Science, Industry and Education Council
Dr. Philip Metzger
Dr. Philip Metzger is a planetary physicist who recently retired from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he co-founded the KSC Swamp Works. He now is now at the University of Central Florida — but still a part of the Swamp Works team — performing research related to solar system exploration: predicting how rocket exhaust interacts with extraterrestrial soil, investigating the mechanics of soil, characterizing lunar and martian soil simulants, modeling the migration of volatiles on airless bodies, etc. While at NASA he led the Agency’s work in rocket blast effects for human-class missions. He participated in architecture studies for the Lunar Architecture Team, the Mars Architecture Team and the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, and he helped develop NASA’s technology roadmap for planetary surface technologies. He has also led projects to develop extraterrestrial excavators, regolith conveyance technologies, dust-tolerant quick disconnects, lunar/martian landing pads, and other surface systems technology. He co-founded NASA’s biannual Workshop on Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration and is a founding member of the ASCE Technical Committee for Regolith Operations, Mobility and Robotics. He received the astronaut’s Silver Snoopy award in 2010 and was selected as the Kennedy Space Center’s NASA Scientist/Engineer of the Year for 2011.
Follow on Twitter @DrPhiltill.
Mr. John Goscha
John Goscha is an inventor and entrepreneur who most recently founded the Finally Light Bulb Company which has developed a next generation energy-and cost-efficient lighting technology that replicates all the attributes of incandescent technology while using 75% less energy. He is also the founder of IdeaPaint, a paint that can turn almost any surface into a dry-erase writing surface.
In 2009, Mr. Goscha was named to Inc.’s “30 Under 30” list and was named one of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs by Business Week. Mr. Goscha was also named to Forbes’s “30 Under 30” list for Technology in 2011.
IdeaPaint has won numerous awards, including the Best Innovation Award and the Best of NeoCon Gold Wall Treatment Award at the NeoCon Trade Show in Chicago in 2008. In 2011, IdeaPaint was also awarded with the New England Innovation Award by the Small Business Association of New England.
Mr. Goscha earned his B.S. in Economics and Entrepreneurship from Babson College.
Mr. Ronald A. Creel
Fresh out of college, some 52 years ago, Ron Creel was thrust into a challenging and high-speed engineering task-design, test verification, and mission support for the thermal control system of a new kind of “Spacecraft with Wheels,” the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). Success on this project was acknowledged by several NASA performance citations, which culminated in receipt of the Astronauts’ “Silver Snoopy” award for his LRV thermal system modeling and mission support efforts.
Dr. Himawan Gunadhi
Dr. Himawan Gunadhi brings diverse skills and experiences into the management of technological innovation and value creation for high-tech companies. He has built and led startups in the fields of algorithmic search, concept-based ad targeting, visual e-commerce discovery, big data, and marketing automation. Dr. Gunadhi’s startups focused on the US and international markets including Japan, Korea, and China, and attracted more than US$60M in financing from Sand Hill, corporate, and international venture capital firms.
Dr. Gunadhi holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in Management Science, and holds several appointments to teach, research, mentor, and advise university-based entrepreneurship programs. He is an adjunct professor in entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore’s Overseas Colleges, where he develops and teaches courses in lean startup methodology and venture creation to students who are sent all over the world to work at tech startups.
Dr. Gunadhi started his professional career in strategic information technology and business strategy consulting, and continues to provide advice to clients on strategic business development, corporate development, and investment due diligence.
Ms. Lisa Vestal
Lisa Vestal is the Communications Specialist for the Space Portal Office at NASA Ames in Silicon Valley. She manages communication for a complex portfolio of events, programs and partnerships that include projects such as a NASA Centennial Challenge for which she is the Project Lead, a weekly Commercial Space Lecture Series, and an artificial intelligence and a space science accelerator program. She also serves as a KBR Task Lead for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity (ODEO) at NASA Ames in addition to President of ASPIRE, a KBR employee-driven committee dedicated to cultivating women leaders and promoting gender diversity and inclusion. Lisa obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from Santa Clara University and began her career in corporate communications/training at Apple Computer followed by high-tech public relations agency work before transitioning to marketing and communication for science and arts organizations. This path led her to ultimately obtain a master’s degree in art history on a full merit scholarship with subsequent professional capacities in university level teaching, museum curating, education and marketing capacities. Her volunteer activities include Toastmasters International, AAUW, Habitat for Humanity and the Community Committee for International Students associated with the Bechtel International Center at Stanford University where she has also served in professional public relations capacities for the Department of Art & Art History and the Humanities Center.
