistical analysis in hydraulics/hydrology, machine learning, and high performance computing. He is the lead developer of the GEOGloWS global hydrologic model which provides free, daily, 15-day river discharge forecasts and a historical simulation from 1980 to near-real-time at 1 million river segments worldwide. They are working on increasing that to 10 million points and increase the historical period to 1950.

Grant is the CEO of VeroTouch, a turn-key construction technology company offering design, engineering, automation, and construction services. His career has spanned manufacturing, design, and technology before leading him to construction, where he now works to combine those disciplines into solutions that address the industry's chronic inefficiencies. Grant founded VeroTouch in response to a housing shortage of more than 3 million homes in America, paired with an industry that wastes roughly 30% of its materials and struggles with an aging, shrinking workforce. He believes the construction sector has lagged behind others in adopting technology to lower costs, and he is building a team of engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs to change that. At the core of his approach is a commitment to community development and human-centered business models that challenge the status quo in pursuit of a better built future.

Justin is Vice President of Product Management at Mastercard, where he leads the development and deployment of AI and machine learning products across payments, identity, fraud prevention, and generative AI. He holds more than 20 patents applying AI and ML to open banking and big data. In 2023, Mastercard recognized him with its CEO Force for Good Award for his leadership in AI innovation alongside his advocacy work with refugees. Outside his corporate career, Justin co-founded Women of the World - Utah, where he has helped raise over $500,000 to support refugee neighbors through community advocacy, education, and employment programs, work that earned recognition from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He is also a published author in the philosophy and physics of universal meaning, bringing an unusual blend of technical leadership, storytelling, and mindfulness to his approach to product development and community building.

Samira is the Founder and CEO of Women of the World - Utah, an organization she launched in 2010 to empower forcibly displaced women through advocacy, education, and economic opportunity after beginning her career as a microchip engineer. Her work has earned extensive national and international recognition, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Nansen Award for the Americas region in 2018, selected from over 450 international nominees, as well as the American Red Cross Global Citizenship Hero Award and two Salt Lake City Human Rights Awards. Samira currently serves on KeyBank's Advisory Board, bringing her expertise on forcibly displaced people's economic needs to the bank's executive team. She brings a rare combination of technical engineering background, grassroots nonprofit leadership, and a deep personal commitment to creating spaces where women from all backgrounds can share their stories and thrive.

Gus is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Brigham Young University, where he has taught since 2006 after previously serving as an Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University. Early in his career, his research centered on computational materials physics, including alloy modeling and algorithm development; he authored several widely used open-source codes, including enumlib and symlib, and developed the commercial UNCLE cluster expansion code. Since 2022, Gus has shifted his research focus to data science and computational biophysics, now developing AI techniques for analyzing bacterial tomograms. He earned his PhD in Physics from UC Davis and completed a postdoctoral appointment at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory before beginning his academic career. Gus's work reflects a rare career-spanning pivot, applying the same rigorous computational and algorithmic thinking from materials science to emerging questions in AI-driven biophysics.

Amanda is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University. As a recognized research leader in Crisis Informatics, her work investigates the use of information and communication technology during crises and mass emergencies with particular attention to how social media affect emergency response organizations. The goal of her research is to design, implement, and deploy software systems that improve crisis communications based on deep understandings of the social context in which they reside. She has published more than 65 peer-reviewed papers in various areas of human computer interaction, computer supported cooperative work, and crisis informatics, and she routinely serves as a reviewer for major journals and conferences in these fields. Her research is currently funded by grants from NSF, the Knight Foundation, and NASA SERVIR. She also directs the Crisis Informatics Lab at BYU. Amanda received a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Brigham Young University and a master's and PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Mark is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Brigham Young University, where his research centers on low-dimensional topology, knot theory, and the structure of 4-dimensional smooth manifolds. He has brought machine learning and neural networks into this traditionally theoretical field, using techniques like reinforcement learning to predict and compute difficult knot invariants such as slice genus. His work also explores how knotted and braided surfaces within 4-dimensional spaces reveal deeper geometric information, drawing on tools like Khovanov homology and Garside normal forms. His research represents a distinctive bridge between pure mathematical theory and modern computational methods, applying AI techniques to problems once considered purely abstract.

