Dr. Mark Aakhus is associate dean for research and professor at the Rutgers University School of Communication & Information. He has developed a field-defining perspective on the relationship between communication and design with his investigations of technological and organizational interventions, and innovations, intended to augment human interaction and reasoning in complex decision making and conflict management. His current research, teaching, and engagement focus on the intentional, and emergent, design for communication in new media and digital practices, and the consequences for the co-creation of health, wellness, and democracy. Aakhus is currently co-directing the Community Design for Health and Wellness interdisciplinary research group at Rutgers and serving as the science officer for the European Network for Argumentation and Public Policy Analysis. He is an award-winning teacher and researcher who has published extensively in leading national and international research journals and academic presses. His research has been funded by the NSF, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, and Sun Micro-Systems. He has served his local communities as a practicing dispute mediator, an elected school board officer, and an environmental commissioner.

Session: RUDI—Rutgers University Design Institute: Knowing through creating, learning by doing

Ted Baker is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Rutgers Business School¬—Newark and New Brunswick, where he holds the George F. Farris Chair. He is also honorary professor at the University of Cape Town and senior fellow of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Last year his work brought him to six continents. Baker came to academia relatively late in life, earning his PhD at 41. His prior career alternated between working in startups (happy) and working for big companies (less happy). The sale of a startup cushioned his transition to academics. He studies entrepreneurship under condition of resource constraint and adversity, particularly resourceful behaviors. His current work on founder identity theory (FIT) extends this by exploring the processes through which entrepreneurship sometimes allows people to pursue their goals and become who they want to be despite common problems of resource constraint and adversity. Relatedly, he believes that entrepreneurship can be but often is not an essential engine of social mobility. Most recently, he co-founded a program that teaches previously incarcerated individuals how to start and nurture new ventures. The RU-Flourishing program recently graduated it’s first cohort and is now supporting five startups.

Session: RAISED: The Rutgers Advanced Institute for the Study of Entrepreneurship & Development

Dr. Onur Bilgen is a tenure-track faculty member in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. Bilgen received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2005, 2007 and 2010 respectively. He held a two-year post-doctoral position at Swansea University in the United Kingdom. Bilgen researches conceptual design, modeling, optimization, control, and testing of smart-material based multi-physics systems. Applications include aircraft systems such as multi-rotor drones, fixed-wing, flapping-wing, and rotary-wing aircraft, energy-harvesting systems, soft/compliant robotics, manipulators, and mobile biomedical devices. Bilgen’s research to date in the field of adaptive/active structures, composites and small UAS incorporating smart-materials has led to two book chapters, 34 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 64 conference papers. He received the prestigious ASME / BOEING Structures & Materials Best Paper Award at the AIAA SDM 2007 conference. Bilgen is currently working on a project funded by NASA, which will enable him to develop smart trailing edge devices for ultra-efficient commercial vehicles in the 100-210-passenger class.

Session: The Rutgers Drone Port: Leading the Revolution in Global Mobility and Transportation in Complex Urban Environments, and the New Era of Aerial Automation

Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago is a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Graduate Department of Public Policy and Administration at Rutgers University. She also directs the Community Leadership Center and is the overseer and board chair of the LEAP Academy University Charter School. Throughout her academic career, she has established a track record in coordinating large-scale programs and private and public ventures that bring together external and internal stakeholders from a range of organizations. As a leading scholar, researcher, speaker, and international cross-cultural training consultant, Santiago brings over 25 years of experience in program development and innovation, social entrepreneurship, research, fundraising, strategic planning, school development, and leadership training. In 2016-2017, Santiago was the recipient of the Fulbright Specialist Award for research and professional training in Paraguay, South America. In 2017, Santiago received Cabrini Ivy Young Willis & Martha Willis Dale Award, which recognizes women who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of public affairs and community development. Santiago is also the recipient of the 2018 Power of Woman Award, Presented by Lupe Fund. In May 2018, Santiago was the keynote speaker at the Cabrini University commencement for the master’s degree students and received an honorary doctor of humane letters.

Session: Rutgers-Camden Innovation Community Hub (RICH): From Local to Global

Dr. Stephanie Bonne is an assistant professor of Surgery and Trauma at Rutgers NJMS, where she directs the Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) and is a core director of the New Jersey Center for Gun Violence Research. She serves on the steering committee for Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Trauma Quality Improvement Program, the co-director of the HVIP workgroup, co-chair of the American Medical Women’s Association Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, co-chair of the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Partnership for the Prevention of Firearm Violence and research advisory board of the American Foundation for Firearm Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM). Bonne holds numerous local and national committee appointments, editorial board assignments and research grants, including the Claude Organ Fellowship of the ACS, in which she studied violence reduction and post-discharge outcomes and is a future trauma leader of the ACS. Bonne holds a BA from Kalamazoo College, MD from Rosalind Franklin University, completed general surgery residency at the University of Illinois Metropolitan Group and fellowships in surgical critical care and trauma at Washington University in St. Louis.

