Brandeis Graduate Professional Studies

Alan Cheng, PhD, is a director of chemistry, modeling, and informatics at Merck Research Labs in South San Francisco, California, where he works on the discovery of new medicines for cardiac-metabolic diseases and oncology. His research interests include computer-aided drug design and biological sequence-structure relationships. He received a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco, and undergraduate degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.

Richard Allen, PhD, is a Research Fellow at Pfizer, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Pfizer, he works to apply mathematical and quantitative techniques to address critical uncertainties in the drug discovery and development process. His research interests include: systems modeling of physiology, generation and application of virtual patients and populations, and reduction of mechanistic models. Before joining Pfizer, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and received his PhD from University of College London and an undergraduate degree from the University of Durham, UK.

Karol Estrada, PhD, is a strategic, enterprising and accomplished human genomics executive respected for 15+ years of experience as a leader in human genetics with a focus on integrating genomic knowledge to discover, validate and improve drug targets. He is the Vice President of Translational Genomics at Maze Therapuetics. He is an internally recognized researcher in the field of human genetics with over 60 publications in high impact factor journals.

Before joining Maze Therapuetics, he held increasing levels of responsibility roles at BioMarin and Biogen. He has served on several international consortia focused on the design and conduct of large genetics studies for a range of human traits and diseases.

Dr. Estrada’s teaching in the Master of Science in Bioinformatics focuses on the use of modern approaches for the study of human genetics, including statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology.

Timothy Song, MS, is a bioinformatics engineer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He works on creating tools for the cancer informatics pipeline and aiding oncologists in their research. His prior work includes analyzing Influenza viral diversity in human populations from next generation sequencing data.

Khadija Khartit has over 22 years of experience in management, consulting and capital markets in general, including 14 years in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, private equity, venture capital and angel investing.

Since 2015, Khadija has set up IFS advisory through which she provides corporate finance and strategy advisory services. She coaches startups in technology about strategy and fundraising. The main sectors she has worked on recently are digital health, construction tech, FinTech, IoT, AI in retail, encryption, EdTech, VR and AR.

Khadija's services include the preparation of pitch decks, investor-oriented business plans, go to market strategy, market/competitors analysis, financial planning, investor offer evaluation, exit preparation, enterprise & equity valuation, acquirer negotiation support, entrepreneur CFO-assist, incubator admission, coaching for handling investors' questions, terminology and mindset, stages of investments (Angel, Seed, VC rounds A, B, C, D…), and dilution.

Between 2010-14, Khadija worked as an expatriate in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in investment banking starting from director, MD, then CEO at a renowned investment bank. In these roles, she worked on high profile M&A deals in manufacturing, industrial, health care, education and the food sectors.

Throughout her career, Khadija worked for and co-advised with leading investment banks such as UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays and Banque Populaire. She supplied investment targets to Carlyle, KKR, InvestCorp and Standard Chartered.

Khadija is a Fulbright scholar and holds an MBA from Oklahoma State University and an MS in finance from Boston College. She passed CFA level 2 track, series 7 and 66. She is an accredited investment advisor with FINRA in the United States and CMA in KSA. Khadija speaks Arabic, French and English.

Most importantly, Khadija is passionate about growth, nurturing and inspiration of the next generations for a brighter and more positive world.

Sarah Biller is a senior level executive with experience building innovative technology platforms at pioneering start-ups and high-growth companies. She is the former head of Innovation Ventures at State Street. Sarah co-founded the FinTech Sandbox and sits on the Advisory Boards of multiple start-ups.

Aswin Pranam is a technologist, instructor, academic and writer. He has deep experience in product management, software engineering, human-computer interaction (HCI), business strategy and venture incubation. Previously, he’s held strategy, product and technology management roles at T-Mobile, McKinsey & Company, Google, Boeing, Disney and IBM. He’s also an instructor at Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering, a lecturer of Integrated Design, Business & Technology and Entrepreneur-In-Residence at USC Iovine & Young Academy, a course facilitator at Cornell University, and a contributing writer at Forbes and Psychology Today. He wrote "Product Management Essentials," a getting-started textbook on the field of product management published through Apress/Springer Nature. Educationally, Aswin holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington, along with master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon.

