ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities

Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala is the Rector of the United Nations University ( https://unu.edu/about/staff/tshilidzi-marwala ) and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. The United Nations University (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare through collaborative research and education ( United Nations University - Strategic Plan 2020–2024 - https://i.unu.edu/media/unu.edu/attachment/100694/UNU-Strategic-Plan-2020-2024.pdf ). Prior to taking up the role of UNU Rector, Prof. Marwala served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and had previously served as that university’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalization and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. Prior to those roles Prof. Marwala progressively held the positions of Associate Professor and Full Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa); as Executive Assistant to the Technical Director at South African Breweries; and as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Imperial College (then University of London). Prof. Marwala has been a visiting scholar/professor at universities in the USA, the UK, China, and South Africa and has extensive academic, policy, management, and international experience, and is a co-holder of multiple patents. His research has been multi-disciplinary, involving the theory and applications of artificial intelligence to engineering, social science, economics, politics, finance, and medicine. He has served on a variety of global and national policymaking bodies, and has worked with such United Nations entities as UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, and WIPO. Prof. Marwala holds a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge (UK) with a focus on AI and engineering, a Master of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), and a Bachelor of Science degree (magna cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University (USA). He also completed management and leadership programs at the Columbia Business School and Harvard Business School. Prof. Marwala is, inter alia, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Academy of Science of South Africa, and the African Academy of Sciences. Prof. Marwala is the author of more than 20 books, including Leadership Lessons from Books I Have Read and Leading in the 21st Century: The Call for a New Type of African Leader; dozens of book chapters, journal papers, and conference papers; and more than 200 magazine articles and newspaper op-eds. Among the awards that Prof. Marwala has received are the Order of Mapungubwe (South Africa’s highest honor) and the Academy of South Africa’s Science-for-Society Gold Medal. He was named the 2021 IT Personality of the Year by the Institute of IT Professionals South Africa.

As Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Tavistock Development Company ( https://www.tavistock.com/ ), Gloria Caulfield oversees the health and medical partnerships, as well as business development, for Tavistock's visionary Lake Nona community ( https://www.lakenona.com/ ). In her role, Gloria is instrumental in managing corporate partnerships and identifying strategic intersections with stakeholders in the Lake Nona community. These efforts focus on advancing research, technology and innovative solutions that promote healthy lifestyles, extend health span and advance longevity medicine within the dynamic environment of Lake Nona’s living lab. Additionally, she serves as the chief architect and Executive Director of the Lake Nona Impact Forum ( https://lakenonaimpactforum.org/ ), a globally recognized health innovation gathering and a signature event of the Tavistock Group. Prior to joining Tavistock, Gloria worked as an executive for a national consulting group with the mission of identifying and quantifying new revenue streams for integrated healthcare systems across the country. She also had a distinguished career at Advent Health. Here, as the Sr. Executive Director for Community Development, she provided strategic leadership for corporate partnerships and business development, as well as spearheaded critical community benefit and community relations initiatives in the Central Florida region. Gloria serves on boards that reflect her passion for driving the future of human health and wellbeing including the StartUp Health Impact Board, focused on mobilizing entrepreneurs committed to solving the biggest health challenges of our time, and the ChopraX Advisory Board, a wellness-dedicated venture platform and accelerator that sits at the convergence of whole person health. Additionally, Gloria aligns her passion for great female founders focused on wellness-oriented companies by sitting on the LFE Capital Advisory Board. Gloria Caulfield is a proud alumna of the University of Arizona and brings her extensive experience and visionary leadership to every aspect of her role.