Session: The Rutgers Institute for Patient-Centered Outcomes in Healthcare

Steven R. Brant, MD, an internationally recognized leader in gastroenterology, serves as chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS). During his training at Johns Hopkins, Brant discovered NHE3, the dominant gene for intestinal sodium absorption, important in diarrheal disease. He then set his focus on the genetic etiologies of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and has played a role in discovering numerous IBD genes, including NOD2, the first Crohn’s disease gene, and more recently genes specific for IBD in African Americans. In 2002 Brant was awarded an NIH grant to establish one of six centers comprising the NIH IBD Genetics Consortium. He served as its vice-chair from 2012 to 2018. Brant served as director of the renowned Meyerhoff Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital and is a nationally recognized expert in the management of IBD. After 28 years at Johns Hopkins, Brant joined Rutgers in 2017 to build a world-class Gastroenterology Division. Since arriving, Brant re-invigorated the RWJMS Crohns and Colitis Center of New Jersey, including moving his NIH funded IBD Genetics Research Center to Rutgers.

Session: Rutgers Obesity Institute

Dr. James J. Brown, Jr. is the director of the Digital Studies Center (DiSC) at Rutgers University-Camden. DiSC examines the cultural, historical, and political impacts of digital technology. Staff at the center also help kick-start, facilitate, support, and promote projects that converge digital technologies with arts, the humanities, and natural and social sciences. Brown also is an associate professor of English at the University. Before his work at Rutgers-Camden, Brown was an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wayne State University. He also worked as a circuit designer for MCI. Brown earned a Bachelor of Science degree in communications from Ohio University; a Master of Arts degree in English from Carnegie Mellon University; and a doctorate in English and Rhetoric at the University of Texas at Austin.

Session: Digital Equality

Brian Buckley, PhD, is the executive director of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. He received his PhD in analytical chemistry from North Carolina State University and completed a postdoc fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Buckley is an NIEHS Center director and holds positions at the School of Public Health and the Departments of Environmental Sciences and Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He was editor of the Journal of Environmental and Public Health and the Global Journal of Analytical Chemistry; has served on multiple review panels for NIH, EPA FIFRA and the External Laboratory Advisory Board, the NJDEP Science Advisory Board and the Drinking Water Institute; and is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Mass Spectrometry, and the Society of Toxicology. He received the Virgil Payne Award for Outstanding Chemical Service Achievement and was recommended for the CDC grant “Technical Assistance for Response to Public Health or Healthcare Crises.” His research focuses on preventing and mitigating health risks by developing and modifying analytical techniques to measure environmental toxins. Additionally, he trains disaster recovery and restoration personnel and is creating novel sensors for real-time field measurements.

Session: Rutgers Disaster Response Initiative (RuDRI)

Dr. Alberto Cuitino is a professor and current chairperson of the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, and the director of the New Jersey Advanced Manufacturing Institute (NJAMI). He holds a BS in Civil Engineering, an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a PhD. in Computational Mechanics. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and has decades of experience in leading academic teams in partnerships with industry, government, and academia. His experience includes: serving as principal investigator for an NSF Industry-Academia Research Partnership award in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson for Accelerating Innovation Research (AIR); securing NSF funding for launching the International Institute for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing through the NSF Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) program; serving as the Rutgers’ site and a Scientific Thrust Leader for the NSF Engineering Research Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems (CSOPS), a multi-university center nucleating US and international academic peers, agencies and more than 60 industrial partners; and principal investigator for Buehler Trust Foundation providing multiyear support for the development of the facilities including our supersonic wind tunnel and aerospace laboratory.

Session: Hyper Personalized Smart Manufacturing

Christopher Cartmill is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director. He is an assistant professor of Professional Practice and Head of Dramaturgy in the Theater Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts. His areas of scholarship are theater in the age of globalization and theatrical practice in the long 18th century. Christopher has appeared in productions in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and in films such as Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and the video game Red Dead Redemption 2. He was the 2009 Flournoy Playwright at W&L University, following honorees Paula Vogel and Neil LaBute. In 2006, he was commissioned by Nebraska’s Lied Center for the Performing Arts to create Home Land, which was performed in 2009 with a cast that included an Academy Award nominee and Ponca Tribal Leader. The journey in writing the play became the memoir, The Nebraska Dispatches, which was published in 2010 by the University of Nebraska Press. Cartmill’s writing awards include one from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. His adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has had over 70 productions nationwide. He has directed plays and operas around the country and internationally. Cartmill also created a series of interdisciplinary integrated-arts programs for the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Session: Creative Disruption: Connectivity and a Transformational Approach to the Arts

