Agenda

As a member of the executive leadership team at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Dr. James L. Moore III is the Assistant Director for the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU). With an annual budget of over $1 Billion and personnel oversight for nearly 200 employees, he serves as the senior leader for EDU, which supports science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects focusing on K-12 education, undergraduate and graduate education, workforce and human resource development, and learning in formal and informal settings. Prior to his NSF appointment, Dr. Moore served, for over five years, as the university’s vice provost for diversity and inclusion, chief diversity officer, and leader of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (one of the nation’s oldest, largest, and most comprehensive office of its kind) at The Ohio State University. From 2015 to 2017, he served as a program director for Broadening Participation in Engineering in the Directorate for Engineering at NSF, and, during that time, he was one of the program directors who helped launch the highly acclaimed, cross-directorate, NSF INCLUDES, a $100 million plus national broadening participation in STEM initiative. From 2011 to 2015, he was an associate provost for diversity and inclusion at The Ohio State University, where he managed numerous nationally-acclaimed programs and units.

read more

Emily McGrath is the Director of Workforce Development, Education, and Training at NextFlex, a Manufacturing Innovation Institute under the Manufacturing USA Program. She has a diverse background that includes experience across government, industry, and education. Prior to working at NextFlex, Emily was the Executive Director of a workforce development non-profit for Veterans focused on helping Transitioning Service Members translate specialized training in military technologies to skills needed by the private sector. Emily also worked as a GIS Analyst for the Department of Energy; managed policy campaigns for the Environmental Defense Fund; co-founded and launched an ecotourism-based start up with a small community of Civil War Veterans in El Salvador; and created education and training courses for rural communities in the Brazilian Amazon. Emily sits on San Jose’s (CA) Workforce Investment Board where she helps inform strategic investment and policy around workforce development for the Silicon Valley region, and she attended Colgate University and Portland State University, where she holds degrees in Geography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Dr. Peter Bermel leads the Energy & Nanophotonics research group at Purdue University that leverages nanophotonics to improve the performance of photovoltaics, thermophotovoltaics, and secure electronics. He has served as the PI for two multi-million dollar centers in secure electronics: ASSURE and SCALE, and a total of 35 awards from major research sponsors, such as the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, NEC Corporation, the Purdue Research Foundation, Indiana Innovation Institute, and the US Army. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, a Winston Churchill Foundation Scholarship, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, an MIT Compton Fellowship, and the Elmore Named Associate Professor Position. Dr. Bermel is widely published in scientific peer-reviewed journals, and has been cited over 8,900 times, for an h-index of 37. His work is a recurring topic in publications geared towards the general public, including the Economist and the Washington Post – most recently, for his work on defense microelectronics workforce development.

Kate Alcott has been the Associate Director of the Northeast Advanced Technological Education Center (NEATEC) at State University of New York (SUNY) Polytechnic Institute for the past 7 years and was recently promoted to the Director of Workforce Programs for the college. NEATEC, a National Science Foundation funded project, with a mission to build a semiconductor and nanotechnology technician workforce for New York has been researching effective outreach and training approaches for the past decade. Prior to joining NEATEC, Ms. Alcott worked in the Continuing Professional Education Department at SUNY Poly spearheading Manufacturing Day events, STEM outreach activities, entrepreneurship competitions and non-matriculated student engagement. While at NEATEC, she has responded to employers’ requests for veteran talent by developing a Department of Defense SkillBridge program called Vet S.T.E.P. (Semiconductor Training & Experience Program). Ms. Alcott considers working with the military population an honor and a privilege. Her employer partners agree and are eager to see this talented military pipeline grow.

Cory Forbes is Chair, Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction, Fenton Wayne Robnett Endowed Professor of Science Education, and Director of the STEM Education Research Collaboratorium and Resource Center in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. Forbes holds a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and M.S. in Science Education from the University of Kansas and M.S. in Natural Resources and Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Michigan. His teaching and research efforts focus on STEM education in K-12 and undergraduate STEM contexts. He directs multiple externally-funded projects involving STEM curriculum development, assessment design and testing, professional development for K-12 STEM teachers, and classroom-based research on STEM teaching and learning that are based in regional, national, and international partnerships with education researchers, STEM faculty, K-12 teachers, and stakeholders. Forbes is a NARST Early Career Research Awardee and Fulbright Faculty Scholar.

Dr. Annie Wright is the Executive Director for Southern Methodist University’s Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE). She is a Clinical Community psychologist and a program evaluator. Her expertise is in the planning, implementation and evaluation of K-12 educational programming. She works with a range of educational settings, including districts, schools, and out of school time non-profits. She has a particular interest in the work of community coalitions focused on educational reform and systems level change. Dr. Wright pays particular attention to both community and implementation science principles in order to inform effective programming. Within educational settings, her content expertise covers social & emotional learning, technology as a pedagogical tool, afterschool and STEM programming, pre-kindergarten programs, and programming within museums and other informal learning settings.

Marco A. López, Jr. currently serves as the CEO of Intermestic Partners, an international business advisory and investment group that invests in, develops, and manages a wide portfolio of international projects to maximize client impact across borders.

read more