Patrick holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Project and Systems Management from Golden Gate University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Patrick Mullane
Patrick Mullane is the Executive Director of HBX, responsible for managing HBX’s growth, expansion in global markets, and long-term success. Prior to joining HBX, Patrick was the CEO of Fabrico, Inc., an industrial manufacturing company that was purchased by Technetics, Inc. in 2014. Subsequent to the sale of Fabrico, he served as vice president and general manager in Technetics’ industrial turbine portfolio.
Before earning his MBA, Patrick served as a captain in a U.S. Air Force intelligence and space operations organization.
Patrick’s interest in space exploration began as a child. As the son of an Air Force aviator who went on to become one of the first space shuttle astronauts, Patrick grew up in the shadow of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and spent vacations at Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center (including visits to Florida for his father’s three space shuttle launches between 1984 and 1990). He carried on the family tradition in the space business as a space and launch operations officer during his own time in the U.S. Air Force between 1991 and 1996.
Patrick holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Project and Systems Management from Golden Gate University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Dickson Chu
Mr. Dickson Chu is an accomplished General Manager and innovative product builder with over 30 years of experience working at the intersection of Financial Services, customer insights and the strategic use of technology. He has held leadership roles at prominent companies – BBVA, Wells Fargo, Yahoo!, PayPal, Citi – where he created and/or grew sizeable new businesses.
Mr. Chu is also an investor, board director and active advisor to a number of emerging companies working to redefine the next generation of payments, commerce and business services. He is currently the head of portfolio management for BBVA’s New Digital Businesses where he has overall responsibility for the governance, budget and strategic direction of BBVA’s growing portfolio of FinTech businesses such as Simple in the US, Holvi in Finland, Atom Bank in the UK, Muno in Spain and OpenPay in Mexico.
Dickson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Mary’s College of California. He is a board member at Ingo Money, Bluefin Payments, BoomTown and CFY.org (a non-profit that provides a digital learning platform to public middle schools); and Strategic Advisor to LoopPay (acquired by Samsung), Leapset (acquired by Sysco Foods), Sequent, Cortex MCP, Anywhere Commerce, Confirm.io, Modria and Float.
Mr. Torsten Kriening
With a background in computer science, IT and space management, Torsten Kriening is as technical as they come. His specialty is business development. He is currently Chief Operating Office of the Thor Group GmbH.
Mr. Paul Quast
Paul Quast is a SETI scholar, independent researcher, interdisciplinary contemporary artist and communication theorist who presently lives and works within Edinburgh, Scotland. He graduated from the Limerick School of Art and Design in 2012 before subsequently commencing a year-long residency in Limerick City, Ireland. In 2016, he received his Masters from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh while also working as the project director/ coordinator for the ‘A Simple Response to an Elemental Message (ASREM)‘ project; a non-for-profit, publicly-compiled interstellar radio message established to create an interdisciplinary ‘message in a bottle’ that will propagate out into the cosmos for centuries. Quast is a founding trustee and director of the ‘Beyond the Earth foundation‘; a non-for-profit, interdisciplinary enterprise which is presently developing ‘companion guide to Earth’ artefacts [alongside other vital ethics and educational activities] for geosynchronous orbit; archival elements which will aid in ‘interpretability preservation’ for the long-term, archaeological commensurability of terrestrial/ celestial information vaults.
In addition to these activities, he is also an advisor on the Memory of Mankind preservation project and an active member of both the UK SETI Research Network (UKSRN) and SETI Kingsland communities while also serving upon the ‘Humanities Council’ of Arch Mission Foundation and the ‘Archaeology, Science and Heritage Council’ of For All Moonkind.