Grant is Dean of the College of Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences at Brigham Young University, overseeing seven departments spanning chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics, and geological sciences. A biochemist by training, he earned his PhD at Stanford under Nobel laureate Roger Kornberg before pursuing postdoctoral work in electron microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Grant came to BYU in 2020 to lead the college out of a personal commitment to the university's mission, and he has mentored 16 scientists who have gone on to become professors themselves, continuing his dedication to training the next generation of researchers.

Tom Kerby is an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Brigham Young University, leading research in human-AI interaction and machine learning. His research group explores learning in both humans and machines—with a focus on how neural networks learn, how humans can interact meaningfully with AI, and how machine learning can be used to tackle real-world challenges in complex systems. His research bridges theory and application, combining graph-based machine learning, higher-order interactions, and generative AI. He is particularly interested in domains such as bioinformatics, cybersecurity, and genealogy, where structured data and human insight intersect. Tom also develops open-source AI tools that aim to make advanced machine learning more accessible and useful to individuals and communities across a variety of fields.

Woo Soo Kim is a Professor at Simon Fraser University, where he serves as Director of the Global Institute for Agritech and Special Advisor to the VPRI, alongside an adjunct appointment at KAIST's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His research sits at the intersection of Physical AI, robotics, computer vision, and additive manufacturing, applying these tools to agritech, biomedical devices, and smart manufacturing systems. Before joining SFU, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Xerox Corporation following a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, and he has held visiting positions at Seoul National University and Switzerland's Empa research institute. A senior IEEE member and associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Woo Soo brings decades of R&D experience translating advanced materials research into printed devices and intelligent systems.

Austin is a PhD student in Human-Centered Computing at Clemson University. He is currently working as a graduate research assistant for the Human-AI Empowerment Lab, led by Dr. Carlos Toxtli. Hailing from Orlando, Florida, Austin holds an MS in Data Science from The University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Global Supply Chain Management from Brigham Young University. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a data scientist and business intelligence analyst for Disney Experiences within their Global Marketing Center of Excellence. Austin's research develops and evaluates human-centered AI systems that support reflection, reasoning, and creativity. He is currently focused on AI-integrated systems for mathematical discovery, including conjecture generation and evaluation, and AI-assisted journaling, including personal and peer-based reflection platforms.

Taylor Landon is an applied economist whose research sits at the intersection of labor and public economics. Much of his work focuses on the criminal legal system and criminal decision-making. Current projects examine how the funding and design of public defense shape defendants' outcomes, how contact with the legal system affects civic participation, and how community centers in crime hotspots affect juvenile offending. In adjacent work, he studies the economics of education and the economics of the family, with particular attention to low-income households.

Bora Lee is the director of the Utah Assistive Technology Program within the Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice at Utah State University. Bora holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Handong Global University in Industrial Design and a Master of Arts in Special Education, with a concentration in moderate to severe disabilities. She earned her Ed. D. in educational leadership from California State University, Los Angeles, focusing on transitioning to adulthood for minority students with disabilities. Bora is highly engaged in supporting consumers' access to assistive technology, smart home technology, workplace accommodations, and independent living. She has over 15 years of experience working with individuals with disabilities. Her expertise also includes transitioning to adulthood for youth with developmental disabilities and working with families from diverse backgrounds. Her parents committed their lives to serving as missionaries for more than 30 years, instilling in her the values of selflessness and giving. Their influence has guided her life and her career choices.

Bryan Leonard is an associate professor and SER Chair at the University of Wyoming with a dual appointment in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and the School of Energy Resources. Professor Leonard's research explores the efficiency and equity implications of different institutional responses to resource allocation problems, focusing on land, water, and energy resources.  He studies the historical context of policies that are crafted to solve resource challenges at a particular point in time and assess their long-run sustainability using an interdisciplinary approach that builds on his background in economics in collaboration with legal scholars, political theorists, and natural scientists. He is especially interested in the conditions under which property rights and markets perform better or worse than other institutions.