Dr. Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP is the Senior Director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program, and Co-Principal Investigator at the Institute of Disaster and Disaster Management, at NYC Health + Hospitals ( https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/institute-for-disease-and-disaster-management/the-team/ ). Her work focuses on the preparedness for, response to and recovery from infectious disease outbreaks with an emphasis on healthcare and public health biopreparedness. Dr. Madad built NYC Health + Hospitals special pathogens program from the ground up, maintaining readiness for the nation’s largest municipal healthcare delivery system for all infectious disease threats through ongoing training, education, drills, developing protocols, and processes and more. She’s responded to multiple infectious disease outbreaks as an infectious disease epidemiologist including Ebola, Measles and Zika. In addition, Dr. Madad is a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs ( https://www.belfercenter.org/person/syra-madad ) where she regularly publishes on the latest public health guidance, epidemiological concepts and scientific literature to help the public understand complex topics using infographics and simplified science communication. She was prominently featured in the Netflix docuseries, Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak ( https://www.netflix.com/title/81026143 ), and the Discovery Channel documentary, The Vaccine: Conquering COVID ( https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/the-vaccine-conquering-covid/full-episodes/the-vaccine-conquering-covid ). Dr. Madad received a B.S. in Psychology and a master's degree in Biotechnology with a concentration in Biodefense and Biosecurity, from the University of Maryland, College Park and then received an DHSc degree in health science with a concentration in Global Health from Nova Southeastern University. She holds numerous professional certifications, licenses and training certificates including Master Continuity Practitioner Certification (FEMA), Advanced Emergency Planning Certification, All Hazard Response (CBRNE) Training for Laboratory Personnel, Infection Control and Prevention Certification, Biosafety Level III Training, and Identification of the Primary Select Agents of Bioterrorism Training.

Dr. Mohammed Alhamali, is Chairman of the National Innovation & Regulatory Sandbox Committee, And Chief Innovation Officer & Regulatory Sandbox, SEHA Virtual Hospital & Enablement Centre, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia (https://www.moh.gov.sa/). Dr. Alhamali is also Cofounder / General Manager of the Society of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and has served as a Strategy Consultant for Health Sector Transformation Program (HSTP) and Director of Research & Development at the Model of Care Vision Realization Office 2030. Dr. Alhamali has a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery - (MBBS, Dentistry), from King Saud University, and a Master of Science - (MS, Oral Biology and Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology) from UCLA.

Ashley Gaines is Vice President, Head of Breast Cancer Franchise, US Oncology Business Unit, at AstraZeneca ( https://www.astrazeneca-us.com/az-in-us/ashley-gaines.html ) where she is responsible for overseeing commercialization in the US for ENHERTU, TRUQAP and future breast cancer assets and indications. Ashley joined AstraZeneca in 2014 and has led commercial teams across various US and Global franchises, including Infectious Disease, Women’s Cancers, Lung Cancer and Hematologic Cancers. Her experience prior to AstraZeneca includes marketing and strategy, investment banking and management consulting roles at Pfizer, McKinsey & Co. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Ashley has a Bachelor of Arts, Math and Urban Studies, from University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Business Administration, General Management, from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Julia Allen is Chief Scientist, Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence, at Saab ( https://www.saab.com/ ) where her team’s primary focus is developing AI technologies to support the organization’s customers across all U.S. Department of Defense branches, helping government research and development leaders take on their hardest challenges. Saab serves the global market with world-leading products, services and solutions from military defense in all domains to civil security. Previously, Dr Allen was the director of artificial intelligence and tactical space research at BAE Systems FAST Labs(TM) and was the Principal Investigator of the DARPA MindfuL(TM) Competency-Aware Machine Learning and ONR Advanced Long Range Targeting programs. Prior to joining BAE Systems, Dr. Allen was a member of the Senior Professional Staff at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and a Military Intelligence Officer in the Army National Guard. Dr. Allen is a graduate of Dickinson College (B.S. - Mathematics) and Johns Hopkins University (M.S. - Applied and Computational Mathematics) and has a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Department of Mechanical Engineering, with a focus on Explainable Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Nigel McCracken, Ph.D. is Chief Operating Officer of Virax Biolabs ( https://www.viraxbiolabs.com/ ), an innovative diagnostics and detection biotech company developing a game-changing T-Cell immunology technology platform to provide early diagnosis for post viral syndromes, and indications associated with chronic inflammation and T cell exhaustion, to enable early treatment interventions. Dr. McCracken brings over 25 years of research & development experience in drug development, within a number of indications, including oncology and infectious disease. Prior to joining Virax, Dr. McCracken was the Chief Scientific Officer at BerGenBio AsA where he drove the plan for BerGenBio AsA’s companion diagnostics and assay development. Prior to that role, he served as COO at NuCana PLC, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on significantly improving treatment outcomes for patients with cancer, where he provided oversight and direction to the operations of the business, research and development and execution of corporate strategy. Dr. McCracken also spent time over his career at major biopharma companies including Debiopharma, Shire, Nycomed, and Abbott. Dr. McCracken obtained a Master’s degree in Clinical Pharmacology from Kings College London, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biochemical Toxicology from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Pharmacology from Strathclyde University.