Aswin’s teaching in the Master of Science in Digital Innovation program focuses on building new ventures, tracing the evolution of FinTech throughout history, and developing products that sit at the intersection of financial impact and social good.

Steven Dupree, MBA, has more than a decade of experience helping startups across multiple industries achieve $1B+ valuations through digital marketing and tactical customer acquisition. After receiving an MBA from Stanford University, Steven dabbled in venture capital before exiting to build companies again. He continues to invest in and advise promising entrepreneurs in his free time.

Meredith Fortney, MBA, is the Director of Talent Acquisition Programs at FanDuel, where she heads the Employer Brand, Talent Marketing, and Campus Recruiting efforts for the country's #1 sportsbook company. In her 15+ years in the marketing field, she has honed her skills in the medical, education, retail and manufacturing fields. She is an active member in her local chapter of the American Marketing Association and is an adjunct professor at both Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)’s Undergraduate School of Business and Boston College's Woods College of Advancing Studies.

Garrett Gillin, MBA, is a co-founder and principal at 215 Marketing, a 2020 INC 5000 company and Google Premier Partner agency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he oversees the development and execution of integrated digital marketing initiatives. With vast experience in SMB marketing in both B2B and B2C settings, Garrett brings a practical and applied approach to his courses at Brandeis University. Garrett has an MBA from Drexel University.

Garrett has developed and currently teaches two courses at Rabb: Search Engine Marketing and Optimization (RDMD 110) and Conversion Rate Optimization (RDMD 135).

Jon Azzariti, MS, RN-BC, CPPS, is a senior patient safety manager at athenahealth in Watertown, Massachusetts. athenahealth works to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality and sustainable health care for all. In his current role, Jon is part of the research and development leadership team that focuses on the clinician experience within the electronic health record (EHR). He supports products and services across the company's portfolio, including the EHR, patient portal, revenue cycle management, and health information exchange functionality with an emphasis on safety-centered design principles.

He enjoys tackling the unique, complex problems that are present throughout the health care journey. In particular, he is passionate about clinical workflows, data-driven results and ongoing efforts to reduce documentation burden. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Nursing, and his master's degree in health and medical informatics from Brandeis University in 2019. He has served on the program's Advisory Board since 2020.

Yoni Dvorkis, MPH, CHDA is a data consultant with nine years of experience in health care, data analytics, information technology and health informatics. He is a key member of the Department of Population Health at Atrius and is certified as a health data analyst by the American Health Information Management Association. Yoni received his master's degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health and his BA in mathematics with a minor in economics from Tufts University.

Dan is the program manager for Community Connect at Boston Medical Center. In this role, Dan engages and collaborates with local Community Health Centers and FQHC's to integrate their health records into that of BMC. Moving patients' records under one umbrella provides transparency to both the patient and provider and greatly assists the efforts of our Accountable Care Organization.

Dan previously worked as both a team lead and analyst for BMC's Epic OR, Emergency Department and Health Information Management applications. He takes his greatest satisfaction working with Quality and Safety to leverage the EHR for improved patient care.

Dan received his BS in health management and policy from the University of New Hampshire and his MS in international health policy and management from Brandeis' Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Mike Noonan, MBA, specializes in health care information technology strategy, project management, system implementation management, adoption and process optimization. Mike is a senior-level health care information technology strategy and project management consultant with more than 20 years of experience in health care IT. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Sue Bergamo, MBA, is the CIO and CISO of Episerver, a global digital commerce company. As an executive, she brings her leadership and broad technology experience to help companies concentrate on growth by promoting innovation and productivity enhancements through application development, infrastructure operations, data analytics, business process optimization and talent management. Previously, she held strategic positions at Microsoft and as the CIO at Net Atlantic, BTE Consulting and for two of Aramark's apparel companies, Galls and Wearguard-Crest. She has also held high level positions at Staples Corp. and CVS/pharmacy. As a certified cloud architect, Sue also has an AS in computer science from Tunxis College, a BS in business administration from Post University, an executive leadership MBA from Boston University and a master's in security from UMASS.