Brian Chu is an associate professor of Clinical Psychology and the founder/director of the Youth Anxiety and Depression Clinic, a research clinic specializing in evaluating and providing evidence-based care for children and adolescents. Dr. Chu’s research focuses on the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders, dissemination and implementation sciences, and access to care for diverse communities. His work utilizes technology to enhance the reach and penetration of behavioral services for treatment and training professionals. He has received the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Young Investigator Award, is editor of Cognitive & Behavioral Practice, and serves on multiple editorial boards of scientific journals. He has published numerous scholarly articles and chapters and has co-edited Transdiagnostic Treatments for Children and Adolescents: Principles and Practice (Guilford, 2013). For his sustained, outstanding contributions to the field of behavioral interventions and psychological practice, Chu has earned fellow status for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. He is a committed teacher and mentor to undergraduate and graduate trainees learning to appreciate and become competent in evidence-based psychological practice.

Session: Institute for Youth Social Emotional Wellness

A radiologist by training and tech enthusiast by passion, Dr. Contractor received his training in radiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) in Newark, NJ and interventional radiology at NYU Medical Center. He has worked at prestigious institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic and NYU Medical Center before being recruited to lead the interventional radiology division at NJMS in 2006. His choice of radiology as his career calling was based on his penchant for technological studies in his early education. Contractor is an active clinician-researcher and has published widely on liver tumor treatments and portal hypertension. He is also a dynamic speaker on the same at several national and international meetings. His article “Artificial Intelligence and Radiology: Have Rumors of the Radiologist’s Demise Been Greatly Exaggerated?” was recently published in the scientific journal Academic Radiology. Also, he recently hosted a multidisciplinary symposium on artificial intelligence in medicine which included speakers and attendees from clinical medicine and business, as well as computer scientists, pharmacologists, and engineers.

Session: The Future is Now: Advancing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications in Medicine

Dr. Stephen Crystal is a Board of Governors Professor of Health Services Research and Director of the Center for Health Services Research at Rutgers University. He is recognized for research on medication outcomes, particularly behavioral health care delivery, and contributes to the development of methods and model outcomes of treatments utilizing healthcare databases. His 300+ papers, books, and publications have influenced behavioral health, substance abuse, and Medicaid policy. Crystal’s work has addressed issues in state and local health policy; specifically, on the delivery of health care services through state Medicaid programs. His research studies Medicaid health care utilization and outcomes using claims and administrative files, applying this expertise in a series of studies funded by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and Quality, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the National Institute of Mental Health. Crystal is also examining opioid use, treatment, and outcomes in the VA population and is an advisor to federal and state health agencies, Congressional committees, foundations, and health plans. His scholarly and policy-analytic work on treatment quality and outcomes in Medicaid populations has been regarded nationally and internationally.

Session: Tackling the Opioid Epidemic: Evidence for Action

Ravit Golan Duncan is an associate professor of Science Education with a joint appointment in the Graduate School of Education and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University. Her research broadly addresses how to enable students and citizens to reason better with evidence. Taking a developmental perspective, Duncan designs instructional materials in science that engage middle and high school students in productive argumentation about scientific explanations and evidence. Her research has impacted teachers in New Jersey, nationwide, and worldwide through professional development workshops and research collaborations. Duncan coordinates the Certification Program in Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, prepares future teacher leaders for K-12, and works with state officials to improve science education in New Jersey. Duncan is the recipient of multiple federal and foundation grants totaling over seven million dollars. She has published extensively in top tier research and practitioner journals, is an associate editor of the leading journal, Science Education, and serves on editorial boards of other highly ranked journals.

Session: Rutgers Institute for Evidence-Based Decision Making for a Sustainable and Democratic Society

XinQi Dong, MD, MPH, is a renowned geriatrician and leader in advancing population health issues in under-represented communities. Since 2018, he has served as the Director of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research and is the inaugural Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Population Health Sciences. Numerous institutions and organizations have recognized Dr. Dong’s contributions. He was appointed senior advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama Administration, was the first geriatrician to receive the National Physician Advocacy Merit Award, has led National Academy of Medicine initiatives, recently received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Equity Award and has more than 220 peer-reviewed publications on culture, violence, and health outcomes. He has led multiple national and international research initiatives and built sustainable partnerships with communities and stakeholders to advance population health. Dong received his BA in biology and economics from the University of Chicago, his MD at Rush University College of Medicine, and his MPH in epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his internal medicine residency and geriatric fellowship at Yale University Medical Center.

