Michael K. Young

President
Texas A&M University

Michael K. Young is the 25th President of Texas A&M University. Previously, he served as President and tenured Professor of Law at the University of Washington, President and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Utah, Dean and Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School, and professor at Columbia University. He was a visiting professor and scholar at three universities in Japan. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Young served as law clerk to late U.S Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and has held a number of government positions including two during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Jodi Goldstein

Managing Director
Harvard Innovation Labs
Harvard University

Jodi Goldstein is the Managing Director of the Harvard Innovation Labs. With more than 20 years of experience as a startup executive, co-founder, and investor, she is focused on resourcing first-time entrepreneurs, helping early-stage ventures move their ideas further, faster and growing the innovation economy.

Jodi has expertise in consumer, e-commerce, mobile, and luxury goods businesses. She began her career at GE in their FMP program and was a member of their Corporate Audit Staff, the internal consulting arm of GE.

She has an MBA from Harvard and a BS in International Business from the University of Vermont.

Judy Marks

CEO, Siemens USA
Executive Vice President, Dresser-Rand
Siemens Power and Gas Division
Siemens

Judith F. “Judy” Marks is the CEO of Siemens USA, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization with 50,000 U.S. employees and approximately 75 manufacturing sites. Marks joined Siemens in 2011, serving for over four years as the President and CEO of Siemens Government Technologies (SGT), Inc.

In 2015, she took over the leadership of the Siemens Dresser-Rand integration; she is Executive VP of New Equipment Solutions, a position she will continue to hold while also leading Siemens USA.

Previously Marks served as President of two operating entities at Lockheed Martin.

She earned a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University.

Ray Rothrock

Chairman and CEO
RedSeal, Inc.

Ray A. Rothrock is a Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist and Chairman and CEO of RedSeal, Inc. an enterprise software analytics cyber security company. He retired from Venrock, the original venture investment arm of the Rockefeller family, as Partner Emeritus in 2013. During his 25-year career at Venrock he led both the Internet and energy investment programs and was a member of the management committee. Rothrock holds a BS in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University, an MS in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School. He is a 2016 Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M. He also is the bassist in the Bay Area rock group, “Up and to the Right.”

Tim McLaughlin

Department Head & Associate Professor
Department of Visualization
College of Architecture
Texas A&M University

Tim McLaughlin joined the faculty of Texas A&M in fall 2007 and became the Department of Visualization’s first Department Head in January 2008. Prior to coming to Texas A&M, Tim worked at Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., where he led teams of artists and engineers in computer graphics techniques, creating digital creatures for award-winning films. As Head of the Department of Visualization he has overseen the creation of the Bachelor of Science and the Master of Fine Arts in Visualization degree programs. He is active in a variety of research and outreach activities that involve blending art and science in STEM education.

Dr. Marco Palma

Associate Professor & Extension Economist
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences & Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agency
Texas A&M University

Dr. Marco Palma is Associate Professor and Extension Economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. His areas of interest are consumer economics, food choices, experimental and behavioral economics and neuroeconomics. Dr. Palma is the director of the Human Behavior Laboratory, a transdisciplinary facility that integrates state-of-the-art technology to measure biometric and neurophysiological responses of human decision making. Marco has been an invited speaker to more than 300 conferences around the world. He is passionate about his work, and his energy and enthusiasm are transmitted in his presentations.

Dr. Steven Woltering

Director
Neurobiological Lab for Learning & Development
College of Education & Human Development
Texas A&M University

Dr. Steven Woltering's interest, broadly put, is to better understand the role of self-regulation in our behavior and apply this to the field of education. Self-regulation refers to the ability to control your attention and emotions and this capacity is considered crucial for developing a cognitive and emotional competence. Dr. Woltering has conducted studies on the role of self-regulation in typical and atypical populations, such as those suffering from ADHD, disruptive behavior problems, anxiety disorders, or types of addictive behavior (such as overeating). His work involves individual difference, developmental, and intervention/treatment studies and adopts a wide variety of methodologies, including questionnaire, observational, meta-analytical, executive function/neuropsychological, physiological and neuroscientific measures.

Dr. Allan Chen

Associate Professor
Mays Business School
Texas A&M University

Dr. Haipeng Allan Chen conducts research in the area of Behavioral Decision Theory (BDT) and pricing. His research interests focus on examining consumer and manager decision making and behavioral strategies. His research has been published or accepted for publication in Management Science, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing, the Strategic Management Journal, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, Economica, Marketing Letters, the Review of Marketing Research, Energy, the Journal of Brand Management, and the Journal of Marketing Behavior.

Michelle Segovia

Graduate Research Assistant
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Texas A&M University

Michelle Segovia is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. She specializes in Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Applied Micro-econometrics, Consumer Economics and Marketing. Michelle is currently the Graduate Student Coordinator for the Human Behavior Laboratory. She works on combining neurophysiological tools with traditional data collection methods to provide a better understanding of the factors influencing consumer decision making. Segovia has also gained experience in market good evaluations for agricultural products using experimental methods and has helped in the planning, development, and delivery of extension education programs.

