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Ronald Hickman, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Ronald Hickman is the Ruth M. Anderson Endowed Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Frances Payne Bolton (FPB) School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. He is a registered nurse and a board-certified acute care nurse practitioner who has provided care for patients undergoing general and cardiothoracic surgical procedures, and patients in the intensive care unit. Dr. Hickman is a nationally recognized clinician in acute and critical care nursing. He has written award-winning clinical textbooks and book chapters focused on the management of hospitalized patients and the care needs of their families. His clinical textbook, A Guide to Mastery in Clinical Nursing, received a 2018 American Journal of Nursing’s Book of the Year Award, which is an honor that highlights books that will have a substantial impact on nursing practice or research. Because of his influence on clinical practice, Dr. Hickman was elected as a fellow in the National Academies of Practice [FNAP] in 2016.
John Paul Stephens, Case Western Reserve University
John Paul Stephens, PhD is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, John Paul completed degrees in Psychology at Morgan State University (B.S.) and in Organizational Psychology (Ph.D.) at the University of Michigan. He studies work relationships and coordination in groups, focusing on how what individuals and teams perceive about their behaviors shapes complex interdependent work.
Anne Borchert, Case Western Reserve University
As the head of Corporate Relations at Case, Anne developed a comprehensive approach which has led to stronger industry engagement at the University in the areas of gifts, grants, and contracts. Leading the team, over the last decade, her holistic approach has tripled the investment by the industrial community to $15-$20 million annually. Before her current role, she served as the Assistant Dean in Case’s Engineering School leading their alumni and development operations. Anne has had extensive international experience, including an eight-year residence in Japan. Her first tenure overseas was in 1987 as an inaugural participant of the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program). In 1997 she established a regional office for Case, based in Tokyo, creating alumni chapter activities and corporate partnership engagements across Asia that led to over $10 million in international investments to the institution. She has a BA in English from Vassar College, and has studied Japanese at NYU and at the Inter-University Center in Yokohama, Japan. Anne is active in the community with volunteer engagements including a 3-year term as Co-President of the Cleveland Vassar Club and a number of volunteer engagements in the Shaker Heights public schools. She served on the Board of NACRO (Network of Corporate Relations officers) which is a national organization tracking and promoting academic and industry partnerships.
Juergen Weinhofer, Rockwell Automation
Jürgen Weinhofer is vice president of the Common Architecture & Technology organization, which reports to Sujeet Chand, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Jürgen is responsible for driving innovation, improving user experience by ensuring common system behavior, and enabling the Connected Enterprise by delivering common technologies and components. Jürgen joined Rockwell Automation in 1997. Throughout his career, he held a variety of roles of increasing responsibility within our Logix and Kinetix businesses. Prior to his current role, he was director, Integrated Architecture business for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA), where he was responsible for business strategy, business performance, and growth initiatives across the region. Jürgen earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Technology in Graz, Austria and an MBA from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also has a doctor of science degree from Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria.
Maia Hansen, McKinsey & Co
Ms. Hansen is a seasoned business leader with experience in the healthcare, industrials, consumer and construction sectors. She has deep expertise in operations and supply chain, including digital and IOT strategy and execution. Ms. Hansen has been a Senior Partner with McKinsey & Company since 2013. She leads client service with several Fortune 500 companies, where she works with executive teams and with boards on a range of topics including strategic planning, growth, organization and P&L productivity. She has been a leader in the Global Operations Practice for over 15 years and has built and currently leads the Capability Building and Organizational Change in Operations service line. Ms. Hansen also serves on the Americas Client Service Risk Committee Ms Hansen has led recent client work in the following areas: – Global health care company end-to-end operations and supply chain improvement, including creation of an operating system and quality systems – Global Consumer Health/Personal Care business unit: product design, supply chain, agile marketing, e-commerce strategy and execution – Diversified manufacturer: IOT-enabled product development; digital manufacturing – Industrial equipment manufacturer: growth strategy, due diligence and successful merger of equals between US and European companies – National retailer: Sourcing strategy and execution to improve COGS and adapt to tariffs Ms. Hansen was elected a Partner in 2008 and was the Managing Partner of the Cleveland Office from 2010 to 2014. As Managing Partner, she led an office of 120 colleagues and was overall performance and client development across the state of Ohio. Her client work during this time focused primarily on manufacturing and supply chain transformations in pharmaceutical, medical device and aerospace companies. Ms. Hansen began her career as an officer in the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps, where she led a 50-person construction unit (SEABEES) in Charleston, SC and worked in base operations and disaster preparedness at the main logistics hub for Sixth Fleet and NATO air operations during Desert storm. Ms. Hansen serves on the Corporate Visiting Committee for Case Western Reserve University and the board of LAND, a non-profit focused on public space redevelopment in Cleveland, where she chairs the business development committee. Ms. Hansen holds a B.S. in Architecture and in Civil Engineering from MIT and an M.S. in Engineering at MIT and MBA from the Sloan School of Business at MIT. She enjoys gardening, travel, design and angel investing.