Session: Rutgers Center for Healthy Aging

Timothy K. Eatman, Ph.D., an educational sociologist, and publicly engaged scholar serves as the Inaugural Dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) and Associate Professor at Rutgers University-Newark. Before coming to Rutgers, Eatman was at Syracuse University with Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, serving as Faculty Co-Director and Associate Professor. He currently serves as national co-chair of the Urban Research-Based Action Network (URBAN) and vice-chair of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE). In January 2019, Eatman was elected to the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Board of Directors. Pursuing a rigorous scholarly agenda, Eatman publishes widely, serves on editorial boards, and reviews for several academic journals, publications, and conferences. He is a sought-after speaker, workshop facilitator, and collaborator who has earned local, national, and international recognition for his leadership in advancing understandings about the multi-faceted impact of publicly engaged scholarship in Academe and the centrality of equity in that regard. For more information, please see his website http://timothykeatman.com.

Session: Revolutionizing Honors, Cultivating Talent and Engaging Communities: The Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers Newark—a national model of excellent, equitable, civically engaged higher education

Kenneth Elliott, associate professor of theater and chair of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts at Rutgers–Camden, has directed over 20 off-Broadway plays and musicals at such theatres as the Public, Primary Stages, and Manhattan Theatre Club, as well as many productions at regional theatres across the country and in London. He co-authored and directed Devil Boys from Beyond, which was awarded Outstanding Play at the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival. He is known for his long collaboration with Charles Busch, having directed (and sometimes appeared in) the original productions of many of Busch’s off-Broadway plays.

Session: South Jersey Arts Complex at Rutgers-Camden

Jill Friedman earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies from Yale University and her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law. She is the associate dean for pro bono and public interest at Rutgers Law School, where she is responsible for creating and supervising pro bono projects, in areas such as bankruptcy, mediation, and immigration. Dean Friedman also has designed and oversees funding programs for law students working in the public interest, stewarding the investment of many generous funders. In 2016, she inaugurated the Social Justice Scholars Program to nurture future public interest lawyer leaders. Friedman also directs the Rutgers Law School chapter of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project and has introduced many pipeline programs for underrepresented and first-generation students. Dean Friedman began her career in the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society in New York. She has held leadership positions in national and regional legal organizations and recently formed the Coalition of Legal Services Providers in South Jersey to promote greater collaboration among organizations.

Session: Rutgers Innocence Project

Alexander Gates is a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University–Newark. Previously, he served vice chancellor for Research as well as Department Chair for 20 years. He is the founder, PI, and executive director of the Garden State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (GS-LSAMP), a consortium of institutions working to increase underrepresented minority professionals in science, technology, engineering and math in New Jersey. His research area is fault zones, tectonics, and their processes as well as geoscience and STEM education. Gates has published five books and extensively in scholarly journals and volumes. He received 24 academic awards, held leadership positions within numerous scientific associations, and has received more than $28 million in grants. Gates has also held positions as a visiting assistant professor at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, an exploration geologist for Chevron, and a senior scientist with the New York State Geological Survey. Gates holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. from Stony Brook University.

Session: Building Resiliency: Institute for Coastal Climate Change in Urban Areas (IC3U)

Lara Delmolino Gatley is a professor of clinical practice at the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) where she serves as the associate dean and director of the Applied and Academic Autism Services Division (Triple A). For more than 25 years, Lara has devoted her career to improving the lives of people with autism, their families, and those who support them. Through clinical, academic, and administrative roles in university settings, she has provided direct service, professional training, and treatment-focused research. She is the author of several empirical articles as well as books for parents and practitioners, including Essential First Steps for Parents of Children with Autism and Solve Common Teaching Challenges in Children with Autism. Current programs under her leadership at GSAPP encompass the lifespan of people with autism from childhood to adulthood and address the full spectrum of support needs across age and abilities. These programs include the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center (DDDC), The Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services (RCAAS), the Rutgers College Support Program (CSP) for students with autism, and academic programs in Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism.

Session: Reaching the Underserved: Expanding the Scope of ASD Research, Training, and Services at Rutgers

Dr. Maria Laura Gennaro is a professor of medicine at Rutgers University. She earned an M.D. from the University of Palermo, Italy, and an M.Sc. from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She was a tenured assistant member at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita’ (National Institutes of Health) in Rome, Italy, before joining the internationally recognized research team at the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), which is part of Rutgers University. The focus of her work is lung health, with a specialty in tuberculosis—an infectious disease that causes sickness and death in millions of people worldwide. Her laboratory pursues both fundamental and translational studies on the stress responses of host and pathogen in tuberculosis, and on new methods and platforms for tuberculosis diagnostics. She is currently serving as interim director of PHRI. Over the years, Gennaro’s research has been funded by significant grant awards from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the European Union. She is a fierce proponent of lung health and works tirelessly to increase our understanding of lung diseases, treatments, and cures.