Christina Tobin is an activist and leader in the election reform and voters’ rights movements. She is the founder and chair of the Free & Equal Elections Foundation ( https://freeandequal.org/ ), and president and chief executive officer of Free & Equal, Inc. Tobin’s non-profit the Free & Equal Elections Foundation leads national, state and local efforts to open the electoral process in the United States by hosting open all-inclusive gubernatorial, Presidential and senatorial debates; organizing Electoral Reform Symposiums; producing United We Stand tours uniting the younger generations with musicians, artists, and thought leaders to promote political and cultural change; supporting individuals running for office; and creating a blockchain election assistant app to promote transparency and empower voters with information about all their candidate choices. Tobin started her career as a non-partisan ballot access coordinator under her ballot access and petitioning company Free & Equal, Inc. An expert in defending signatures and coordinating petition drives, Tobin helped gather and defend millions of signatures for the Green Party, Constitution Party, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Libertarian Party, Socialist Equality Party and independents. In 2008, Tobin served as Ralph Nader’s national ballot access coordinator. She helped coordinate more than 500,000 signatures to put Ralph Nader on the District of Columbia ballot and 45 state presidential ballots, more than any other third party or independent candidate. Throughout her life, Tobin has brought people of different backgrounds together, as her life’s mission is to spread unity, peace, and opportunity by reforming the electoral process. She earned her B.A. from Saint Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota where she served as varsity tennis captain and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity.

Dr. Sofiya Milman, MD, MS ( https://www.einsteinmed.edu/faculty/12865/sofiya-milman/ ) is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Geriatrics, and is the Director of Human Longevity Studies at the Institute for Aging Research, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Milman’s research focuses on a unique population of centenarians and their families ( https://www.superagersstudy.org/ ) who are generally free of age-related diseases, where extreme healthy longevity runs in most of these families, suggesting a heritable basis for this phenomenon. Dr. Milman's team conducts translational research focused on the discovery of genomic mechanisms that regulate endocrine and metabolic pathways that protect against common age-related diseases, like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's. Dr. Milman became fascinated by both physiology and genetics during her college years and at SUNY Stonybrook School of Medicine, from which she received her medical degree. Following internal medicine residency and fellowship in endocrinology, both at Montefiore, the opportunity arose to combine her passions for physiology and genetics through work with Dr. Nir Barzilai, MD, Director of Institute for Aging Research, the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Biology of Aging, and of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging at Einstein. During her two years of post-doctoral training in translational gerontology and genetics at Einstein’s Institute for Aging Research under Dr. Barzilai’s mentorship, she got hooked on the study of aging and found what has become her life’s work.

Pete O’Heeron, MSHA, is the CEO of FibroBiologics ( https://fibrobiologics.com/ ), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing fibroblast cell-based therapies for patients suffering from chronic diseases. Mr. O’Heeron has over 25 years of medical technology and biotech development experience and brings together the resources necessary to commercialize unique technologies with expertise from business start-ups and biologics, to medical devices and patient centered healthcare delivery. Prior to founding FibroBiologics, Mr. O’Heeron founded an operational investment group, Advanced Medical Technologies, LLC, that identified early-stage opportunities in the medical field with strong intellectual property potential. He also founded NeoSurg Technologies that developed the T2000 Minimally Invasive Access System. The sale of NeoSurg Technologies to Cooper Surgical occurred in 2006. Mr. O’Heeron brings decades of executive-level experience at Christus Health Care Corporation and strategic advisory to healthcare companies in the areas of biologics, advanced surgical instrumentation, and telemedicine to the company along with an academic foundation rooted in healthcare administration. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Healthcare Administration at Texas State University, his Masters in Healthcare Administration from the University of Houston Clear Lake, and his Executive Management Certification in Mergers and Acquisition from University of Chicago.