Ben Vinson III, Case Western Reserve University
Ben Vinson III was appointed Provost and Executive Vice President at Case Western Reserve University on July 2, 2018, and is responsible for all facets of the academic programs and research of the University Vinson is an accomplished historian of Latin America, and served on the faculties of Barnard College and Penn State before joining Johns Hopkins in 2006 as a professor of history and founding director of its Center for Africana Studies. He went on to serve as a vice dean for centers, interdisciplinary studies and graduate education before becoming dean of George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Under Vinson’s leadership, Columbian College increased interdisciplinary initiatives, enhanced diversity, and substantially grew research efforts. He led the integration of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design into Columbian College, collaborated with the dean of engineering to open a $275 million, 500,000-square-foot interdisciplinary science and engineering building, and initiated graduate degree programs in Data Science and Applied Economics. Vinson also secured two founding gifts for institutes focused on Hispanic leadership and religious freedom, and helped create a Global Bachelor’s Degree Program that included philanthropic support that he obtained. Dr. Vinson earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a doctorate from Columbia University. He has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, National Humanities Center, Social Science Research Council, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Ford, Rockefeller and Mellon foundations.
Kenneth Loparo, Case Western Reserve University
Kenneth A. Loparo is Nord Professor of Engineering and Chair of Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Case Western Reserve University, OH, USA, where has been affiliated with since 1979. He was an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Cleveland State University from 1977 to 1979. Prof. Loparo’s research interests include stability and control of nonlinear and stochastic systems with applications to large-scale electricity systems including generation and transmission and distribution; nonlinear filtering with applications to monitoring, fault detection, diagnosis, prognosis and reconfigurable control; information theory aspects of stochastic and quantized systems with applications to adaptive and dual control and the design of distributed autonomous control systems; the development of advanced signal processing and data analytics for monitoring and tracking of physiological behavior in health and disease.
A. Bolu Ajiboye, Case Western Reserve University
A. Bolu Ajiboye, PhD is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and a Biomedical Scientist at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. Dr. Ajiboye’s main research goal is to understand how activities of the brain, nerves, and muscles collaborate to produce sensori-motor function in intact and neurologically impaired individuals. The end goal of his work is to develop brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that can decode brain activities for controlling neuroprostheses, such as functional electrical stimulation (FES) systems, to restore reaching and grasping function to persons living with chronic neuromotor impairments, such as spinal cord injury.
M. Cenk Cavusoglu, Case Western Reserve University
M. Cenk Cavusoglu is currently the Nord Professor of Engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), with secondary appointments in Biomedical Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He received the B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1995, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997 and 2000, respectively. He was a Visiting Researcher at the INRIA Rhones-Alpes Research Center, Grenoble, France (1998); a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley (2000-2002); and, a Visiting Associate Professor at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey (2009-2010). Dr. Cavusoglu’s research spans the general areas of robotics and human-machine interfaces with special emphasis on medical robotics, and haptics. Specifically, for the past twenty years, he has been conducting research on all of the different aspects of medical robotic systems from control, mechanism, and system design, to human-machine interfaces, haptics, and algorithms. More information on Dr. Cavusoglu’s research can be found at his homepage at http://engr.case.edu/cavusoglu_cenk/
Erin Henninger, Case Western Reserve University
Erin Henninger is executive director of the Interactive Commons (IC) at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The IC features the Microsoft HoloLens, an augmented-reality holographic headset for which Case Western Reserve University has been selected as the primary medical education developer in conjunction with Cleveland Clinic. In addition to HoloLens, the IC features a flexible gathering space to convene collaborators, a team of full time artists and programmers and a range of visualization tools to help people communicate and make meaning from complex data. The IC received the 2016 Jackson Hole Science Media Award in the Immersive/VR/AR category and appeared at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2017. Work from the IC has been featured in National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, Fortune and beyond. Erin previously served as director of development communications at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where she supported medical research, education and fundraising priorities. Before joining the university, Erin was an associate consultant for BrownFlynn, a strategic marketing communications firm. Erin holds a BA in Communication and Media Studies from Penn State University and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management.
Dustin Tyler, Case Western Reserve University
Dustin J. Tyler, Ph.D. is the Kent H. Smith Professor II in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and Director of the Human Fusions Initiative. He is an expert in the science and technology of directly communicating with the human nervous system to create a symbiotic relationship between humans and technology. He has a secondary appointment as a principal investigator at the Louis-Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center (LSCDVAMC) and is the Associate Director of the Advanced Platform for Technology Center, a Department of Veteran’s Affairs Rehabilitation Research & Development National Center. Dr. Tyler has over 25 years of academic, entrepreneurial, and corporate experience advancing neuromodulation technology. He has extensive publications (more than 700 citations annually), patents, and popular media coverage of his work. He holds the Kent H. Smith Professorship II for the Case School of Engineering and has a prestigious Research Career Scientist award from the Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development service. Dr. Tyler has previously held the Nord Distinguished Assistant Professorship and the Elmer Lincoln Lindseth Associate endowed Professorships at Case Western Reserve University. In 2017 he was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) – an invited membership representing the top 2% of engineers in the field. Dr. Tyler was awarded the Neurotechnology Researcher of the Year award in 2015. He has had more than $28M in funding from the VA, NIH, NSF, and DARPA and more than 16 active US and international patents. He has published in Science, Nature:Nanotechnology, Science Translational Medicine, and many other discipline specific journals. He has served on several national leadership committees in the field of neural engineering.