Minhoru is an AI & Automation Developer at Tanner LLP, where she works in AI architecture, machine learning, and software automation to help organizations bridge emerging technology with practical, business-aligned outcomes. She believes AI should be understandable, actionable, and people-first, with particular attention to its potential to address social challenges, support mental health initiatives, and expand opportunity for those historically underrepresented in tech. Minhoru brings a combined commitment to responsible AI practice and digital inclusion, working to make both the technology and the opportunities it creates more equitable.

Mike is the founder of Levinthal Capital, an independent venture capital firm, and an Adjunct Professor at BYU's Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. He brings over 35 years of venture capital experience, including more than 20 years as a Managing Partner at Mayfield Fund in Silicon Valley, where he sponsored successes like Citrix, Concur Technologies, and WebMethods. Mike holds a Bachelor's and Master's in Engineering as well as an MBA, all from Stanford, and he is also an inventor, holding a U.S. patent for a multi-defibrillator communications system. Since relocating to Utah 17 years ago, he has built a portfolio of seed investments in companies such as Divvy, Podium, Homie, and Degreed, and he continues to advise emerging companies across the Intermountain region and Silicon Valley.

Rex Long is an applied anthropologist and qualitative research specialist. He is a doctoral candidate at Texas State University in the Department of Anthropology. He focuses on applied anthropology, community resilience, and mixed-method qualitative research design. Long's research centers on the socio-emotional and structural impacts of natural hazards, public health crises, infectious disease, and extreme weather events on local communities. He is highly skilled in designing and managing qualitative analysis frameworks for complex, multi-sited projects, transitioning raw community data into actionable themes. His work as an Applied Anthropologist and Rural Disaster Resilience and Libraries is the inspiration for interventions at several of our tables

Christopher Mattson is a professor of mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University and a leader in engineering for global development and design exploration. His research focuses on developing methods for creating products and technologies that are both technically effective and responsive to the needs of underserved communities. Through his work with BYU’s Design Exploration Research Group, he explores how engineering design can address complex social, economic, and environmental challenges, with projects ranging from low-cost technologies to products designed for communities living in poverty. Chris is particularly interested in helping engineers understand the broader human consequences of design decisions and creating tools that enable more thoughtful, impactful, and sustainable solutions.

Nate is a dedicated law enforcement professional with over a decade of experience in leadership, crime reduction, and community engagement. Currently serving as a Sergeant with the Salt Lake City Police Department, he specializes in developing crime prevention strategies, fostering strong relationships with community stakeholders, and mentoring officers to enhance their careers. His proactive, data-driven approach has led to measurable crime reductions and improved public safety. With a passion for both tactical operations and officer wellness, Nate strive to make a lasting impact on the communities he serves.

Andy is Senior Director of Enterprise AI and Data Science at Intermountain Health, where he has spent 14 years building the organization's data science capabilities from the ground up. He founded and led Intermountain's Enterprise AI & Data Science Center of Excellence for five years before stepping into his current role overseeing AI and machine learning strategy across the health system. His technical background spans random forest regression, non-parametric analysis, and machine learning, grounded in a master's degree in Statistics from Utah State University. Andy is driven by a commitment to applying data science in novel ways to solve meaningful problems that directly improve people's lives, bringing both deep technical expertise and a long track record of translating that work into real impact within one of Utah's largest health systems.

Tanner is an adjunct instructor of creative writing at Brigham Young University, teaching courses in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from BYU in 2023, following a bachelor's degree in English, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Inscape, the university's literary journal. A lifelong storyteller who wrote his first full-length novel as a high school senior, Tanner has since completed five novels spanning middle-grade to adult fantasy, and he is currently pitching his most recent manuscript, "The Engineer's Craft," to literary agents. He brings a particular interest in grounded stories about characters wrestling with identity and belonging, shaped in part by years of travel, including two years living in Buenos Aires. Tanner combines a working writer's craft with a genuine passion for helping new writers find their own voice.

Chris is a Founding Engineer at Abundant Security with a PhD in Computer Science from Brigham Young University focused on machine learning and parameter optimization. His career spans massive distributed systems at Google and Meta, chief architect and principal investigator roles on DARPA programs at Data Machines Corp, and, most recently, AI Trust and Safety leadership at Atlassian, where he oversaw AI security governance and agent permissions. He has also worked as a legal expert witness, giving him a unique ability to translate deeply technical security and AI concepts for legal, executive, and engineering audiences alike. Chris is known for not just solving hard problems but building the programs and scaffolding that keep them solved over time, applying a pragmatic, right-sized approach rather than over-engineering solutions. He brings together deep technical expertise in distributed systems and AI with a strong belief that the best work happens through great teams.