Session: The New Jersey Lung Health Institute: Building a Lung Health Ecosystem in New Jersey

Dr. Halkitis is dean and professor of biostatistics and urban-global public health at the School of Public Health at Rutgers University. He is the founder and director of the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior & Prevention Studies. For three decades, his research program has studied the intersection between HIV and other STIs, drug abuse, and mental health, concerning the biological, behavioral, and other factors that predispose health disparities in the LGBTQ+ population. He is the author of five books including Out in Time: The Public Lives of Gay Men from Stonewall to the Queer Generation (2019) and The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience (2013). He is an elected fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine and The Society of Behavioral Medicine among others and serves on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Public Health Association, the Association for School and Programs of Public Health, and The Hyacinth Foundation. He is also a professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, School of Health Professions, Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine and School of Public Affairs and Administration, and primary member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Global Health Institute.

Session: The New Urban Public Health Paradigm

Ken Johnson, a trustee of Rutgers University, is a retired vice president and general manager of the Lockheed Martin Satellite Operations. He has 40 years of experience, with 20 years in general management, of a high-tech enterprise in an extremely competitive field. Johnson has led a vast organization in research, design and development, manufacture, and customer support. He is a highly skilled leader with a strong record of bringing teams together and bringing sophisticated and demanding projects to fruition.

Session: FlexFarm: Maximizing Nutrition and Empowering Communities

Dr. Sunita Kramer joined the office of the provost after serving as the founding associate dean for academic affairs at the Honors College, where her role was to create and implement the college’s core educational vision. Before joining the Honors College, she was an associate professor in the Department of Pathology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where her laboratory focused on early cardiac development. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the American Heart Association. Kramer earned a B.A in biology from Franklin and Marshall College and a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Stony Brook University. As assistant vice provost, Kramer provides leadership for research and innovation activities across New Brunswick. She works with academic units to coordinate and develop new avenues for undergraduate research, including the incorporation of experiential research activities into the academic curriculum, and developing grant proposals to expand research opportunities. Kramer brings a demonstrated commitment to effective undergraduate teaching and learning and supports the design of inclusive learning environments that bring together students, faculty, and external partners to encourage creative inquiry.

Session: The Expedition: Launching a Research and Innovation Academy

Dr. Kantor is the inaugural chair of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health where she leads collaborative efforts to improve health in Newark, develops educational programs, and conducts research to advance health equity. Focus areas include reducing maternal mortality, improving community health needs assessments, and creating new measures for sex education. She previously served as vice president of education for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she advanced programs for underserved youth and digital approaches to sex education. Formerly, she was on the faculty at the Mailman School of Public Health, where she worked with global programs to improve maternal-child health and sexual and reproductive health for refugees. Her research focuses on advancing sexual and reproductive health and reducing health disparities. She is a highly sought speaker who has worked with youth, parents, and professionals worldwide. She serves on the board of directors of ETR Associates and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Millicent Carey McIntosh feminism award from Barnard College.

Session: The New Urban Public Health Paradigm

Dr. Robert Kopp is the director of the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences and a professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences. He codirects Rutgers’ Coastal Climate Risk & Resilience (C2R2) initiative, a training program which brings graduate students in the natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, and urban planning together with coastal stakeholders to tackle the challenges that climate change poses to the world’s coastlines. Kopp’s research focuses on understanding uncertainty in past and future climate change, with major emphases on sea-level change and the interactions between physical climate change and the economy. He has authored over 90 scientific papers and popular articles in venues including the New York Times. Kopp is a lead author of the U.S. Fourth National Climate Assessment, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, and of Economic Risks of Climate Change: An American Prospectus. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate and has served on sea-level rise expert groups for the states of New Jersey, Maryland, and California, as well as for New York City and Boston.

Session: Rutgers Earth 2100: Raritan Roots, Planetary Reach

Dr. Steven K. Libutti was appointed vice chancellor for cancer programs at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, director of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and senior vice president of oncology services for RWJBarnabas Health in January 2017. A surgical oncologist, Libutti is an internationally known expert in endocrine surgery and the management of neuroendocrine tumors. He is a recipient of funding from the National Cancer Institute for the past 20 years. Libutti has focused on developing novel cancer therapies through an understanding of the tumor microenvironment and blood vessel formation in tumors. Libutti graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He completed his residency training in surgery at Presbyterian Hospital in New York and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, then served as the administrative chief resident. Following his residency, he completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at the National Cancer Institute, then joined the senior staff of NCI’s Surgery Branch in 1996. There, he received tenure from the National Institutes of Health and was named head of the Tumor Angiogenesis Section within NCI’s Surgery Branch.