Dr. Carl Dieffenbach ( https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/carl-w-dieffenbach-phd ) is the Director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Dr. Dieffenbach has oversight of a global HIV/AIDS research portfolio of over one billion dollars and a staff of over 150 federal employees and is responsible for planning, implementing, managing, and evaluating programs in 1) fundamental basic laboratory research, 2) discovery and development of therapies and treatment strategies for HIV infection and its co-infections and/or complications through basic research and clinical trials, and 3) discovery and development of vaccines, topical microbicides, and other prevention strategies through basic research and clinical trials. Over the years Dr. Dieffenbach played a key role in restructuring the DAIDS-supported clinical trials research networks and has actively fostered collaboration and partnerships with other federal agencies, international research organizations, professional societies, foundations, community advocacy groups, and industry. Dr. Dieffenbach received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. in biophysics from The Johns Hopkins University and completed his postdoctoral fellowship with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) Department of Pathology.

Leslie Orne ( https://trinitylifesciences.com/our-experts/leslie-sandberg-orne/ ) is President & Chief Executive Officer of Trinity Life Sciences, a fast-growing consultancy in the healthcare industry and with a reputation as a trusted strategic partner, delivering evidence-based solutions for the life sciences, including: advisory services, insights and analytics, and technology, to meet the unique needs of established pharmaceutical companies, and emerging biotech firms. Leslie oversees the delivery of integrated consulting, insights and analytic services to Trinity’s customers and has been a critical advisor to hundreds of customers across thousands of projects, spanning an array of therapeutic areas and business models, and has supported billions of dollars in strategic transactions and the launches of dozens of products which gives her a unique vantage point on the industry. Leslie graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College with a BS in Biology. While at Dartmouth, she was also an All-American and captain of the National Championship varsity sailing team.

Dr. Malin Grape, Ph.D. is Ambassador on Antimicrobial Resistance, at the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of Sweden ( https://www.government.se/government-of-sweden/ministry-of-health-and-social-affairs/ ), a role she has held since March 2022 ( https://www.government.se/articles/2022/10/swedens-ambassador-for-work-against-antimicrobial-resistance/ ). Previous to this position, Dr. Grape was Deputy Head of Department for Communicable Disease Control and Health Protection, and Head of Unit for Antibiotics and Infection Control, at the Public Health Agency of Sweden, where she was responsible for national coordination and international cooperation on antimicrobial resistance and healthcare associated infections. Dr. Grape is a licensed pharmacist and holds a Ph.D. in medical science from the Karolinska Institute. Her research and previous professional experience span a broad field from clinical microbiology to global health. Dr Grape has been the chair of the national sector-wide coordinating mechanism on antibiotic resistance, including 22 governmental agencies, as well as director of a WHO Collaboration Centre for antimicrobial resistance containment. She was a member of the program committee of the national research program on antibiotic resistance and council member of the National Council for Patient Safety.

Dr. Alex Colville, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and General Partner of age1 ( https://age1.com/ ), a venture capital firm focused on catalyzing the next generation of founder-led, longevity biotech companies, with a strategy of building a community of visionaries advancing new therapeutics, tools, and technologies targeting aging and age-related diseases. With a recent initial closing of US$35 million, age1 will be focusing on founders and companies at the earliest stages of first-money in, pre-seed and seed funding, and is resourced to continue to support companies through later rounds. Dr. Colville previously established the biotech arm of Starbloom Capital and served as founding Chief of Staff of Amaranth Foundation, where he led: the foundation’s support of skilled researchers and ambitious moonshot projects in the longevity field, and helped to advance their lobbying efforts; the TIME Initiative (a group with mission to activate undergraduate students' interest in aging biology); the Marine Biology Laboratory Biology of Aging Summer Course, among other programs. Dr. Colville completed his Ph.D. in Genetics at Stanford University studying the biology of aging in Dr. Thomas Rando's lab while consulting for several family offices, the R&D team of Rubedo Life Sciences, and the business development team of Maze Therapeutics. Prior to his Ph.D., while at Northeastern University completing his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Chemical Engineering with a Minor in Biochemical Engineering, he advised pharma companies as a management consultant at Putnam Associates, a boutique life sciences consulting firm.