Mou Nandi is the Founder and CEO of Monere, an AI-powered digital health company building non-invasive, computer-vision-based screening tools that bring clinical-grade health assessment to consumer devices. With more than 20 years of experience building and scaling software platforms across Fortune 10 companies and high-growth startups, she brings deep expertise in AI/ML, computer vision, and distributed systems to the challenge of making health screening more accessible and affordable. She previously built the Machine Learning & AI Platform team at NetDocuments from the ground up, scaling its search infrastructure through a period of rapid growth to unicorn exit. Mou also serves as CTO of Proximity and co-founded the Knowledge Democracy Collective, reflecting her broader commitment to applying technical leadership toward public good.

Jim Nelson is a professor of civil and construction engineering at Brigham Young University whose work focuses on spatial hydrology, watershed modeling, geographic information systems, and hydroinformatics. He is the developer of the Watershed Modeling System and has led efforts to advance global water forecasting and sustainability through technology and international collaboration. His work has helped create tools that enable communities and governments around the world to better understand water availability, manage reservoirs, and prepare for changing water conditions. Supported by a major Google.org investment in global water sustainability, Jim has worked with researchers, students, and partners across Central and South America and other regions to expand the reach and long-term public impact of water forecasting technology.

Dee has served The Road Home for over 26 years, currently as Impact and Facilities Division Director, where he oversees data, technology, agency improvement, and facilities operations across the organization's homeless resource centers. He leads the IT and Data Analytics teams alongside Facilities Maintenance and Custodial operations, bringing together the technical and physical infrastructure that keeps shelter services running. Dee holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Utah and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Southern Utah University. He currently chairs the Salt Lake County Continuum of Care's Homeless Management Information System Steering Committee, helping shape how homeless services data is collected and used across the county. Dee's long tenure and deep operational knowledge make him a steady, systems-minded force behind The Road Home's mission of ensuring every person has a home.

Xinru works in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. Her current research topics include Privacy, Social Media, Internet of Things, Technology Adoption and Non Use, Individual, Developmental, and Cultural Differences, Values in Design, Supporting Vulnerable Populations such as Users on the Autism Spectrum, Ethical Research Practices, Human-Algorithm interaction, Computer-Mediated Communication, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Xinru holds a Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science with concentration in Informatics from University of California, Irvine, and B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, specialization in Human-Computer Interaction, from Stanford University. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Facebook, Disney Research, Samsung and Yahoo!

Manish Parashar is the inaugural Chief AI Officer for the University of Utah. He is also the Executive Director of the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute and Presidential Professor in the University of Utah’s Kahlert School of Computing. He also leads the University of Utah’s One-U Responsible Artificial Intelligence Initiative (One-U RAI). Manish recently completed appointments at NSF as Office Director of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, where he oversaw investments in national cyberinfrastructure, and at OSTP, where he led Strategic Computing. He served as co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on the Future Advanced Computing Ecosystem and the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force. He also co-led the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium. 

Dr. Philippe Passeraub is an Associate Professor of Manufacturing Engineering, specializing in additive manufacturing of microsystems and medical devices. He graduated in Microengineering (with a focus on integrated products) and went on to earn a PhD in Microsystems Design with a thesis entitled “An integrated inductive proximity sensor” at EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne). He worked in Switzerland (Swiss MEMS accelerometers industry) as well as in Liechtenstein (Electronic measuring systems for the construction industry), and he did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the Biomedical Engineering Department (Neuroengineering). His research focuses on studying miniaturization limits and optimization parameters of reliable surface additive manufacturing, to add new functionalities to objects, and to promote quality open-source medical devices.

Michael Peirone is the CEO of Victoria Hand Project, a Canadian charity dedicated to transforming lives by providing affordable, 3D-printed prosthetic arms to amputees in need. Under Michael’s leadership, Victoria Hand Project has expanded its mission to empower underserved communities across the globe, offering essential equipment and training to local clinicians in countries like Ukraine, Kenya, and Nepal. Through his work, Michael ensures the organization continues to restore independence, dignity, and hope to individuals worldwide. 

