PeaceTech Summit 2018
May 8 - 9
2301 Constitution Ave NW, Washington DC 20037
Powering PeaceTech is a call to action for next-generation peacebuilders: anyone with knowledge, resources, and commitment to putting the right tools into the right hands to prevent violence.
Advances in technology and innovative financing are transforming fields like healthcare, education, and commerce. Yet conflict prevention and peacebuilding remain the job of government agencies and NGO’s with inadequate budgets and yesterday’s tech. Is it any wonder, then, that violent conflict is responsible for nearly all of today’s 65 million refugees, all four famine threats in the world, and 80% of humanitarian needs?
We have so many new tools and strategies that prevent violent conflict and promote peacebuilding – from instantaneous global communication and new capital markets to artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, professionalized conflict resolution, and many more. The 2018 PeaceTech Summit will ask: Why aren’t we using them?
Against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial, an iconic and historic memorial to America’s own struggle for justice, tolerance, and peace, CEOs will confront cloud technology and conscience. Creatives and celebrities will connect to the causes they care about. Now is the time to expand the work of conflict prevention beyond the usual suspects, and begin to build a peacetech industry that creates jobs and saves lives.
May 8
No Ordinary Industry, No Ordinary Summit comes to life on day one. Featuring a Shared Studios portal, the founder of the internet, and a cognitive exoskeleton, the first day of the Summit dives into peacetech, offering an in-depth look at the newest technologies and trends while establishing a foundation for the future of the industry.
May 9
Building upon the foundation established on day one, the second day of the Summit features hands-on workshops with specialized tech tools. Designed to train new users and old pros, workshops are staggered throughout the morning to allow participants to attend multiple sessions, which includes Keshif, DappDevs, groundTruth, and more.
Watch the Live Stream
Speakers
Vinton G. Cerf is Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He contributes to global policy development and continued spread of the Internet. Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. He has served in executive positions at MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and on the faculty of Stanford University.
Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007 and has been a Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1998. Cerf served as founding president of the Internet Society (ISOC) from 1992-1995. Cerf is a Foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Academy of Engineering. He currently serves as Past President of the Association for Computing Machinery, chairman of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and completed a term as Chairman of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology for the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. President Obama appointed him to the National Science Board in 2012.
Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards and commendations for his work, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Tunisian National Medal of Science, and 29 honorary degrees.
Nicholas M. Donofrio is a 44-year IBM veteran who was IBM's Executive Vice President of Innovation and Technology from 1997 until his retirement in October 2008. He also was vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation and chairman of the Board of Governors for the IBM Academy of Technology. Mr. Donofrio's most recent responsibilities included IBM Research, Governmental Programs, Technical Support & Quality, Corporate Community Relations, as well as Environmental Health & Product Safety. Also reporting to Mr. Donofrio were the senior executives responsible for IBM's enterprise on demand transformation. In addition to that strategic business mission, Mr. Donofrio led the development and retention of IBM's technical population and enriched that community with a diversity of culture and thought. In 2008 IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano elected Nick IBM Fellow, the company's highest technical honor.
Adam Khan is Founder & CEO of AKHAN Semiconductor. Mr. Khan has authored several patents and technical publications, and is also a frequent speaker on Diamond Semiconductor & Clean Technology. As a result of his award-winning research, which he began as an electrical engineering student at age 19, Mr. Khan is co-inventor of the Miraj Diamond™ Platform. He has served as a speaker and expert witness to a variety of Federal bodies, including the U.S. House Space, Science, & Technology Committee and the U.S. Department of Energy. Most recently, Mr. Khan’s work was recognized and individually honored by the United States Congress in the 114th Congressional Records & Proceedings. Adam earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Physics from the University of Illinois Chicago, before pursuing graduate research at Stanford University. He has been everything from a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, to a CleanTech Open Midwest Innovation Summit winner.
Amar C. Bakshi is an artist, whose work focuses on how to integrate technology into environments and across pronounced distance to create new forms of digital-physical public spaces which often challenge and subvert existing norms. In particular, he works to connect members of diverse communities who would likely not otherwise meet in intimate environments to create their own meanings. As an artist, Amar treats the formation of institutions as, themselves, sites of creation. Amar previously worked as a reporter at The Washington Post, an editor at CNN, and as Special Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Amar, a Soros Fellow and Truman Scholar, has an AB from Harvard University, an MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a JD from Yale Law School.
Violet Tsagka is a communications and international development professional experienced in business development, project management, client relations, media strategy, and crisis communications. She has worked with private sector clients, non-profit and advocacy organizations, multilateral institutions and government agencies, such as USAID, U.S. Department of State, and the European Union. She is currently leading Creative Associates International's program-focused media support and technical design, as well as a wide range of the company's business development efforts. Previously, she spent six years in a communications consulting firm designing and executing issue-specific campaigns using both traditional and digital media.
Ned McMahon, the founder of Primo Wind studied Marine Engineering and ended up with an International Business degree. He went on to receive a Master's Certificate in Business from Rice University. Ned has built houses, surfcraft, and boats and spent a career working in composites. His first startup was making polyurethane core material from plant-based chemistry, which was a first at the time. Ned started Primo Wind in 2013.