Mr. Madhu Thangavelu
Professor Madhu Thangavelu conducts the ASTE527 graduate Space Exploration Architectures Concept Synthesis Studio in the Department of Astronautical Engineering within the Viterbi School of Engineering, and he is also a graduate thesis adviser in the School of Architecture at USC. He holds degrees in both engineering and architecture and has contributed extensively to concepts in space architecture, especially dealing with extraterrestrial development. He is the author or co-author of over 70 technical papers in space architecture, as well as numerous articles in space related trade journals and magazines dealing with space stations, lunar base design and human factors. He is a co-author of the book The Moon: Resources, Future Development and Settlement(1999) published by John Wiley and Sons and second edition by Springer/Praxis in 2007. He is the invited author of the chapter “Living on the Moon” in the Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, a major reference work published by John Wiley and Sons in 2010 and the on-line second edition updated in 2012. He is a member of the USC team that won the consecutive NASA NIAC Phase I award in 2011 and Phase II award in 2012 for advancing robotic building technologies for extraterrestrial construction. Madhu is an alumnus of the inaugural session of the International Space University at MIT where he proposed the MALEO concept for lunar landers and is on the faculty of the International Space University, an international organization that offers advanced interdisciplinary, intercultural and international training for promising leaders and space professionals. He is a former AIAA officer, having served as Vice Chair for Education in the Los Angeles section. Mr.Thangavelu’s concepts have been reviewed and appreciated by NASA, the National Research Council, the National Space Council(Bush Sr. Administration),and his work has been presented before the National Academy of Sciences.
Mr. Benjamin Bonsu
Mr. Benjamin Bonsu is the co-founder and project manager of Space Systems Technology Laboratory which was founded in the year 2012 to promote space activities in Ghana. He is the lead to build Ghana first satellite into space which was deployed from the International space station on July, 7 2017. He is part of the working group working on the Ghana space policy and strategy guidelines. For sustainable space activities in Ghana.
He is the author of the Ghana Outer Space Act that is under review by the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology team to be passed on to the Parliament House for approval. Benjamin is member of the Birds Satellite Project and HORYU-IV satellite project initiated by the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan. Benjamin is working hard for his country to sign and ratify the United Nations Outer Space Treaties and recently join the Ghana delegates to participate in the UNISPACE+50 and UN-COPUOS high level meeting which took place on 18- 29 June 2018.Benjamin has been awarded the Presidential Honorary Award by His Excellency, President Nana Akufo Addo ,the President of the Republic of Ghana in November 2017 and awarded Best Interactive Presentation Award, “Space and Society” by the International Astronautical Federation during the International Astronautical Congress September 2017 in Adelaide ,Australia. He is an FCC Amateur radio license operator (call sign KEOCND) and has won Hamsphere Bronze and Silver Award. He has established ground station network with University Space Engineering Consortium UNISEC), Info-stellar Networks to support satellite tracking and operations as it passes over Ghana Region. He is part of the planning committee of been organizing Ghana World Space Week Celebration since 2013 and now has 30 space clubs in Ghana high schools as a platform to promote STEM education, Benjamin has B.Eng. in Electronic and Communication Engineering at All Nations University in Koforidua Ghana and Master of Engineering in Space Engineering where he worked on S-band Ground System Development and Operations at Kyushu Institute of Technology in Kitakyushu, Japan. Benjamin Bonsu is currently a second year PhD student at Kyushu Institute of Technology in Kitakyushu, Japan, where he is developing a Low Cost Thermal Testing Device System for Developing countries.
Mr. Ron Wachino
Ron is a writer of persuasion, a leader of creatives and a mover of needles. Needles which moved because of work he created for such Fortune 100 companies as CVS Caremark, IBM and Honeywell International. While profits are important, so is giving a voice to non-profits. And Ron has created advertising for some of the most well-known ones—UNICEF, The Red Cross and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, for which he pitched and won the advertising assignment when the museum was only an architectural model. Ron has also won almost every major advertising award, had his work published in marketing textbooks and had one request for his autograph. (Andy Warhol was right.) And, after 30 years of commuting to work, he’s been inspired to write a book on commuter etiquette called “Please Lower That.” Ron lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children, all of whom try to convince him not to compete in another triathlon.