James W. Pennebaker is Professor Emeritus of Psychology. He is continuing to explore natural language use, group dynamics, and personality in both laboratory and real world settings. His earlier work on expressive writing found that physical health and work performance can improve by simple writing and/or talking exercises. His cross-disciplinary and highly cited research is related to linguistics, clinical and cognitive psychology, communications, medicine, and computer science. Author or editor of 12 books and over 300 articles, Pennebaker is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous research and teaching awards and honors.

Kevin is an air quality scientist with more than two decades of experience working at the intersection of science, public health, and public policy. His work focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of air pollution in the Intermountain West and helping decision-makers use data to protect health, water resources, and long-term economic stability. He has collaborated with researchers, state and local agencies, journalists, and community organizations on issues including air quality, Great Salt Lake hydrology, water resources, and energy systems. A central theme of his work is translating complex scientific findings into practical, bipartisan solutions that are technically credible and politically durable.

Dr. Reschke is interested in the development of social cognition and emotion understanding in infancy, and more particularly in infants' emotion attributions, false-belief understanding, imitation/emulation, and false-emotion attributions. He uses a multi-method approach, including non-verbal measures, behavioral paradigms, violation-of-expectation paradigms, and eye-tracking. He is also interested in the role of context in emotion perception, especially as it pertains to how facial expressions of emotion are categorized and visually processed. Dr. Reschke is the principal investigator of the CEC, a research lab located on BYU campus.

Jake is an Assistant Professor of Statistics at BYU, where he teaches courses spanning introductory statistics through advanced research topics. His work centers on machine learning and data science, building on research experience from a fellowship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a PhD in Statistics from Utah State University. Before joining BYU, he held a faculty position at Idaho State University and spent five years as an adjunct mathematics instructor at Weber State University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics as College of Science Valedictorian. Jake brings a strong technical depth in statistical and computational methods. 

Marianna Richardson is currently the Director of Communications for the G20 Interfaith Forum. She is also an adjunct professor at the Marriott School of Business (MSB) in management communication and the editor-in-chief of the Marriott Student Review, a student-run, peer-reviewed journal. She is also the faculty advisor for Measuring Success Right, a business podcast. She was recently awarded the Wendy C. Archibald Meritorious Service Award from the J. Reuben Clark Law School and the Outstanding Adjunct Teaching Award at BYU MSB. She is also on the International Advisory Council for the International Center for Law and Religious Studies. She has published books and articles on a variety of subjects. She received her master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and her doctorate from Seattle Pacific University.

Robert Richardson is an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University and a Principal Data Scientist with more than a decade of experience building production-scale machine learning systems for healthcare, insurance, and other regulated industries. His work spans predictive modeling, generative and agentic AI, and clinical forecasting, with a focus on building reproducible pipelines that hold up under real-world constraints. He has partnered with the Society of Actuaries and major healthcare organizations to integrate AI into risk assessment and actuarial workflows, including nine years on the SOA's Predictive Analytics Committee. Robert has mentored more than 30 data scientists and published over 20 peer-reviewed papers, bringing both technical depth and a strong commitment to clarity and responsible AI practice to his work.

Lisa Rigtrup is a mentor, speaker, project manager, and leader in the research ethics community, known for engaging audiences with practical discussions about complex ethical issues. With a background in psychology and research design, her career spans research administration, operations and project management, leadership, marketing and communications, and web development. She began her career at the University of Utah in 2005 and advanced from an entry-level role to leadership positions across the institution. Lisa is a Senior Manager with the University of Utah Institutional Review Board (UU IRB), where she leads the Single IRB (SIRB) Reliance Team. The UU IRB oversees thousands of active human research projects, including clinical trials, biomedical research, social and behavioral studies, and research involving vulnerable populations. 