Joseph (Joe) Dalessandro, MS, has extensive experience in information security, risk and audit. He is currently head of security and technology audit and audit data analytics for an Australian corporation. Joe is also CTO for SAM for Compliance, a cybersecurity start-up that provides a platform for cybersecurity standards assessment and assurance. Joe worked in the United States in information security for Vanguard, the largest mutual fund company in the world with over $4 trillion in assets under management, where his role was part advisory serving as information security liaison with the Asia-Pacific offices of Vanguard, and part operative, performing information security risk assessments of Vanguard's vendors and partners. Before this role, Joe spent four years in Australia and was head of internal audit for the Asia-Pacific region for Vanguard covering Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Alain provides security and privacy risk consulting to clients in a broad spectrum of domains, including privacy governance, security assessments, risk management, penetration testing, compliance frameworks and strategic advisory services. He serves as chief information security officer for Validity, managing all strategic and operational aspects of the company's data privacy, compliance, and security. He has led large-scale engagements to design and develop the security programs for some of the country’s largest corporations, developing cost-effective security program road maps that demonstrably improve the organization’s maturity. He has also led major litigation support security engagements following some of the most visible data security breaches, supporting legal counsel and leading to dismissal of class and regulatory actions. He is a frequent presenter at a variety of industry organizations, panels and webcasts, as well as a frequent contributor to various publications. He teaches Cloud Security at Brandeis GPS.

• Professional affiliations and credentials Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E), PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), ISACA, International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC) 2, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) co-chair, Boston chapter, Society for Information Management (SIM), Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA)

• Education: Master of Arts, computer science, Brandeis University; Bachelor of Arts, computer science, summa cum laude, Brandeis University

Dr. Matthew McFadden is the senior director of Cyber and leads the Cyber Center of Excellence for General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) and is a GDIT Distinguished Technologist. GDIT offers a comprehensive portfolio of next generation cyber solutions and professional services to solve complex cyber mission challenges.

As GDIT's cyber director and chief of GDIT's Cyber Center of Excellence, McFadden spearheads cyber strategy for the Federal/Civilian, Defense, and the Intelligence & Homeland Security divisions and develops advanced cyber capabilities and offerings to solve cyber missions. He represents a cyber workforce of over 3,000+ professionals, 30+ Cyber Alliances, and programs supporting the largest cyber operations and unique cyber missions in government.

His roles include developing cyber solutions, technical capabilities, cyber consulting and leading GDIT's Cyber Center of Excellence championing innovation through GDIT's Cyber Partners/Alliances. As director of cyber, he leads Cyber Capabilities in Risk Assessment, Cloud Security, Vulnerability Assessment, Incident Response/Forensics, Threat Hunting, Cyber Analytics, Endpoint, Network Security, Cyber Operations, Threat Intelligence, Cyber Training, Adaptive Cyber Defense, and specialized focus areas in Zero Trust, Autonomous Cyber Defense, and AI/ML applications in Cyber.

McFadden is also a published author, presented at over 40+ conferences, researcher, and holds numerous industry IT certifications (including CISSP) and has developed and instructed over 15+ cyber courses. McFadden was the team captain of GDIT's winning Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition Pro teams (2016, 2017 and 2018).

Dr. Elizabeth Santiago is the program chair of the Master of Science Learning Experience Design program, providing program oversight, industry expertise and program leadership. Prior to her role at Brandeis, she was the chief program officer at the national nonprofit, MENTOR, where she was responsible for and actively involved in the management of programs and services for a wide range of stakeholders in the youth development and mentoring field.

Elizabeth gained extensive experience in program management and development, learning design, curriculum development, training and professional development with organizations such as Jobs for the Future, Simmons College, Babson College, Houghton Mifflin, and World Education. She has specific experience in working with vulnerable or marginalized youth and the systems and people that serve them. She has taught high school equivalency courses within school districts, community-based organizations and through unions, and managed the GED/high school equivalency program at the Harriet Tubman House in Boston. She has also built a professional development service for teachers and principals designing education programs for first generation college goers.