Session: The Cancer Immunology and Metabolism Center of Excellence at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

David Lopez joined Rutgers Law School as co-dean in August 2018 and was the longest-serving general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Dean Lopez was twice nominated to the position by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate. He most recently worked as a partner at Outten & Golden in Washington D.C. and is a nationally-recognized expert in civil rights and employment law. He earned his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Arizona State University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he has lectured.

Session: Algorithms, Justice, and Opportunity

Peter March is the executive dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and a distinguished professor of Mathematics whose research interests center on probability theory and its applications. He received a B.A. from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Minnesota. He joined the faculty at The Ohio State University in 1988 where he served as chair of the mathematics department, associate director of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute, and subsequently as dean of natural and mathematical sciences. From 2006 to 2010 he was director of the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation. He joined Rutgers in 2014. From 2014-2016, Dean March chaired the U.S. National Committee for Mathematics Board on International Scientific Organizations of the National Academies of Science, which is the formal U.S. representative to the International Mathematical Union. He serves on the Committee on Science Policy of the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2017, Dean March was named as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science—an honor bestowed for scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance human knowledge.

Session: Minds and Machines: Pushing the frontiers of science and responsible innovation for public good in the age of intelligent tools

Richard Marlink is a medical oncologist, the founding director of Rutgers Global Health Institute, and the inaugural Henry Rutgers Professor of Global Health. He completed his medical training and internship at the former St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York’s Greenwich Village—an early epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As a hematology/oncology fellow at Harvard, he co-organized the first HIV/AIDS clinic in Boston, Massachusetts. Also at Harvard, Marlink was part of the international research team who in 1985 discovered evidence for and studied the disease outcomes of HIV-2. He also helped build two partnerships with Botswana: the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership in 1996 and the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships in 2000. He created what would become Botswana’s national AIDS training program and was the principal investigator for southern Africa’s first large-scale HIV/AIDS treatment study. Following the launch of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2003, Marlink was Botswana’s country director for the Botswana-Harvard joint PEPFAR effort. Concurrently, he was the principal investigator of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s Project HEART, a PEPFAR effort in five other African countries that provided HIV/AIDS care for over a million people. At Rutgers, Marlink helped establish the Botswana-Rutgers Partnership for Health, focused on building Sub-Saharan Africa’s first national comprehensive cancer care and prevention program.

Session: No Longer a Death Sentence: Transforming Cancer Care and Prevention in Africa

Session: Rutgers Health Impact and Social Equity in New Jersey (RHISE NJ)

Courtney McAnuff, vice chancellor for Enrollment Management, is an innovative leader, active collaborator, and enrollment expert. He oversees Undergraduate Admissions, Office of Financial Aid, Office of the Registrar, One Stop Student Services Center, RU-Info, and critical early outreach and retention programs at Rutgers University—New Brunswick. He has been at the university since 2006. Before his work at Rutgers, Vice-Chancellor McAnuff served, most recently, as vice president for Enrollment Services at Eastern Michigan University. He had an impactful career there spanning from 1980 to 2005. His formative years were spent at the State University of New York at Farmingdale. Vice-Chancellor McAnuff serves as a consultant to numerous prestigious boards of directors, advisory boards, universities and colleges, and has also testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and the New Jersey Senate. He was elected vice-chair for the Coalition for College and served as co-chair of the College Board National Forum. He has earned distinguished accolades, including the Chancellor’s Award for Most Outstanding Administrator-State University of New York System and Administrator of the Year at Eastern Michigan University.

Session: Dreams Fulfilled: Transforming Student Lives by Making Education Accessible, Affordable, and Applicable

Dr. Sarah McMahon is director of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children at the Rutgers School of Social Work where she is also an associate professor. She is the Chancellor’s Scholar for Violence Prevention and serves as special advisor to the senior vice president for Campus Climates, where she provides leadership to the Rutgers campuses to address sexual violence and relationship abuse. McMahon has led several research projects related to campus violence funded at the federal, state, and local levels, and currently leads the Victims of Crimes Act grant for the university inclusive of every campus. In 2014, she collaborated with the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault through the testing of a campus climate survey tool. McMahon was appointed to the NJ Campus Sexual Assault Task Force by Governor Christie, and as co-chair of the Safe and Inclusive Campuses Workgroup for the NJ State Plan for Higher Education by Governor Murphy. She also serves as past chair of the NJ Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board, and current chair of the Advisory Board for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Session: Advancing the Status of Women: Ending Gender-based Inequality, Harassment, and Violence