Dr. Marco Quarta, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and CEO of Rubedo Life Sciences ( https://www.rubedolife.com/ ), a biopharmaceutical company developing a broad portfolio of innovative therapies engineered to target cells which drive chronic age-related diseases. The company's proprietary ALEMBIC™ drug discovery platform has engineered novel first-in-class small molecules designed to selectively target senescent cells, which play a key role in the progression of pulmonary, dermatological, oncological, neurodegenerative, fibrotic and other chronic disorders. Dr. Quarta received his doctorate degree in Biotechnology from the University of Bologna and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Padua. He completed a post-doc in Aging and Stem cell Biology in the lab of Prof. Thomas Rando at Stanford University and continued his work at Stanford directing a research team at the Center for Tissue Regeneration, Repair, and Restoration at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, CA. While there, he established a translational program in regenerative medicine. He has over 35 publications and patents in the field of aging, stem cells, regenerative medicine, and rejuvenation. Dr. Quarta also co-founded Wetware Concepts, Young European Biotech Network (YEBN), and Turn Biotechnology, and served as an executive board member of the European Federation of Biotechnologies. He currently sits on the advisory board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Calpoly Bridge program, and the advisory board at the Center for Healthcare Innovation. He is a member of the Paul F Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging Studies at Stanford University, one of the most prestigious institutions supporting the science of aging. Dr. Quarta also serves as CEO and President for the Board of Directors of The Phaedon Institute ( https://www.phaedon.institute/ ), a think-tank organization that operates with the mission of supporting and enabling effective and sustainable growth in the field of aging and longevity sciences.

Dr. Peter M. Fleischut, M.D., is Group Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Transformation Officer at NewYork-Presbyterian ( https://www.nyp.org/ )where he oversees the strategic vision and management of enterprise information technology, lab operations, pharmacy operations, innovation, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and cybersecurity. Dr. Fleischut has led the development of the Hospital’s award-winning digital health services and the implementation of clinical operations at NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center, a world-class ambulatory care center. In his previous role as Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer, he focused on creating a single electronic medical record across NewYork-Presbyterian and its affiliated medical schools, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Fleischut also led efforts to standardize care across NYP’s ten hospitals and hundreds of clinics and doctor practices, and oversaw all aspects of Graduate Medical Education (GME) for programs across the NYP enterprise. Joining NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell in 2006, Dr. Fleischut previously served as Medical Director of Operating Rooms, Deputy Quality Patient Safety Officer, founding Director of the Center for Perioperative Outcomes, Vice Chairman, Chief Medical Information Officer, Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Medical Operating Officer. In 2016, Dr. Fleischut became Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology. He is a graduate of Jefferson Medical College and the Wharton Program for Working Professionals at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Fleischut has received numerous awards and honors, including NewYork-Presbyterian’s Physician of the Year, Modern Healthcare Up and Comers, Becker’s Hospital Review 40 under 40, and the American Telehealth Association President’s Award. NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the nation’s most comprehensive, integrated academic health care delivery systems, dedicated to providing the highest quality, most compassionate care and service to patients in the New York metropolitan area, nationally, and throughout the globe. In collaboration with two renowned medical schools, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, NewYork-Presbyterian is consistently recognized as a leader in medical education, groundbreaking research, and innovative, patient-centered clinical care.

Dr. George R. Dodge, Ph.D. is CEO & Co-Founder of Mechano-Therapeutics LLC ( https://mechano-therapeutics.com/ ), a biotechnology company spun out from his lab, and the labs of his partners Dr. Rob Mauck and Dr. Daeyeon Lee, at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in microcapsule development using proprietary microfluidics for drug encapsulation, with a mission to revolutionize musculoskeletal health using an innovative platform technology to enhance delivery of therapeutics for improving patient outcomes. Dr. Dodge recently served on the faculty of Orthopaedic Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; as Director, Philadelphia VA Shared Instrument Core; and Director, Translational Musculoskeletal Research Center, Philadelphia Crescenz Veterans Administration Medical Center, Department of Veteran Affairs. Dr. Dodge has a B.S. (Biology) from Asbury College, a B.S. (Biology and Health Science / Public Health) from State University of New York, a Ph.D. (Biochemistry and Immunology) from McGill University, and did Post-Graduate work in Molecular and Cell Biology, at Thomas Jefferson University Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. Dr. Dodge is an established investigator with a career long commitment to translational musculoskeletal research and in particular research focused on cartilage and chondrocyte biology, extracellular matrix and research related to osteoarthritis.