Dr. Santiago earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in writing, literature and publishing from Emerson College and a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Technology, Innovation and Education Program. She recently earned her PhD in education studies at Lesley University.

Dr. Bonnie Budd is an entrepreneurial leader committed to improving the quality and reputation of online teaching and learning experiences.

Currently, Dr. Budd serves as the Product Design Manager at WGU Academy, a program created to serve the many individuals who need a low-risk path to eventual enrollment at a four-year institition.

Previously, as the director of Online Learning at Bryant University, she collaborated with faculty in the creation of the university's first online degree program, the Professional MBA, and taught the Strategies for Success course for new online learners. As a member of the Teaching and Learning Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she incorporated design frameworks and evaluation strategies with teaching teams across the school, including the university's first online certificate program, the Certificate in Advanced Education Leadership.

Dr. Budd runs a freelance instructional design agency, Course Kitchen, which creates custom online learning experiences for the world's best companies. She earned her BS in mathematics from Salve Regina University, MA in adult education from the University of Rhode Island, and Doctor of Education from Northeastern University. Her dissertation focused on adult student motivation in online learning.

Melissa Kane, EdD, is an associate director for instructional design at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. In this role, she leads a team of instructional designers and collaborates on strategic projects relating to faculty development and excellence in online learning design.

Before joining Brown, Melissa was an instructional design and technology specialist at Johnson & Wales University. In 2016, she spearheaded curriculum development efforts for the redesign of the AS Baking & Pastry program and the creation of the MS Culinary Arts program. Before entering higher education, Melissa spent 12 years teaching secondary English in New York and championed K-12 curriculum development in both English language arts and technology. In 2014, she was named Liverpool Optimist Club's Outstanding Teacher in recognition of her contributions driving district strategy around student success and teacher excellence programs.

Melissa holds a Doctor of Education in curriculum, teaching, learning and leadership from Northeastern University, an MS in education from SUNY Oswego, and a BA in communications from Colby-Sawyer College. Her research interests focus on the use of design thinking processes in faculty development to promote agile learning design. She also consults and presents on learning experience design and equitable and inclusive learning design in higher education.

Melissa brings to her teaching in the Master of Science in Learning Experience Design program solid knowledge of learning experience design, extensive experience in instructional design systems, and a strong passion for equitable and inclusive learning design.

Jing Qi, EdD, is the learning analytic lead and LMS specialist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where she works with the Research ITC team, and applies technologies employed in advanced scientific research and web application development to support the core effort of "Learning Data Research." Combining her solid knowledge in computer science, extensive experience in data mining, and strong passion in data visualization, she integrates the core elements of data analysis and visualization in the exploration of learning analytics.

Edgar (Ed) Anderson, MSPM, PMP, has over 25 years of experience in project and program management, managing large scale IT and information security projects, primarily in the financial services industries. He is also a member of the faculty in Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies, teaching graduate-level project management courses. He has served on the Advisory Board for the Project and Program Management program at Brandeis University's Graduate Professional Studies school. He earned his BS in business administration from the University of Connecticut and an MS in project and program management from Brandeis University.

Cheryl Coleman, MSPM, PMP, CSM has more than 30 years experience in help desk management, desktop technologies, call center technologies, financial systems, project management, application development and business analysis. She has over 18 years of experience as a technical project manager and has a graduate degree in project management. She is a member of Project Management Institute, Scrum Alliance and is a certified Project Management Professional and Certified Scrum Master.

Nadeem Malik is a senior consultant with 20+ years industry experience in project and program management, global software development management and solution architecture for mid- to large-scale information systems. He is certified as Project Management Professional (PMP), Stanford Certified Project Manager (SCPM) and Enterprise Architecture (TOGAF). He is a graduate of Brandeis University with a major in computer science. He also has an MS in advanced information technology from Imperial College, London.