Kimberlee S. Moran has been a forensic consultant and educator since 2002, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Moran’s specialties include site excavation and evidence recovery; the recovery of human remains; fingerprint analysis; expert testimony and forensic science standards; law enforcement training in forensic techniques; the development of educational materials; consultancy for trial preparation; project management; and public outreach. Before her work as an associate teaching professor, director of forensics, and criminal justice instructor at Rutgers-Camden, Moran was the assistant program director of forensic science at Arcadia University and the director of the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education. She also managed the Institute for Human Rights, the Centre for Law and Ethics, and the Centre for International Courts &Tribunals at University College London. She helped form and launch the JDI Centre for the Forensic Sciences, also at University College London. Moran earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College; a Master of Science in forensic archaeological science from University College London; and completed doctoral research in archaeology at University College London.

Session: RU-CLU: The Rutgers Crime Lab Unit

M. Maral Mouradian, MD is the William Dow Lovett Professor of Neurology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, founding director of the RWJMS Institute for Neurological Therapeutics, and vice chancellor for faculty development at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. After completing neurology residency, Mouradian joined the National Institutes of Health where she received training in clinical pharmacological research and molecular biology under the tutelage of a Nobel Laureate. Before joining Rutgers, she led the Genetic Pharmacology Unit and served as chief neurologist of the Experimental Therapeutics Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. As an internationally recognized physician-scientist, her seminal contributions have led to improved treatments for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and elucidated the molecular underpinnings of the disease paving the way to developing disease-modifying therapies. She has authored over 200 scholarly publications, edited two books on PD, and holds several patents. She is the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Neurotherapeutics and is the founder of MentiNova, Inc. Her research is funded by the NIH, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the American Parkinson Disease Association, and other foundations.

Session: Rutgers Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery and Development (RCN3D)

Dr. Donna M. Nickitas is a noted health policy scholar, an energetic visionary for health care and nursing education in America, an accomplished administrator, and the dean of the Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden. A retired major in the U.S. Air Force Nurse Reserve Corps, Nickitas’ long history of advocacy for equitable health care allows her to lead the dynamic growth of the Rutgers–Camden nursing school, building on its tradition of preparing nurses to serve society and do public good by advancing health, driving public policy, and promoting access to quality, patient-centered care. She is widely published and has authored, co-authored, or coedited peer-reviewed books related to the nursing profession such as Public Policy and Politics for Nurses and Other Health Professionals. Since 2008, she has served as the editor of Nursing Economic$, a journal dedicated to advancing nursing leadership and innovation. Nickitas holds fellowships with the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice, and the New York Academy of Medicine. She is a board member of the New Jersey Department of Health, Preventative Committee on Health and the treasurer for the Eastern Nursing Research Society.

Session: Rutgers-Camden Innovation Community Hub (RICH): From Local to Global

Denis Paré holds the positions of distinguished professor and director of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience of Rutgers University–Newark. Currently, he also serves as acting dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the same institution. After earning a B.Sc. in Psychology at Université de Montréal, he studied with Professor Mircea Steriade at Université Laval (Quebec City, QC, Canada) where he obtained M.Sc. and then Ph.D. degrees in Neurobiology. Subsequently, he studied at New York University Medical Center, where he was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Rodolfo Llinas. His research aims to shed light on how emotions alter memory, particularly traumatic memories. He has authored over 170 scientific publications. The National Institutes of Health has continuously supported Paré’s research program since he started at Rutgers University–Newark in 2002.

Session: Newark Brain Health Equity Institute (NBHEI)

Cyril Reade is the director of the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts and Associate Professor of Art History. He teaches 20th- and 21st-century art and writes about modern and contemporary artists. Reade has strengthened RCCA’s civically engaged educational and cultural programs that serve Camden and the surrounding region. He has led RCCA’s Stedman Gallery’s exhibitions and programming that addresses aspects of Camden’s past and present, including Visions of Camden (2013), Camden Collects (2014), Sounds of Camden (2014), Look Again: The Young People of Camden (2016), Picturing Camden (2017), and Camden Past Present Future (2018).

Session: South Jersey Arts Complex at Rutgers-Camden

Dr. Patrick Shafto is the Henry Rutgers Term Chair in Data Science and professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Rutgers University–Newark. Research in his lab focuses on theoretical and empirical foundations of cooperation and learning in humans and machines. He has received numerous honors and awards including an NSF CAREER award, and his research has formed the basis for successful machine learning start-up companies eventually acquired by Salesforce and Tableau. His research is supported by the NSF (EHR, CISE, SBE), DARPA, DoD, and the NIH.