Ms. Tamara Alvarez
Ms. Tamara Alvarez is a Teaching Fellow and PhD candidate in Anthropology at The New School for Social Research. Since 2016 Alvarez has been doing research at several space institutions, most notably the European Space Agency. Her research project, “Living on the Moon: Humans as Interplanetary Species,” focuses on the legal, political, and sociotechnical practices that are transforming the Moon into an extractive site and a home for humans. Alvarez has taught courses in Global Studies, Anthropology, and Transdisciplinary Design and spoken at the European Space Research and Technology Center, University College London, and Strelka Institute, among others. Alvarez is member of the Space Generation Advisory Council’s Space Law & Policy Working Group and the Moon Village Association. Currently, she collaborates with the International Lunar Exploration Working Group in the Swiss Space Center’s IgLuna project.
Ms. Abbe Serphos
Abbe Serphos was appointed Global Head of PR and Communications at Reuters in February 2016. In this role she is the chief Reuters spokesperson globally and oversees all aspects of Reuters external and internal communications, marketing and related materials, Reuters comms social channels and strategy, thought leadership, the Reuters historical archive, editorial events and the Reuters Newsmakers platform, and issues/crisis management.
Previously Ms. Serphos held roles of increasing responsibility at The New York Times, Barnes & Noble, Kraft Foods, The Buoniconti Fund/the University of Miami School of Medicine and Vorhaus & Company. She began her career at Howard Rubenstein Associates.
A graduate of the State University of New York at Albany, Ms. Serphos has completed extensive MBA graduate coursework at CUNY Baruch College. She is a member of New York Women in Communications, The Wisemen and She Runs It, and serves on various boards.
Ms. Serphos lives in Manhattan with her husband and their son and daughter.
Ms. Kate Arkless Gray
Kate Arkless Gray (aka “@SpaceKate”) is a media strategist with experience of developing content/social media strategies and innovative projects for a range of high-level international organizations including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Wellcome Trust and the Royal Astronomical Society.
She is a qualified broadcast journalist who has written for New Scientist, i-news, Spaceflight Magazine, Which? Computing, Space:UK and more, and regularly appears on Sky News and the BBC World Service program “Digital Planet” to discuss the latest space news.
Former NASA administrator Charles Bolden called her “a true champion!” and challenged her to get more young people involved with space – something she is always keen to do.
Kate completed the International Space University Space Studies Programme in 2012 and won NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge twice in London, becoming a global winner in 2013 for the “most inspirational app.” Author of multiple papers presented IAC and a former SGAC point of contact for the UK, she also organized the UK’s first space “unconference:” SpaceUP:UK.
Ms. Khaki Rodway
Khaki Rodway handles Business Development for Masten Space Systems, specializing in engagement, marketing and management of Masten’s lunar vehicles and payload delivery services. She is a founding member of NewSpace NYC. As a new space industry business development and marketing consultant, she has worked with NanoRacks LLC, World View Experiences, and Arete STEM, a commercial space education company. For ten years she was at XCOR Aerospace, first as the technical writer and program manager for government contracts and then as Director of Payload Sales and Operations where she oversaw the marketing, sales, and operations for XCOR’s Lynx Research and Education Missions (REM) and ran the global Payload Sales Channel. She also managed contracts with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Office of the Secretary of Defense, among other government projects.
Prior to joining XCOR, Khaki was the Operations Manager for the Borehole Research Group (BRG) at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, NY where she administered BRG’s annual $5 Million Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) contract. She has published papers on suborbital space research, rocket engines, composite material, well-logging science, remote sensing in archaeology and heritage conservation, and historic preservation of New York City. She received an MS in Historic Preservation from the Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) and a BA from Rutgers University. She also holds a Certificate from Stanford University’s Program in Novel Writing.