Tara has led the Utah Housing Coalition for more than two decades, beginning as a volunteer treasurer on the board before stepping into the role of Executive Director. Under her leadership, UHC has grown into a network of over 100 members, spanning service providers, developers, community organizations, and government agencies, all working toward ensuring every Utahn has a safe and affordable place to live. She helped launch the state's premier housing conference, the Utah Housing Matters Conference, and has guided legislative efforts on manufactured housing policy since 2008. Tara's team secured a $1.8 million grant that helped nearly 1,300 Utah families avoid foreclosure, and their most recent initiative, the Landlord and Community Partner Coalition, uncovered major gaps in how housing vouchers reach rural communities, bringing together 45 organizations to act on the findings. As she often says, getting the right people in the room is the most meaningful step toward solving Utah's housing challenges, and she continues to champion housing as the foundation for stability, safety, and opportunity.

Dr. Sherinah Saasa is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Brigham Young University and a licensed therapist in private practice, with over a decade of experience in mental and behavioral health. She earned her bachelor’s degree from BYU-Idaho, her master’s degree from BYU, and her doctoral degree from the University of Georgia. Dr. Saasa’s research focuses on addressing inequality and poverty while promoting the mental health and well-being of underprivileged and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research also examines exclusionary mechanisms that contribute to socio-economic and health disparities among Black immigrants in the United States.

Melissa is an applied anthropologist and AI systems developer who founded 6circles, a systems-thinking consultancy that helps social impact organizations determine where technology genuinely serves their mission versus where deeper organizational intervention is needed first. Her work draws on more than 30 years of technical implementation experience, from multimedia production and web development through modern agentic AI systems, combined with anthropological methodology and leverage-points frameworks for identifying sustainable change. Melissa currently supports AI integration research at BYU's Ballard Center for Social Impact and founded Bridging Digital Divides, a nonprofit addressing technology access barriers for marginalized populations through community ownership models. She brings a distinctive combination of hands-on technical skill and deep organizational analysis, helping organizations distinguish genuine AI readiness from surface-level fixes.

Kevin is Associate Dean in BYU's College of Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences, where his research spans optimization, machine learning, natural language processing, and human-computer interaction. He earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin through a resident study fellowship from IBM, following a Master's from Santa Clara University and a Bachelor's in Computer Science from BYU. His work bridges technical AI research with questions of software engineering and human-centered design, reflecting a career spent connecting rigorous computational methods with how people actually use technology. As a longtime member of BYU's Computer Science faculty and now Associate Dean, Kevin brings both deep research expertise and institutional leadership to advancing AI and machine learning education at BYU.

Beth Shinn studies how to prevent and end homelessness and create opportunities for groups that face social exclusion. She seeks to use research to shape social policy. She has research interests in homelessness, community contexts of human welfare, social policy, and social intervention. She is a former President of the Society for Community Research and Action and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, a fellow of both these organizations and of the Association for Psychological Science, and a former Chair of the Council of Community Psychology Program Directors. She also chaired the Psychology Department at New York University.

Gurpreet is Director of Research and Advanced Computing at Sadaiv Education Limited, researching the intersection of AI ethics, technology, and society, with a focus on ensuring AI is developed responsibly and serves as a tool for a more just and equitable future. His work spans AI governance and algorithmic bias, particularly how AI systems affect minority, at-risk, and underrepresented communities in healthcare and low-resourced languages, alongside efforts to build public AI literacy. He serves on the board of the AIRI Foundation and brings technical depth in machine learning, NLP, and digital humanities, including work on historical and religious text resources. Beyond his research, Gurpreet is Director of Oxford Learning Lethbridge and President of the Sikh Society of Lethbridge Alberta, reflecting a sustained commitment to education and community leadership. He brings a human-centric lens to AI development, working to ensure technology safeguards human dignity rather than perpetuating historical biases.

Andrew South is a researcher, educator, and entrepreneur focused on complex challenges at the intersection of the built environment, society, and the natural environment. His work centers on sustainable community development, housing, and infrastructure, with particular attention to solutions that balance the needs of diverse stakeholders over long time horizons. He is a co-founder of South Industries, which develops high-efficiency and high-resiliency concrete structures, and has participated in construction and development projects in emerging economies. At Brigham Young University, Andrew teaches construction and engineering management, real estate development, contracts and law, and sustainable community development. His work emphasizes stakeholder engagement, ethical decision-making, and designing built environments that can improve quality of life while remaining economically and environmentally sustainable.