Session: Algorithms, Justice, and Opportunity

Salamishah Tillet is the faculty director of the New Arts Justice Initiative at Express Newark; a Henry Rutgers Professor of African American and African Studies and Creative Writing; and associate director of the Clement Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers-Newark. Driving her work is a belief that art is a powerful catalyst for social change. Since joining Rutgers-Newark, the celebrated author and activist (and Newark resident), she has focused her attention on her newest passion project as the faculty director of the New Arts Justice Initiative at Express Newark. The university-community collaborative serves as a vehicle for students, faculty, and residents to promote positive transformation in the city, with New Arts providing support for emerging artists and activists as they explore themes of race, gender, sexuality and the value of art in public spaces. Tillet earned her Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization and A.M. in English and American Literature from Harvard University and her Masters in the Art of Teaching from Brown University. She has her B.A. in English and African American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude.

Session: Art Matters

Dr. Turner is a professor of English Literature at Rutgers University, where he has taught since September 2007. He also serves as the associate vice chancellor for research in the Humanities and Arts for the Rutgers-New Brunswick flagship campus and is the former director of the Center for Cultural Analysis, an interdisciplinary think tank for advanced research in the relationships between the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Before arriving at Rutgers, Turner taught in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 1987 to 1991 he attended Wesleyan University, where he received his BA. He also has a Diplôme Supérieur d’Études Françaises from the Université de Bourgogne (1992), an MA in Renaissance Studies and Critical Theory from the University of Sussex (1993), and an MA (1994), MPhil (1997) and PhD (2000) from Columbia University. Turner’s research has garnered grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Humanities Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the UW-Madison Vilas Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Session: The Rutgers Institute for the Advanced Study of Science, Medicine, and Human Values

Carl Van Horn is a distinguished professor of Public Policy at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. He is a member of the graduate faculties of Rutgers’ School of Education, School of Management and Labor Relations, and Department of Political Science. Van Horn is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a visiting, non-resident scholar with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is the author or editor of 18 books and over 150 scholarly articles and reports on American public policy and the American labor market, including Investing in America’s Workforce, published in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank system. He has held several senior government positions at the state and federal levels, including director of policy for the State of New Jersey; chair of the board of directors of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority; member of the boards of NJ Transit and the NJ Commission on Science and Technology; and senior economist, Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in Honors Political Science and Sociology and earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science/Public Policy from the Ohio State University.

Session: The Future of Work: Toward Democratic Sustainable Prosperity in an Era of Intelligent Machines

Dr. Zarbin graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Medical Scientist Training Program) and completed resident and fellowship training (vitreoretinal surgery and medical retina) at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute. Zarbin is chair of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School and chief of ophthalmology at University Hospital in Newark, N.J. A Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience, Zarbin is the Alfonse A. Cinotti, MD/Lions Eye Research chair and directs the Ocular Cell Transplantation Laboratory. He has published 235 peer-reviewed papers and editorials, 120 book chapters, one book on age-related macular degeneration, two books on stem cell therapy for degenerative retinal disease, and two books on the management of diabetic retinopathy. Zarbin is a vice-chair of the Foundation Fighting Blindness Scientific Advisory Board, editor-in-chief of Translational Vision Science and Technology, a member of the editorial boards of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology Retina, and the Journal of Vitreoretinal Diseases, and is an ex officio member of the NIH-National Advisory Eye Council. Zarbin is listed among the “best doctors” by Castle Connolly.

Session: Rutgers Trauma & Regenerative Medicine Institute

Liping Zhao is the Eveleigh-Fenton Chair of Applied Microbiology at Rutgers University. He is a fellow of American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), a senior fellow of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), serves as Editor of two high impact microbiome journals (ISMEJ and Microbiome), and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Center for Microbiome Research and Education of the American Gastroenterology Association. He has published numerous scientific papers in high ranking journals, which has made him a world-renowned scientist in the human microbiome field. His pioneer research applies metagenomics-metabolomics integrated tools and dietary interventions for manipulating gut microbiota to improve human metabolic health. His research has led to important discoveries, such as endotoxin-producing opportunistic pathogens in obese individuals that confer increased obesity risk and inflammation, and that dietary modulation of gut microbiota can significantly alleviate metabolic diseases including a genetic form of obesity in children and type 2 diabetes in adults. SCIENCE magazine (Science 336: 1248) featured his work on combing traditional Chinese medicine and gut microbiota to fight obesity.

Session: Preserving and Nurturing Our Healthy Microbiome