Dr. Alice Gorman
Dr. Alice Gorman is an internationally recognized leader in the emerging field of space archaeology. Her research on space exploration has been featured in National Geographic, the Monocle, and Archaeology magazine. She is a Senior Lecturer at Flinders University and a faculty member of the International Space University’s Southern Hemisphere Space Program in Adelaide.
Dr. Gorman has worked extensively in Indigenous heritage management, providing advice for mining industry, urban development, government departments, local councils and Native Title groups in NSW, WA, SA and Queensland. She is also a specialist in stone tool analysis, and the Aboriginal use of bottle glass after European settlement.
Alice is a member of the Executive Council of the Space Industry Association of Australia, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, and a Councillor of the Anthropological Society of South Australia. She tweets as @drspacejunk.
Ms. Laura Forczyk
Laura Forczyk is the owner of space consulting firm Astralytical specializing in space science, space industry, and space policy analysis and space career coaching. She is the author of Rise of the Space Age Millennials. She has researched astrophysics and planetary science at three NASA centers, flown two parabolic “Zero G” campaigns, conducted geological research in a meteor crater, and earned NASTAR suborbital astronaut wings in ground training.
Prior to forming Astralytical, she ran the Florida office of international startup working to establish parabolic and suborbital flight. She has also worked as a scientific analyst for a nonprofit facilitating over 50 experiments on the International Space Station for the benefit of life on Earth. She earned a bachelor of science in astrophysics from Florida Institute of Technology and a master of science in astrophysics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She conducted doctoral studies in planetary science at the University of Central Florida.
Mr. Matt Spielman
Mr. Matt Spielman incorporates extensive executive management experience and rigorous training and expertise into his executive coaching practice. He has held several senior level positions, including Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, SVP Business Development, SVP Strategy & Innovation, and Chief People Officer.
Tenures at MTV Networks (Viacom), IAG Research (Nielsen), Moxie Interactive (Publicis Groupe), Return Path, a private equity backed data technology firm, and Morgan Stanley, provide the basis for his deep and diverse knowledge in Sales, Organizational Strategy, Digital Media, Data and Analytics, Finance, and Capital Markets.
Matt holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, and a B.A. in Economics from Columbia College. Additional studies include: Leadership Development at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and Columbia University’s Executive Coaching Program.
Mr. Manuel Pimenta
Manuel (Manny) Pimenta is an Electrical Engineer and Computer Scientist working in the Electric Power Industry.
His interest in Space and on the Moon can be traced back to his viewing of the live broadcast from the Moon of the first steps by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Three decades later, realizing that his dream of some day going to the Moon was no closer in the year 2000 than it had been as a ten year old watching Apollo 11’s historical mission, he decided to get involved and look for opportunities to make some contribution, no matter how insignificant those might be. He joined the Space Frontier Foundation and registered for the second Return To The Moon (RTM II) conference that the SFF was hosting in Las Vegas.
While working for the Space Frontier Foundation, he became Return To The Moon project manager, organized two Return To The Moon conferences (RTM IV and RTMV), and also served as Advocate Coordinator. Additionally, he joined ProSpace and participated in ProSpace’s “March Storm” volunteer citizen lobbying drives in Congress in Washington DC for 8 consecutive years. He also served as Vice President of the NYC chapter of the National Space Society. And he was a Founding Member of the Board of Directors for the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA).
In 2002 he founded Lunar Explorer LLC and raised private capital to develop the world’s first Virtual Reality simulation of the Moon which was called Lunar Explorer and was released to the public in 2004. His team was invited by Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of NASA JPL to present Lunar Explorer to the JPL management. He also presented Lunar Explorer at a number of Space conferences, at other NASA centers, and participated in multiple simulation and outreach workshops at NASA Ames. He has lectured at Princeton, Rutgers University and NYU on Moon Settlement. And he regularly gives presentations on the Moon and settling the Moon to k-12 classes.
He founded Virtual Moon to create a massively updated new version of Lunar Explorer capable of running on modern Virtual Reality platforms. Manny’s dream is to have millions of people visit the Moon virtually via a high impact, photorealistic simulation that is visually indistinguishable from actually being on the Moon. And to use Virtual Moon to show those millions of people a bold and inspiring vision of what our future could be as a Spacefaring Civilization.