Nadeem received the Rabb School Outstanding Teacher Award for 2016.

Sean Milligan encompasses over 25 years of enterprise project and program management experience in varying industries. He specializes in leadership throughout the personal, team and organizational layers of project and program management and service delivery, as well as the human dynamics inherent in a collaborative approach to meeting demands of stakeholders and organizations. While project management has evolved from a scientifically driven approach to a people-focused mindset as a result of a shift in human factors, Sean's focus on these factors brings a more holistic approach to leading teams and projects.

Sean received his Master of Science in project and program management from Brandeis in November 2014 and is also a certified Myers-Briggs Practitioner.

Sean currently teaches the Human Side of Project Leadership and Challenges in Project Management courses, and received the 2019 Award for Outstanding Teaching from the Rabb School of Continuing Studies.

Krishna Gopalakrishnan, MS, is a software architect, scientist and tech leader in computer vision and machine learning with over 20 years of experience. He has worked in a broad range of applications ranging from robot perception, automated inspection for semiconductor manufacturing, 2D barcode decoding and verification, X-ray fluorescence tomography, destructive and non-destructive reverse engineering of VLSI circuits to name some. Having worked in both commercial and research settings, one of his specialties is in transitioning lab and academic research into product solutions for real world problems. He is a member of the IEEE.

Imran Khan has been president of SoftServ International Corp. since 1995. He consults in areas of machine vision, embedded software, digital signal processing, user interface, chip design and algorithm development. His research interests include motion imagery understanding, deep learning and neural signal processing. He also mentors technology entrepreneurs.

Dr. Olalekan Ogunmolu is an interdisciplinary researcher who combines the scientific elegance of control theory and machine learning with the practical impact of robotics and mechanical engineering for novel healthcare technological applications in cancer radiation oncology. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago School of Medicine. A student of many and a teacher to a few, he enjoys cycling, swimming and fiddling with his guitar.

Dr. Daniel Pineo has over 15 years of broad expertise developing advanced machine learning, computer vision, and artificial intelligence algorithms. He specializes in developing robust, high-performance algorithms for bespoke hardware platforms. He works as director of algorithm development for L3 Technologies, and before that was senior principal research engineer for BAE Systems.

Dr. Aline Yurik is the program chair for Brandeis GPS Master of Software Engineering program. She has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in computer science, software engineering and information technology for over two decades. In parallel with teaching, Dr. Yurik works in the software and information technology industry as a director of software engineering. She has been involved in a number of information technology projects in healthcare, financial and telecommunication industries. Dr. Yurik's area of expertise is business transformation for a digital enterprise, with the focus on core business processes, transactions and portals. 

Dr. Yurik teaches courses in programming, design, architecture, information technology strategy and health information technology topics. Dr. Yurik was also a judge at the TechTogether Boston 2019 hackathon.

Dr. Yurik has a PhD in Computer Science, MA in computer science, MS in information technology, and BA in computer science, all from Brandeis University. 

Erik is the Principal Quality Development Engineer for InterSystems Corp. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1978, InterSystems is the leading provider of data technology for extremely critical data in the health care, finance and logistics sectors. Its cloud-first data platforms solve interoperability, speed and scalability problems for large organizations around the globe.

Prior to InterSystems, Erik worked in power-systems development for Comprehensive Power, Inc. in Massachusetts and in QA, testing and release management at EMC, Bell & Howell, IBM, Micrognosis and Eastman Kodak Co.

Erik's teaching in the Master of Software Engineering program includes software development, software process, testing and release management.

Robert "Kirk" Lipscomb is a technology manager with 40 years' experience in software development. He is currently senior project lead for Karthik Consulting, leading a DevSecOps transformation on a cybersecurity project for the United States Space Force. Kirk has owned a software consulting firm and has managed development teams in a variety of industries. He has a strong track record of successful agile transformations, even in industries like defense contracting where he managed a team supporting military operations on-site in Baghdad, Iraq. Kirk has a BS in computer science from Texas A&M and an MBA in technology management from the University of Colorado.