Dr. Majid Fotuhi, M.D., Ph.D. ( https://neurogrow.com/about-us/dr-majid-fotuhi-md-phd/ ) is the Medical Director of NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center, a neurology practice dedicated for treating patients with concussion, memory loss, or attention deficit disorder. He is also an affiliate staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine ( https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/details/majid-fotuhi ) and teaches medical students at Harvard Medical School. He has been an active member of the American Academy of Neurology, American Medical Association, International Brain Research Organization, and Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Fotuhi received his MD degree (cum laude) from Harvard Medical School, as a member of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and his doctoral PhD degree in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Fotuhi’s initial clinical research at Johns Hopkins focused on basic brain neurochemistry and on finding effective ways to prevent dementia. More specifically, he worked on longitudinal studies to determine the beneficial role of a combination of vitamins and natural supplements along with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) in maintaining cognitive function and brain health. His current research focuses on designing multi-disciplinary treatment programs for patients with memory loss and/or post-concussive syndrome. He has published his research findings in Brain Research, Journal of Neuroscience, the Lancet, Nature, Neurology, Neuron, and Proceedings of National Academy of Science. Dr. Fotuhi has dedicated much of his time to educating the public about memory, aging, and concussion. In his book, The Memory Cure: How to Protect Your Brain Against Memory Loss and Alzheimer's Disease, he provides clear and concise information about how to prevent dementia. His second book, entitled The New York Times Puzzles to Keep Your Brain Young: The 6 Step Age Defying Program, was released in January 2008. His most recent book, Boost Your Brain, teaches people how they can grow the size of their hippocampus. He has had two PBS programs, entitled “Conquering Memory Loss” and “Fight Alzheimer’s Early.” He has been interviewed by more than 50 media outlets including ABC News, CTV, CBS, TODAY show, Montel show, Fox News, Dr. Oz show, Discovery Channel, The Boston Globe, USA Today, Health magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Montreal Gazette, and The Times (London). Dr. Fotuhi has taken a leadership role in medical education as well. He has received numerous awards for his innovative and dynamic teaching style. He is one of the most popular instructors at Harvard Medical School, where he designed and helped to build two 5O foot tall brain models for his students in neuroanatomy classes. He won the distinguished teaching award from the American Academy of Neurology in 2001. He has presented academic lectures as the honorary visiting professor in Canada, Egypt, China, Israel, and Japan; he also had the honor of presenting a lecture at a United Nations meeting in New York in September 2010 and at the legislative briefings for the house and senate in Maryland in February 2015.

Mr. Benson Kanyembo is Law Enforcement Advisor, Conservation South Luangwa ( https://cslzambia.org/ ), an organization which works in partnership with Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) on the frontline of wildlife conservation and human-wildlife coexistence in the South Luangwa Valley. The organization is focused on protecting the 1,400,000 hectares of largely intact wilderness in eastern Zambia that make up the South Luangwa National Park and the surrounding Upper and Lower Lupande game management areas. The Luangwa Valley is home to over 60 species of mammals and 450 species of birds. Species include the unique Crawshay’s zebra, Cookson’s wildebeest, and a geographically isolated population of Luangwa giraffe (G. t. thornicrofti), a subspecies of Masai giraffe. The Valley is also known for its high densities of lion, leopard and wild dog, and it remains a stronghold for elephants in Zambia. Born in Kitwe, the son of a policeman, Mr. Kanyembo grew up with an understanding of the importance of good law enforcement and has devoted over 20 years of his life to protecting Zambia’s wildlife for future generations, including his own four daughters. In 1994, Mr. Kanyembo started his career in wildlife enforcement as a village scout in North Luangwa. In 2000, after the formation of ZAWA (Zambian Wildlife Authority) he became a community scout before rising to the rank of Senior Wildlife Police Officer and was in charge of the training of all scouts and transferred to South Luangwa in 2008. In 2009, Mr. Kanyembo joined CSL as Operations Manager, and during the restructuring in 2018 was promoted to Law Enforcement Advisor. He leads all CSL anti-poaching law enforcement and wildlife rescue operations either in the field or from his control room in collaboration with DNPW. He has facilitated the growth and development of the anti-poaching unit from 30 to 92 scouts. In 2019, Mr. Kanyembo's commitment to conservation in Africa was recognized on the global stage, when he was awarded the TUSK Wildlife Ranger Award in London by Tusk’s Royal Patron HRH The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William of Wales.