Mr. Nova Spivack
Mr. Nova Spivack is Founder & CEO of Magical Technologies, LLC, a science and technology venture studio based in Los Angeles. He works via Magical as an active “venture producer” — combining his experience as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and VC to help form, fund and incubate breakthrough companies.
He is a venture Partner in Rewired.ai ($100M AI and robotics venture studio), and an advisor to EES Ventures, a seed stage science and technology venture studio.
He has had several IPOs and exits, and has helped to build companies acquired by Facebook, Apple, and others. Nova is ranked as a Top LA Power Player in Technology, and among the Top 20 Futurists worldwide.
An author of dozens of patents and an expert on AI and big data analytics, Spivack also invented and patented the key technologies and applications for consumer-scale augmented reality in 2009.
Nova flew to the edge of space in 1999 with the Russian Air Force. He is a patron of the Commercial SpaceFlight Federation, an investor in Space Adventures, and the Chairman of the Arch Mission Foundation, a non-profit foundation working to build archives in space and on the moon.
Spivack has advised government agencies, presidential campaigns, global corporations, top consumer brands, venture funds, and fast growing tech startups.
Mr. Dallas Bienhoff
Mr. Bienhoff has a passion for extending humanity out from Earth into and beyond the solar system. Dallas Bienhoff is the Founder of Cislunar Space Development Company, LLC. He established CSDC in June 2017 to create commercial transportation from low Earth orbit to the Moon’s surface and all points in between. Prior to creating Cislunar Space Development Company, Dallas was Space Architect, Project Manager, Capture Team Lead and Proposal Manager at The Boeing Company focused on human Space Exploration missions and commercial Space opportunities. While at Boeing, Mr. Bienhoff developed concepts for Moon and Mars human exploration missions, lunar habitats, propellant depots, Space tugs, Moon shuttles, commercial Space stations, crew return vehicles and reusable launch vehicles. Dallas was also co-lead with NASA for FGB, the first ISS module, on the Russian Integration team. In addition, he has led and supported studies on Space-based solar power, International Moon Base, Moon Village and in situ resource utilization. Dallas has a Master of Science in Engineering from California State University – Northridge and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology.
Dr. Gary Nobles
Dr. Gary Nobles is a Post-Doctorial fellowship holder at Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations where he teaches Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and guest lectures in the Heritage course. He holds a B.Sc., Bournemouth University, M.Sc. University College London (UCL) GIS in Archaeology, Ph.D., Groningen University, spatial analysis in archaeology.
Throughout his career he has enjoyed a variety of roles, these include commercial archaeology, planning and development archaeology, research archaeology. His current research focuses on the development of new innovative data collection and analysis methodologies for archaeological and heritage research. He works extensively with 3D data capture using state-of-the-art technologies (Photogrammetry, Laser scanning, LiDAR, Satellite data) alongside web and data base technologies. In his current role under the Achilles’ Heel Project he is developing a new Archaeological Data Infrastructure in association with the Kaymakcı Archaeological Project which focuses on the interoperability of data sources and automated processing workflows. His recent publications focus on innovation of 3D technology, 3D data storage, and cultural resource management.
Dr. Claire Nelson
Dr. Claire Nelson is Ideation Leader of The Futures Forum, a research and education consulting practice specializing in bringing the power of strategic foresight, and the discipline of sustainability engineering to challenges facing organizations and communities. She has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Futures Studies and the World Futures Review and is an active member of the Association of Professional Futurists and the World Future Studies Federation. Dr. Nelson also serves as an Expert Fellow for TECHCAST Global – a leading technology foresight knowledge network. A sought-after speaker Nelson’s engagements have included: Association of Blacks in Energy; ASME; BET/CENTRIC; World Bank; Women in Research Engineering Symposium; Black Engineer of the Year Conference; Salzburg Seminar; WorldSteel; and the US Air Force.