Mark Coleman, MA, is the director of analytics and advanced insights at Advisor360. He previously held senior analytical management and data science roles at Carbonite, Warner Brothers, The Hartford, and Liberty Mutual. He was also founder and CEO of a successful analytics consulting and forecasting practice serving the institutional investment community. He is a regular speaker at analytics industry forums.

Mark has an MA in economics from Boston College, and a BA in applied mathematics and a BA in economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Ross Morrone, McIS, is the Chief Marketing Officer at Youngstown State University. He has been an adjunct faculty at Brandeis since 2014, teaching RSAN 130: Data Visualization for Strategic Analytics, RSAN 140: Marketing and Customer Analytics, and RDMD 110: Search Engine Marketing and Optimization. Follow Ross on Twitter and listen to his podcast, "This is Marketing," on iTunes.

Keishalee Shaw is a business information architect at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. In her role, she leverages business knowledge to partner with the CDAO Organization, Innovation, and Strategy & Planning to craft  evolving information strategy and programs. Before working at Blue Cross, she worked as an analyst for New York State's Bureau of Medicaid Statistics and Program Analysis in Albany, New York, and later a reimbursement system senior policy analyst at Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy in Boston.

Shaw teaches Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Strategic Decision Making in the Masters of Science in Strategic Analytics program, which focuses on the process of transforming data into knowledge. This transformation involves the use of processes and applications to extrapolate meaning from a company's data.

Shaw holds a BA in English and literature with a minor in political science from the University of Maryland College Park; an MS in health care administration management from the University of Maryland Global Campus; a master's degree in international health care management, economics and policy from Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy; a master's degree in strategic analytics from Brandeis University and a Certificate in Public Sector Management from Cornell's School of Industrial ad Labor Relations in Albany, New York, and a Certificate in DevOps Architect from the International DevOps Certification Academy, Wollerau, Switzerland.

Dr. Anna Shebanow has many years of technology and business leadership experience. She holds a Doctor of Computer Science degree. Anna has worked with doctoral students online as a dissertation committee member and was a lead faculty at Colorado Technical University. She has designed technical courses for various universities — Foundation Data Analytics, Network Security, Advanced Networking Systems, Information Forensic, Data Security, Data Mining, Business Intelligence, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, Data Analytics capstone course. On the business side, Anna has founded six technology companies.

Jim La Creta, MS’08, PhD, is the CIO at Brandeis University. He has more than 20 years of experience working in technology and communications. In addition, he is active within several local and national IT consortia. He holds a master's degree in IT management from the Rabb School of Continuing Studies. He also has a Doctorate in Education —  Leadership and Communication Specialization from Northeastern University.

Ann Conway is a design strategist at Allstate Innovation, a business incubator, where she works to discover new, disruptive opportunities by identifying, designing and developing concepts for businesses and services that create unique values for users. Ann has expertise in human centered design, service design, rapid prototyping and facilitating the innovation process. She is currently leading a team developing smart services for homeowners based on predictive data modeling and artificial intelligence. In previous roles, Ann led innovation and digital strategy initiatives at cultural institutions and start-ups in Chicago. She has a MA in digital media design for learning, and a BA in children's media socialization from NYU.

Nadeem Malik is a senior consultant with 20+ years industry experience in project and program management, global software development management and solution architecture for mid- to large-scale information systems. He is certified as Project Management Professional (PMP), Stanford Certified Project Manager (SCPM) and Enterprise Architecture (TOGAF). He is a graduate of Brandeis University with a major in computer science. He also has an MS in advanced information technology from Imperial College, London.

Nadeem received the Rabb School Outstanding Teacher Award for 2016.

Patricia Steiner is the CEO of her own international consulting firm, VentureSphere. The focus of her work is partnering with CEOs around the world to identify and solve problems. In Hawaii, Dr. Steiner worked with the Honolulu Office of Economic Development and was a consultant for many Hawaii businesses and government agencies. She was also a business liaison between the United States and China for the Beijing Olympics and taught business classes at four universities on Oahu.

