Agenda
2022 Highlights
Keynote Speaker
Denice Ross serves as the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House, where she focuses on enabling governments across the country – at the federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial levels – to be more open, effective, and equitable. She most recently served as the U.S. Chief Data Scientist, implementing a whole-of-government approach to using data to advance better outcomes for all Americans. Denice also served in the Obama-Biden Administration as a Presidential Innovation Fellow, and at the City of New Orleans’ where she established the first open data initiative and brought a data-driven approach to designing a more fair and just recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Denice holds a master’s degree in Energy Policy & Climate from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Arizona. As a Goldwater Scholar, Denice applied digital signal processing to the field of animal communication.
Workshops
Brian Bertrand is a leadership coach and consultant, with 30+ years of technical and leadership experience, including 24 years with the Space Shuttle Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in support of the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD).
Brian’s path to leadership coaching flowed through science and engineering, beginning with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. At JSC, his trajectory designs were instrumental to the 37 missions that assembled and serviced the International Space Station, including several innovative Astronaut piloting techniques, which 27 different Space Shuttle Commanders flew on-orbit. Brian was also the accountable leader responsible for the MOD Space Shuttle production process, overseeing the technical and workflow integration for Space Shuttle missions.
Brian deeply believes in buoyancy and contribution, and he loves to influence and inspire as many as he can to fulfill their dreams and life purposes. He is a lifelong student of people, geography, innovation, and leadership.
CAREER PANEL
Emily Calandrelli attended MIT where she received two Masters of Science degrees, one in Aeronautics and Astronautics and the other in Technology and Policy after. Emily is the host and co-executive producer of the hit Netflix series Emily’s Wonder Lab where herself and a group of kid-scientists learn about STEM through experiments and fun activities. Emily is also an Executive Producer and Emmy nominated host of FOX’s Xploration Outer Space and was a correspondent on Netflix’s, Bill Nye Saves The World. Emily, who was named to Adweek’s “11 Celebrities andInfluencers Raising the Bar for Creativity in 2017”, is also an accomplished writer and speaker on the topics of space exploration, scientific literacy, andequality. Emily frequently gives talks about the importance of science literacy, the benefits of space exploration, and the challenges for women in STEM careers for clients like Google, Pixar, MIT, Texas Instruments as well as dozens of K-12 schools across the nation. Through her work, she wants to make science relatable, easy to understand and more exciting today than ever before in history.
Angela Boroughs received her PhD in immunology from Harvard University. Her undergraduate degree (Bsc.) is in genetics and biochemistry from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Angela’s research has focused on engineering T cells to treat autoimmunity and cancer. She has been working in the CAR T cell field in biotech companies for the last 4 years. Currently, Angela is a principal scientist in the immunology group at ArsenalBio. She manages a team of 5 scientists and research associates on an early discovery research collaboration with a big pharma company. She also leads the discovery research for a preclinical program to treat kidney cancer.
Nathan Stewart received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Lycoming College in 2017. He went on to attend the Space Studies program at Rice University and received his Masters of Science in 2019. While attending Rice, he spent a semester working full-time as an intern for the Knowledge Management group at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. During this internship he worked on building a database to house the Oral History Project, a series of interviews with various members of the US Space Program. After graduating from Rice, Nathan began working at the Johnson Space Center where he is currently employed as an Operations Planning Flight Controller where he creates the day-to-day schedule for astronauts onboard the International Space Station.
Dr. Kathrin Spendier is a Quantum Evangelist at Quantinuum, which provides quantum computing services and software. She promotes the company’s cutting-edge TKET quantum software development kit in her current position. She holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of New Mexico and is an Associate Professor with a research affiliation at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). While at UCCS, first as a tenure-track faculty member and later as a tenured faculty member, Dr. Spendier conducted extensive research on biophysical phenomena and condensed matter physics. She also developed and taught numerous undergraduate and graduate physics courses.