Colin Rule is co-founder, COO, and Chairman of the Board for Modria.com, the world's leading online dispute resolution platform. Modria spun out from eBay and PayPal in 2011 and has since received funding from investors like Battery Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, and Foundry Group. From 2003 to 2011 Colin served as the first Director of Online Dispute Resolution for eBay and PayPal. Before eBay, Colin co-founded and ran Online Resolution, one of the first online dispute resolution (ODR) providers. Colin has worked at Mediate.com, the National Institute for Dispute Resolution (now ACR) in Washington, DC, and the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA. He is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at UMass-Amherst and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School.
Colin is the author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business, published by Jossey-Bass in September 2002. He has contributed more than 50 articles to ADR publications such as Consensus, The Fourth R, ACResolution Magazine, and Peace Review. He holds a Master's degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in conflict resolution and technology, a graduate certificate in dispute resolution from UMass-Boston, a B.A. in Peace Studies from Haverford College, and he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Eritrea from 1995-1997.
Caroline Humer is the Director of the Global Missing Children's Center at the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC). She manages the Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN), which consists of 28-member countries dedicated to preventing the disappearance of children and searching for and recovering missing children utilizing ICMEC’s global database (GMCNgine). GMCNgine modernizes the method in which law enforcement and NGOs search and recover missing children. It is designed to integrate and search a vast array of global data sets either through web scraping, web sources images or law enforcement looking for matches and other clues to help GMCN member organizations to identify and recover missing children more quickly and efficiently. The platform never stops searching for the missing child.
Brian Paget is VP, Solution Strategy at SAP NS2, in this role he focuses on Technology Innovation and Go To Market for NS2's Data, Analytics, and Machine Learning solutions. Prior to his role at SAP NS2
Brian spent 10 years at Adobe as Director of Technology for Adobe's Public Sector business across the globe delivering innovative focused on Digital Experience solutions. Brian has been involved in many large government IT initiatives including launching the first FedRAMP accredited software solution, leading a team as part of the tech surge after the healthcare.gov launch, and has also working closely with policy makers on key initiatives including the Veterans Administration case backlog and the Whitehouse Open Source policy.
Craig Hammer leads the World Bank Institute’s Global Media Development program, a partnership-driven initiative which focuses on information and media as drivers of good governance. A licensed attorney, his work at the World Bank has included strengthening laws, policies, and regulations to enhance the enabling environment for media and access to information, as well as collaborative approaches with media practitioners (journalists, editors, media owners/managers, students, developers, and more) to strengthen the role of media as a key driver of the global knowledge economy, and as a techenabled, institution of
As executive director, Susan Krenn leads the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Program’s work in 40 countries and a staff of more than 700. Throughout her 32-year career at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she has demonstrated her ability to build, manage and lead teams and deliver project results consistent with the mission of the Center and the School. Ms. Krenn brings more than 30 years of expertise in implementing health communication programs for family planning, safe motherhood, reproductive health, malaria, child survival, TB, democracy and governance and HIV/AIDS. Her areas of expertise include strategy design, program management and facilitation, among others. Prior to assuming the role of the Center’s executive director in 2009, Ms. Krenn was director of CCP’s Program Unit. She also served as regional director for CCP’s Africa Division between 1994 and 2008. Ms. Krenn has worked professionally in 15 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, including a three-year field position in Nigeria
Nancy Lindborg is President of the U.S. Institute of Peace, created by Congress in 1984 as an independent, nonpartisan, federally funded organization to prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict around the world.
Prior to joining USIP, she served as the assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) at USAID. From 2010 through 2014, Nancy Lindborg directed the efforts of more than 600 team members in nine offices focused on crisis prevention, response, recovery and transition. Ms. Lindborg led DCHA teams in response to the ongoing Syria Crisis, the Sahel 2012 and Horn of Africa 2011 droughts, the Arab Spring, the Ebola response and numerous other global crises.
Ms. Lindborg has spent most of her career working on issues of transition, democracy and civil society, conflict and humanitarian response. Prior to joining USAID, she was president of Mercy Corps, where she spent 14 years helping to grow the organization into a globally respected organization known for innovative programs in the most challenging environments.
Ms. Lindborg has held a number of leadership and board positions including serving as co-president of the Board of Directors for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition; one of the founders and board members of the National Committee on North Korea; and chair of the Sphere Management Committee. She is a member of Council on Foreign Relations.
She holds a B.A and an M.A. in English Literature from Stanford University and an M.A. in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
John Momoh (Officer of the Order of the Niger - OON) is Chairman of the Channels Media Group and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the award winning 24-hour news and media channel, Channels Television. Channels is one of the leading private-sector media outlets on the African continent and has been groundbreaking in the Nigerian media space with many notable firsts including: winning the Best TV Station of the Year a record 10 times, first to stream its news and programs live on the internet, first to interface with followers via Twitter and first to have created mobile apps on various platforms. Mr. Momoh is a renowned broadcast journalist with a vast experience spanning almost four decades. Prior to founding Channels in 1995, He worked variously as news anchor, senior reporter and senior producer for Nigeria’s Public Radio and Television Stations. Mr. Momoh is a graduate of the University of Lagos with a Master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy and a B.Sc (with honours) in Mass Communication. He is a 'Chevening' Scholar and alumnus of both Harvard and Lagos Business Schools.