Dr. Grzegorz (Greg) Ombach, Ph.D. ( https://councils.forbes.com/profile/Greg-Ombach-Head-Disruptive-R-T-Senior-Vice-President-Airbus/b60db4cb-0b87-48cb-a3a0-41068d3d05ab ) is Head of Disruptive R&T ( https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/disruptive-concepts ) and Senior Vice President, at Airbus, the multinational aerospace corporation, where he is passionate about managing technological innovation from an idea to broad market adoption, and his combination of technology, leadership and commercial expertise together with a truly global outlook, having worked across Europe, the USA and China, puts him in a solid position to drive international market success for high-tech innovations. As a Head of Disruptive R&T, Dr. Ombach shapes Airbus's ability to be the global leader in innovation and future technologies across all Airbus divisions and he works very closely with all businesses and divisions globally. Prior to this role, when Dr. Ombach served as Executive Vice President, Head of Battery Systems Business and Group Strategy and Innovation at Dräxlmaier, he was responsible for the strategy for the business and led the entire product commercialization, from the initial concept to high volume production of cutting-edge technology in a premium market for the automotive sector, including the first high-volume production of an 800V battery system for the Porsche Taycan. Earlier, Dr. Ombach worked at Qualcomm as a Global Vice President and General Manager of a breakthrough automotive technology licensing business and also gained experience from Siemens VDO, Continental and Brose. Dr. Ombach holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Silesian University of Technology, Poland and a Certificate in Global Management from INSEAD, The Business School for the World. He has also been awarded Guest Professorship at the Zhejiang University in China.

Advitya Gemawat ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/agemawat/ ) is a Machine Learning Research Engineer who currently works in the Responsible AI (RAI) team as part of the Azure Machine Learning (AML) and Azure AI Studio product lines, in the Azure AI Platform org. Prior to the RAI team, he was part of the 4th cohort of the Microsoft AI Development Acceleration Program (MAIDAP), where he worked with Azure Quality, Microsoft’s Gray Systems Lab (GSL), Azure Edge & Platform, and Azure Machine Learning (AML). His research experience is at the intersection of Machine Learning & Scalable Systems. His work with GSL was identified as the Microsoft Global Hackathon Executive Challenge 2022 Winner and recipient of the Best Demonstration Award at VLDB 2022. His work with the AML team on expanding the RAI Dashboard to support Object Detection models was released in Public Preview at Microsoft Build 2023. Prior to Microsoft, Advitya graduated from UC San Diego with a Data Science major, where he contributed to Project Cerebro (a Layered Data Platform for scalable Deep Learning) and was advised by Professor Arun Kumar. There, his research won the 2021 ACM SIGMOD Student Research Abstract Competition and the Best Project Award as part of UCSD’s Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute (HDSI) Undergraduate Scholarship Program HDSI Scholarship Program. As part of an internship with VMware, his work on Massively Parallel Automated Model Building for Deep Learning was included in Apache MADlib 1.18.0 release. Opinions expressed in the video solely reflect Advitya’s views and not the views of his employer. Follow Advitya on the handles below: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/agemawat YouTube: youtube.com/@AdvityaGemawat Microsoft Research: microsoft.com/research/people/agemawat Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 3:36 - College Journey 7:11 - College research on Deep Learning Systems 13:00 - Experience at MAIDAP 17:19 - Bridging the worlds of Database Systems & Deep Learning frameworks 23:22 - Responsible AI 29:33 - What’s next? 34:48 - Advice for college students 39:44 - Incoming Public Engagements