Candice serves as Chief Operations Officer at Women of the World, an organization dedicated to helping forcibly displaced women achieve independence and economic success. Her path there wound through education, administration, and case management, giving her a versatile skill set she now applies to supporting immigrant and refugee women in Salt Lake City. Her academic background in history, humanities, and Arabic language, along with years spent living abroad in Europe and the Middle East, deepened her long-standing interest in women's issues worldwide. Candice approaches her work as a problem-solver who leads by example and stays attentive to the needs of the people around her, bringing that same care to the women she serves at WOW.

Michael is the Library Director of Culture & Heritage at Ephraim City Public Library, where he leads the management of a small, rural Carnegie library in central Utah, overseeing program planning, collection development, and preservation of a historic building. Before this role, he spent five and a half years as an assistant archivist in the Special Collections and University Archives department at Weber State University's Stewart Library, processing archival collections and building expertise in digital curation and preservation. He holds a Bachelor of Science in History from Southern Utah University and a Master of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. In 2022, Michael helped expand and revitalize a school library for a children's home near Accra, Ghana, as part of a Weber State study abroad trip. A lifelong resident of Utah with deep roots in Sanpete Valley, he brings a strong commitment to preserving and expanding access to community knowledge and heritage.

Tanner is a Software Engineer at Google, where he works on transforming and aggregating transportation data, particularly around public transit, bicycling, and walking, to create value within Google Maps and Timeline. He recently helped launch the Cycling Trip Percentage layer in Google Earth, a global bicycling modal-share data layer built from Maps users' opted-in activity, for which he owned the data aggregation, anonymization, and quality assurance. During the COVID pandemic, he built a prototype model to predict crowdedness on transit vehicles and later rebuilt it into a robust, fully machine-learned system that shipped to Maps users worldwide. He has also worked on improving real-world walking time estimates within transit directions, drawing on his interests in data, geography, and alternative transportation. Tanner's work reflects a consistent mission: using data and machine learning to help people move through cities more sustainably, getting people out of cars and cars out of cities.

Martin leads global efforts to ensure artificial intelligence serves society, not just private interests. His focus is on building responsible and ethical AI governance frameworks, democratizing AI access, and tackling challenges like infrastructure monopolization, environmental impact, and data equity. Martin founded and led multi-stakeholder initiatives shaping global AI and tech governance, including the Open Government Partnership, engaging 70+ countries, the Open Data Charter, and G20 & G7 open data principles. He ideated, co-created and/or supported the creation of new innovative organizations including AINow, the Ethics & Governance of AI Fund, the AWO agency, Digital Action, Reset, Open Data Charter, Integrity Watch Afghanistan, Transparency & Accountability Initiative and Publish What You Fund amongst other initiatives. He has advised and collaborated with governments, civil society and the private sector to advance transparency, access, and accountability in technology policy. Martin has also driven impactful AI solutions from data governance to smaller, resource-efficient AI models that address global challenges in health, climate, and education.

Nathan Usevitch is a roboticist and professor of mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University working at the intersection of soft robotics, haptics, and control systems. His research focuses on developing new types of robotic systems that use compliant materials and can interact directly and safely with people. Before joining BYU, Nathan worked at Meta Reality Labs developing haptic technologies for virtual reality, building on doctoral research in soft, shape-changing robots. His work explores how robotics can move beyond rigid, conventional machines toward systems that are adaptable, wearable, and responsive to the human body. By combining mechanical design, sensing, and control, he seeks to expand what robots can do and how naturally they can work alongside people.

Stacey serves as Administrator for the AI & Data Science Committee, where she combines technical knowledge with project management to keep the committee's work running smoothly, from organizing meetings and events to tracking finances and curriculum details. She earned a degree in Civil Engineering from Brigham Young University and spent 18 years applying that training closer to home, mothering, coaching, and volunteering extensively at her church and local schools. She returned to the workforce through an internship at Berg Engineering focused on site development, which helped prepare her for her current role. Stacey brings a practical, detail-oriented approach shaped by nearly two decades of community leadership and hands-on project coordination.