Before establishing The Futures Forum, Dr. Nelson held a variety of positions at the Inter-American Development Bank, over a thirty-year career which spanned strategic portfolio development; program identification and management, and institutional assessments and technical feasibility studies across a variety of sectors including: public sector modernization, private sector development, community development, and trade development. She was a thought leader in promoting Strategic Foresight in development, organizing the Bank’s first Latin America 2020 Social Development Futures Seminar Series, in 2006. She also pioneered the topic of development with equity at the IDB, helping to build the Bank’s portfolio in Black economic empowerment in Latin America. As a result of her leadership, she was honored with the IDB’s prestigious Ortiz Mena Award in 2010.
A social entrepreneur, Dr. Nelson is recognized as the Architect of the Campaign for June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month and is also the Curator of the Caribbean American Legislative Forum on Capitol Hill and White House Briefings, and the Invest Caribbean Business Conferences. Her volunteer community service has also included: American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship Review Committee; Sustainability Division of the Institute of Industrial Engineers; Fundacion UNIPOP; the African American Unity Caucus of the Constituency for Africa; and the US Department of Commerce US/Caribbean Business Development Council.
Dr. Nelson, who is an award-winning writer and storyteller, holds a Bachelors and Masters in Industrial Engineering from the SUNY at Buffalo and Purdue University respectively, and a Doctorate in Engineering Management from the George Washington University. She is distinguished as the first Jamaican woman to earn a Doctorate in an Engineering discipline. Nelson who was named one of Top 100 Women Futurists in the “Twitterverse”, has received commendation in the US Congressional Record, and has also received an Outstanding Alumni Award from Purdue University, School of Industrial Engineering. Dr. Nelson was named a White House Champion of Change in 2012.
Mr. Bernie Hogya
Bernie Hogya is an award-winning Art Director with years of experience creating and producing television, digital, social and print advertising for big and small brands alike in virtually every category—from financial services to healthcare, from automotive to packaged goods..
Bernie was the creator of the iconic Milk Mustache campaign, one of the most recognized advertising platforms of all time. The campaign expanded well beyond its print origins into a multimedia powerhouse. During its 20-year run, the campaign included over 300 familiar celebrity faces and was credited with driving hundreds of millions of gallons in milk sales. Bernie’s milk Super Bowl commercial featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was named to 15 separate Top 10 “Best Of” lists.
Bernie has received numerous awards including Cannes Lion, Addy, Clio, One Show, Art Director’s Club, Communications Arts and five EFFIE’s. He is currently Managing Partner/Art at Lean&Mean, where one of his first assignments was to help name, brand and launch For All Moonkind.
Mr. Page Murray
Page is a career marketing executive who has worked on industry-leading brands from a range of categories. Absolut Vodka, Apple Computer, Palm, Comcast and HP, where Page served in global leadership roles for consumer, solution and channel marketing. He has been recognized as “Marketing Top 50” and received Kelly, Effie and a host of marketing awards. Recently, Page accepted a CMO role for Stanford, focusing on communications, marketing and platforms supporting the alumni from across Stanford. He lives in the Santa Cruz mountains with his wife, three children and a dog named “Moon.”
Ms. Lindsay Small
Lindsay Marlies Small is a PhD student in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Her research examines the protection and preservation of heritage sites and objects in outer space through the lens of museology and ethical tourism. Small has also conducted research on how space is communicated to the public in national museums through objects and text. She focuses on decolonizing outer space and museum narratives and how heritage policy can be applied off Earth.
Ms. Wendy Zajack
With more than 25 years of experience in public relations, marketing, media relations and internal communications, Wendy Zajack thrives on making complex topics easy to understand, exciting and relevant to broad audiences. She spent her corporate career working for large, global technology organizations building messaging for multiple audiences and using a variety of marketing channels. She joined Georgetown University in 2016 as a faculty director and professor for two master’s level programs focusing on Integrated Marketing Communications and Design Management Communications in the School of Continuing Studies. She is an active blogger and Tweeter and enjoys speaking at industry conferences and universities about the power of branding and communications, personal branding and business marketing trends.