Dr. Laura Mandell

Director
Initiative for Digital Humanities
College of Humanities and Liberal Arts
Texas A&M University

Prof. Laura Mandell is Director of the Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture (IDHMC) at Texas A&M University. Her publications include “Breaking the Book: Print Humanities in the Digital Age” and “Gendering Digital Literary History: What Counts for the Digital Humanities.” She has launched a search and discovery tool called the “Big Data Infrastructure Visualization Application,” started and finished the “Early Modern OCR Project,” created a set of classes called “Programming for Humanists,” and a book series called “Coding for Humanists.” Mandell is Director of the Advanced Research Consortium, 18thConnect.org, and General Editor of the Poetess Archive.

Dr. Casey Papovich

Professor of Physics and Astronomy
George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University

Dr. Casey Papovich is a professor in the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on observational cosmology, the formation and evolution of the most distant galaxies, and the growth of large scale structures of galaxies. Papovich was part of a team that discovered the universe's most distant galaxy, a breakthrough deemed one of “Texas Monthly's” top five Texas-based scientific discoveries for 2013. He earned a master’s and Ph.D. in physics from The Johns Hopkins University after receiving a bachelor’s in physics from The College of William & Mary. He completed postdoctoral research and a NASA Spitzer Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Toniesha Taylor

Associate Professor of Communication
Prairie View A&M University

Dr. Toniesha L. Taylor is an Associate Professor of Communication in the Department Languages and Communication at Prairie View A&M University. Her research focuses on African-American, Religion, Intercultural, Gender and Digital Humanities. Originally from San Jose, CA, she attended her parent’s alma mater San Jose State University where she earned her M.A. in Communication. Dr. Taylor cultivated her interest throughout her doctoral work at Bowling Green State University where she completed her Ph.D. in Communication Studies with a focus on Rhetoric in 2009. Since earning tenure at PVAMU Taylor has published work in media criticism and digital humanities.

Dr. James Pennington

Instructional Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science
Texas A&M University

Dr. James Pennington received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1998, joined the Chemistry Department at Texas A&M the same year, and is currently an Instructional Assistant Professor. His primary responsibility is teaching sophomore organic chemistry for non-chemistry majors. He has collaborated on research with several research groups in Chemistry and Physics since arriving at Texas A&M, and has been a co-author on three papers. Pennington contributes greatly through outreach with the Texas A&M Chemistry Road Show, an exciting and interactive science event which he presents at schools, libraries and other venues across the state of Texas over 80 times per year, averaging around 20,000 participants annually.

Shayla Rivera

Rocket Scientist and Comedian

Shayla Rivera is an Aerospace Engineer and former Rocket Scientist with NASA turned salesperson, corporate trainer and now Keynote Speaker, TV Host, Emcee/Host, Humorist, Comedian, Actor, Writer, Producer, Seminar Facilitator and Panel Moderator. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Rivera grew up with an avid interest in human behavior, science, machinery and fixing things. Rivera attended Texas A&M University, earning a degree in Aerospace Engineering with a great number of additional credits in her other passion, Psychology.  After graduation she joined McDonnell Douglas Space Systems at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she worked on the NASA Space Shuttle and Space Station programs for eight years.

Stephen P. Rodriguez

Founder
One Defense

Stephen P. Rodriguez is the founder of One Defense, a network of technology companies, venture capital firms and research universities dedicated to scouting advanced software and hardware applications and enabling their transition into the Department of Defense (DOD). Rodriguez serves on the Board of CENSA, ClearChat, Coin.co, WarOnTheRocks, Public Spend Forum, GraySpace and Training Leaders International. He received his B.B.A from Texas A&M University and an M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He has published numerous articles on innovation in the Department of Defense and his graduate thesis on conflict resolution in the Caucasus resulted in an invitation to join Secretary Robert Gates transition team in late 2006.

Charles Schroeder

Vice President of Product Marketing
RF and Wireless Communications
National Instruments

As vice president of Product Marketing for RF and Wireless Communications, Charles Schroeder leads the global team responsible for the product management, product marketing, and application segments of NI’s RF and wireless communications business. Since joining NI in 1995, Schroeder has held various leadership positions across the IMAQ, DAQ, modular instruments, and RF product lines and is recognized for his excellent communication and presentation skills as demonstrated by his regular appearances on the NIWeek stage. Schroeder holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University.

Gregory Chamitoff

Professor of Engineering Practice
Director, AeroSpace Technology, Research & Operations (ASTRO) Center

Dr. Greg Chamitoff is a NASA astronaut, a professor of engineering practice in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s AeroSpace Technology Research and Operations Center.

Chamitoff joined Mission Operations at the Johnson Space Center in 1995 and was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1998. In 2008, he served as the flight engineer and science officer for a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. In 2011, he served as a mission specialist on the last flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Chamitoff also performed two spacewalks, and he has logged more than 198 days in space.

Ahmed Mahmoud

Chief Information Officer, General Motors, IT

Ahmed Mahmoud is responsible for transforming GM into a highly insourced team with a focus on innovation to drive value. He is also GM’s Executive Champion for Texas A&M. Mahmoud has 25+ years leading teams in enterprise-level IT. Prior to joining GM, he served as SVP of Hewlett Packard's hp.com, e-commerce and marketing organizations. He was SVP and CIO of AMD, spent many years at Dell Inc., and Eastman Kodak. He was named to Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT leaders, is a University of Texas Senior Service College Fellow, a UT McCombs School of Business VIP speaker, and a member of the Texas A&M College of Science Advisory Board. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from Texas A&M.