Jade holds positions as a Research Development Specialist within the AMPrint Center and as Adjunct Faculty within the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at RIT. She has Ph.D. in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and has instructed and co-instructed several courses, including Medical Device Design, 3D-Technologies for Prosthetic Applications, and Personalized 3D Printing. She has served as the Haiti Project Team Lead for a non-profit specializing in increasing access to quality upper limb prostheses for underserved communities and has collaborated on multiple international low-cost medical device projects involving 3D printing. Her current research centers on finding innovative ways to improve the design and safety of printed upper limb prosthetic sockets—the critical interface between a person and their prosthetic device.

Sean is a Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University, where his research centers on feedback control theory, system identification, and machine learning, particularly as applied to complex networks. He earned his PhD and SM in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, following a BSE from Arizona State University, where he graduated summa cum laude as the Outstanding Graduate of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His work spans an unusually wide range of applications, from reconstructing biological and social networks to cybersecurity, risk management, and learning and control systems for crop production. Sean was named Distinguished Visiting Professor at the National Security Agency for three consecutive years, and he has held visiting scholar positions at Cambridge University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Luxembourg's Center for Systems Biomedicine. He brings a rare combination of deep theoretical rigor in control systems and a genuine curiosity for how those tools illuminate human-in-the-loop systems, data visualization, and narrative.

Dr. Richard E. West is a professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University. He teaches courses in instructional technology, academic research and writing, creativity and innovation, design psychology, and product/program evaluation. He studies how to innovate and advance education through improved and open educational Content, strong learning Communities, and open Credentials that better recognize student learning. He has presented his research in 10 countries, and has over 150 academic publications, along with two popular open textbooks on learning and instructional design.

Dr. Matt Wheelwright graduated from BYU's Construction Management program in 2000 and followed his dream to build high quality homes in Southern California. Working as a Project Manager and Director of Community Development, Matt built high-end single family and low and medium density communities. Matt return to BYU for an MBA and followed with a PhD in Urban Design from the University of Utah. After teaching classes during his doctorate degree, Dr. Wheelwright further developed his teachings skills as an Adjunct Professor at UVU and BYU prior to full time service at BYU, beginning Fall 2023. Dr Wheelwright cares deeply about creating successful and long-lasting projects in the built environment. Research interests focus on characteristics of successful design, implementation, and maintenance of urban projects.

Dr. Wingate received his BS and MS in computer science from BYU in 2002 and 2004, and a PhD in computer science from the University of Michigan in 2008. He was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT from 2008-2010 with a joint appointment in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the. Computational Cognitive Science group in the Brain and Cognitive Science Department. From 2010-2012 he was a research scientist at MIT with a joint appointment in BCS and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. From 2012-2015 he was a research scientist at Analog Devices, Inc. in their machine learning group, where he worked on hardware accelerated Bayesian inference and audio processing. Dr. Wingate has published extensively in machine-learning related fields, and has contributed foundational work in probabilistic programming.

Dr. Timnit Gebru is DAIR’s founder and executive director. Prior to that she was fired by Google in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team. Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian and Jamaican highschool students. She has received a number of accolades including being named one of Nature’s Ten people who helped shape science and one of TIME 100’s most influential people. She is currently writing Deep Unlearning: The Rise of AI and the Radicalization of a Tech Idealist, a memoir + manifesto arguing for a technological future that serves our communities instead of one that is used for surveillance, warfare, and the centralization of power by Silicon Valley. 

Dr. Eva Witesman serves as the Director of the Ballard Center for Social Impact and is an Associate Professor at the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics at the Marriot School of Business at BYU. She studies the major institutions in society (markets, government, nonprofits) and teaches students and public managers how to measure the social impact of their policies and programs. She seek to improve the institutions in society through ethical, evidence-based administrative practices.

Kamal Yakub is an entrepreneur passionate about leveraging technology to address agricultural challenges in Africa. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TROTRO Tractor Ltd. TROTRO Tractor Limited (TTL) is an agriculture technology company founded in Ghana in 2016 to modernize farming and promote sustainable agriculture techniques. Their services improve the lives of smallholder farmers (SHFs) by providing digital platforms for accessible and affordable mechanization services followed by farmer-centered crop care protocols.