Shannon E. French, Case Western Reserve University
Shannon E. French is the Inamori Professor in Ethics, Director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, and a tenured full professor in the Philosophy Department with a secondary appointment as a full professor in the School of Law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is also the General Hugh Shelton Distinguished Visiting Chair in Ethics for the CGSC Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation that provides resources and support to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. She has been a non-resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and currently serves as an ethics consultant for the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), both in Washington, D.C. Prior to starting at CWRU in July of 2008, she taught for eleven years as a tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and served as Associate Chair of the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law. Dr. French received her B.A. in philosophy, classical studies, and history from Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas) in 1990 and her Ph.D. in philosophy from Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) in 1997. Her main area of research is military ethics; especially conduct of war issues, ethical leadership, command climate, sacrifice and responsibility, warrior transitions, ethical responses to terrorism and the future of warfare. She is the author of many scholarly publications, and her groundbreaking book, The Code of the Warrior: Exploring Warrior Values, Past and Present was re-released in 2017 as an updated and expanded second edition. She is editor-in-chief for the International Journal of Ethical Leadership and an associate editor for the Journal of Military Ethics, as well as serving on the editorial board for the Journal of Character and Leadership Development. Her additional scholarly interests include business/corporate and organizational ethics, bioethics, environmental ethics, meta-ethics, moral psychology, and ethics and emerging technology, including ethics and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Brooke Macnamara, Case Western Reserve University
Brooke N. Macnamara is an associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Her research focuses on individual differences in human cognitive abilities and predictors of human skill acquisition and expertise. One of her newer lines of research is investigating whether repeated use of artificial intelligence assistance in the workplace causes skill atrophy in human experts, and/or if use of artificial intelligence assistance during training hinders learning (NSF funded planning grant, PI: Soumya Ray, co-PIs Macnamara and Cavusoglu).
Suzanne Rivera, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Suzanne Rivera is the Vice President for Research and Technology Management at Case Western Reserve. She also is a faculty member in the Department of Bioethics at the CWRU School of Medicine. Rivera serves as the Institutional Official for Human Research Protections and leads the Regulatory Compliance Team for the region’s Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC). She sits on the national Boards of Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research (PRIM&R) and the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR). Dr. Rivera previously served on the US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP) and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Human Studies Review Board (HSRB). Her scholarly interests include research ethics, health inequities, and science policy. Dr. Rivera received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, a Master’s degree from the University of California-Berkeley, and a doctoral degree from the University of Texas.
Darcy Freedman, Case Western Reserve University
Darcy Freedman, PhD, MPH is the Mary Ann Swetland Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and Director of the Swetland Center for Environmental Health at Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine. Dr. Freedman’s research agenda is focused on the complex interplay between the environment and human health with a focus on the role of food systems as a driver of population health. Her research is supported by diverse funders including the NIH, CDC, USDA, and local and national foundations. Using a community-engaged approach, her research is conducted in partnership with non-profit, government, business, and community leaders to advance policies and practices to promote environmental health equity. Dr. Freedman is received the 2016 Sarah Samuels Memorial Award by the American Public Health Association recognizing her outstanding contributions to advocacy, policy, and evaluation for public health nutrition. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition.
Brian Gran, Case Western Reserve University
My research, teaching, and service concentrate on how we use rights as means by which to improve well-being. Rights are viewed as tools useful to enhancing welfare, reducing marginalization, and advancing equality. My research program takes an international perspective to investigate what institutions and structures facilitate, and obstruct, agency when it comes to using rights to improve outcomes, reduce disparities, and advance social policies. Given the widespread importance of rights, as well as their universal and inalienable qualities, my work matters to a range of stakeholders, from non-governmental organizations to quasi- and governmental institutions. Much of my work is interdisciplinary, drawing on sociology, law, and public policy research. A key component of my research is collaborating with students.
Nicholas Barendt, Case Western Reserve University
Nicholas A. Barendt leads and catalyzes growth in IIoT-related research, technology commercialization, education, and outreach activities among the faculty. Barendt provides national and regional leadership and direction for establishing Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University as a leader in the growth of the industrial IoT. He has experience in designing, building, and deploying large IIoT systems, including device, cloud, and mobile development, integration, and security. He built award-winning products in several industries, including industrial automation and test and measurement. He has worked in large companies, startups, and consultancies, with a lean and agile mentality. He is passionate about building innovative, hands-on curriculum.