In addition to official certification as a Master Business Mentor and assessor for both ISO 9000 and the Software Engineering Institute CMM program, Dr. Steiner holds a certificate in reengineering mastery from the Hammer Institute. Dr. Steiner has been a guest speaker for many organizations, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Small Business Administration, the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, Boston University, the Society for Software Quality, Cornell University and the University of California San Diego.

Patricia loves animals and assisted the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the wildlife clean-up during the BP oil spill in 2010.

Dr. Steiner was born and raised in the Boston area. She holds a degree in music performance from Boston University. She has performed with the Florida Symphony, the Oakland California Symphony, The Boston Pops and was an associate member of the Chicago Symphony. Patricia completed a doctorate degree in Leadership and Innovation at Northeastern University. Her doctoral research concentrated on leadership self-awareness and deception. Patricia has an MBA from USNYU with a minor in computer science.

Eva Kaniasty, MS, is the founder of Slipper Studios, a user experience (UX) consultancy providing UX strategy, research and UX design. Her areas of interest include start-ups, education, health care and design for sustainability. She received her master's degree in human factors from Bentley University, served as president of UXPA Boston, and is a repeat presenter at local and national conferences.

Candra K. Gill, MA, MSI, is the Principal UX Architect at Cox Automotive Inc. Candra's approach to UX is informed by training in human-computer interaction with a humanities background and strong direct services work. She has worked in the UX field in corporate environments, marketing agencies and on projects for non-profit organizations, producing work for notable clients in telecommunications, financial services, consumer products & retail, and manufacturing. 

Dr. Diana Hubbard is an anthropologist and information scientist who is currently the head of design for the Battle.net Platform at Blizzard Entertainment. She previously was the director of research at Hilton and has also held lead design and research positions at SAP and IBM. She has an MS in applied anthropology, as well as a PhD in interdisciplinary information science from the University of North Texas.

Dr. Hubbard designed and teaches the Research Methods course in the Master of Science in User-Centered Design program.

David Lumerman, MS, is corporate vice president of user experience at New York Life Insurance, where he develops engaging interaction for New York Life websites, applications and interactive experiences, and has done so for over 16 years. Previously, David developed online games and game shows with Pearson Television and Uproar! Games, most notably "Family Feud" and "To Tell the Truth." He earned his master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and undergraduate degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Jen McGinn, MS, is a senior director of product design at VMware. Jen has spent more than 20 years working as a UX leader, designer, user researcher, technical trainer, and writer at companies including Veracode, CA Technologies, Oracle, Nokia and Sun Microsystems. She regularly presents at local, regional and international UX conferences, and has published peer-reviewed papers on persona development, heuristic evaluation, Agile user research and usability rating scales. Jen has a BS in information systems management from UMBC and an MS in human factors in information design from Bentley University.

Ken Udas, PhD, has served in a variety of teaching and management roles at universities including Comenius University, Slovakia, the University of Maryland, University College, the Open Polytechnic of NZ, the State University of New York, PennState World Campus, UMassOnline, and the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Ken is the co-founder of the Educause Constituency Group on Openness, and the Jasig 2-3-98 project that are focused on the emergence and adoption of open and agile practices, policies, and initiatives. Ken received a PhD from Texas A&M University and is a student of history. His research interests include the history of higher learning and intellectual emigration.

Jim Hall, MS, is an open-source software advocate and developer, best known for usability testing in GNOME and as the founder and project coordinator of FreeDOS. At work, Jim is CEO of Hallmentum, an IT executive consulting company that provides hands-on IT leadership training, workshops and coaching.

Georg Link has 15 years of experience as an active contributor to several open source projects and has presented on open source topics at over 20 conferences. He co-founded the Linux Foundation CHAOSS Project to advance analytics and metrics for open source project health. As the director of sales at Bitergia, Georg helps organizations and communities with adopting CHAOSS metrics and technology.

Jacob Redding is an open source strategist at Accenture and long-time open source community advocate and leader working with numerous open source projects. Jacob has over 12 years of experience in the Drupal community and is a founding board member and executive director of the Drupal Association.