Dr. Joni L. Rutter, Ph.D., ( https://ncats.nih.gov/director/bio ) is the Director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences ( NCATS - https://ncats.nih.gov/ ) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) where she oversees the planning and execution of the Center’s complex, multifaceted programs that aim to overcome scientific and operational barriers impeding the development and delivery of new treatments and other health solutions. Under her direction, NCATS supports innovative tools and strategies to make each step in the translational process more effective and efficient, thus speeding research across a range of diseases, with a particular focus on rare diseases. By advancing the science of translation, NCATS helps turn promising research discoveries into real-world applications that improve people’s health. The NCATS Strategic Plan can be found at - https://ncats.nih.gov/strategicplan In her previous role as the NCATS deputy director, Dr. Rutter collaborated with colleagues from government, academia, industry and nonprofit patient organizations to establish robust interactions with NCATS programs. Prior to joining NCATS, Dr. Rutter served as the director of scientific programs within the All of Us Research Program, where she led the scientific programmatic development and implementation efforts to build a national research cohort of at least 1 million U.S. participants to advance precision medicine. During her time at NIH, she also has led the Division of Neuroscience and Behavior at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). In this role, she developed and coordinated research on basic and clinical neuroscience, brain and behavioral development, genetics, epigenetics, computational neuroscience, bioinformatics, and drug discovery. Dr. Rutter also coordinated the NIDA Genetics Consortium and biospecimen repository. Throughout her career, Dr. Rutter has earned an international reputation for her diverse and unique expertise via her journal publications and speaking engagements, and she has received several scientific achievement awards, including the 2022 Rare Disease Legislative Advocates–RareVoice Award for Federal Advocacy and the 2022 FedHealthIT–Women in Leadership Impact Award. Dr. Rutter received her Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, and completed a fellowship at NCI within the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.

Dr. Reshmi Ghosh, Ph.D. ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/reshmighosh/ ) is an Applied Scientist as part of Microsoft’s AI acceleration program, under their Office of Applied Research, where she serves as a Tech Lead to drive teams towards bettering customer experience by integrating state-of-the-art machine learning capabilities in Microsoft products and services while working at the intersection of Natural Language Processing, human-centered AI, and Reinforcement Learning. Dr. Ghosh’s collaborations at Microsoft have revolved around researching and building machine learning models that can help understand/predict enterprise user and consumer behavior, to power intelligent service improvements (e.g., efficient search, information consumption) and commanding experiences (e.g., search, command prediction, task automation, etc.). Additional collaborations also include research on topic segmentation methods for unstructured conversation data using transfer learning approaches. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Ghosh completed her doctorate degree at Carnegie Mellon University, researching novel deep-learning and bayesian approaches to strategize methods for climate change adaptation and mitigation in collaboration with the University of Michigan and CMU Portugal. She also has two other masters’ degrees from Carnegie Mellon University: M.S. in Engineering and Public Policy (Focus: Data Science techniques for Policy Analysis) and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Focus: Data Analytics for Engineered Systems)

Dr. Jamie Jonker, Ph.D. ( https://www.nmpf.org/team/jamie-jonker/ ) is the National Milk Producers Federation’s Chief Science Officer and Vice President of Sustainability & Scientific Affairs where he serves as the organization’s lead scientific expert on dairy issues ranging from animal health and sustainability, to dairy farm biosecurity, air and water quality, and more. Dr. Jonker leads NMPF’s engagement with scientific groups such as the U.S. Animal Health Association, the International Dairy Federation (IDF), the World Animal Health Organization, and Codex Alimentarius. Dr. Jonker serves on the IDF Board of Directors and in 2020 was elected chair of the IDF Science Program Coordinating Committee. He is also involved in coordinating relations with the Federation’s Animal Health & Wellbeing Committee and Environmental Issues Committee. Dr. Jonker received his B.S. degree (Animal Science) and M.S. degree (Animal Science, with concentration in dairy cattle nutrition) from Cornell University, and his Ph.D. (Animal and Avian Science) from the University of Maryland. Prior to joining NMPF he worked at the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture. NMPF was organized in 1916 to provide a forum for dairy producers and the cooperatives they own to participate in public policy discussions and they currently advocate to Congress, U.S. and foreign government agencies, industry organizations, the news media, and the public, addressing policies including milk pricing, domestic and international market development, agriculture credit and taxation, environmental issues, food safety and health, animal welfare, product standards and labeling, and research and biotechnology. Dr. Jonker is also the Executive Director of the National Ice Cream Mix Association (NICMA).