Alex Kostura is the Manager of the ConsenSys Solutions Lab in DC, where his mission is to enhance government performance and social sector outcomes through inclusive and accessible blockchain solutions. As a former Partnerships Advisor with the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State, he led the Blockchain@State initiative and the Faith & Human Rights Fellowship. Alex is a Fellow with the Internet Law and Policy Foundry and the Robertson Foundation for Government. He holds a Masters Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Robert Zaal is the founder and director of PeaceTech Lab Netherlands. PTL NL aims to accelerate the development and distribution of new tools for peace and development, bringing together the digital community, engineers and scientists with experts in peacebuilding and development from government, NGO’s and the conflict zones themselves. PTL focuses on food security, water safety and health as drivers for conflict, three areas in which The Netherlands has a strong reputation. Zaal has a background in media and journalism as director of national and international broadcasters.
Stephen Hadley is a principal of RiceHadleyGates LLC, an international strategic consulting firm founded with Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Anja Manuel. Mr. Hadley is also Board Chair of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and an Executive Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council.
Mr. Hadley served for four years as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 2005 to 2009. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Hadley was the Assistant to the President and Deputy
National Security Advisor, serving under then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Mr. Hadley had previously served on the National Security Council staff and in the Defense Department including as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy from 1989 to 1993.
During his professional career, Mr. Hadley has served on a number of corporate and advisory boards, including: the National Security Advisory Panel to the Director of Central Intelligence, the Department of Defense Policy Board, and the State Department’s Foreign Affairs policy Board. He is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.
Amirah Jiwa helped established and manages the partnership between nonprofit Peace Direct and Away, a global travel brand designing thoughtful objects for modern travel. Prior, Jiwa developed impact initiatives for a range of consumer and retail brands including Sephora, Coca-Cola, and Clarks. Jiwa studied Peace, War, and Defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. She is from the UK but now lives and works in New York.
Kevin Gordon Barrow is the Founder & CEO of Mark Labs, a software company, which helps organizations effectively manage the risk associated with funding social impact projects through its impact data and payments platform. Prior to embracing his inner social entrepreneur, Kevin earned his stripes in the fields of law (GE), banking (ABN AMBRO), and management consulting (Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton). Kevin completed his higher education in the UK earning an Honours Law Degree from Durham and an MBA from Oxford. He is an an avid reader, lover of Sufi poetry, and an aspiring surfer.
Sargur "Hari" Srihari is a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. He has been working in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for over four decades. At present, he teaches a sequence of three courses: (i) introduction to machine learning, (ii) probabilistic graphical models and (iii) deep learning.
A laboratory that Srihari founded, known as CEDAR, developed the world’s first automated system for reading handwritten postal addresses. It was deployed by the United States Postal Service which eventually saved the USPS millions of dollars and helped lower postal rates.
Srihari then spent a decade developing AI and machine learning methods for forensics—focusing on pattern evidence such as latent prints, handwriting and footwear impressions. In particular, he developed a system for handwriting comparison which demonstrated the value of such evidence and allowed presenting handwriting testimony in US federal court hearings. Srihari has served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community. He has also served on NIJ-NIST committees on Human Factors in Fingerprint Analysis and Handwriting Comparison. At present he serves on the Houston Forensics Technical Advsory Board.
Srihari's honors include: Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (IETE, India) , Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition and distinguished alumnus of the Ohio State University College of Engineering .
Srihari received a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from the Bangalore University, a B.E. in Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science and a Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science from the Ohio State University.
Rhiannan Price leads the Global Development Program at DigitalGlobe and works with our partners across the development and humanitarian spectrum. She focuses on bridging the gap between what is technically feasible and what is needed by development practitioners. Rhiannan also serves on the Technology Advisory Board for the International Criminal Court. She has lived in Uganda, Tanzania, and Dominica, where she was as a Peace Corps Volunteer focusing on community development. Rhiannan holds a Masters in International Human Rights from the Korbel School at University of Denver where she was a Boren Fellow.
Ruba Mimi is the Middle East regional manager at RNW Media, where she leads programs using digital media for social change in Syria and Yemen. In 2016, she shepherded a counter radicalization campaign in Yemen that resulted in shifting young people’s opinions about armed groups and weapons.
Prior to joining RNW Media, Ruba spent a decade working as a TV journalist in Palestine, producing tailored media for young people tackling social and political issues. She holds a Master's degree in political communication from the University of Amsterdam and a bachelor in media and political science. She is from Palestine, currently living and working in the Netherlands.
Jennifer oversees communications strategy and execution for Internews. She brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic marketing, communications and partnership development in both the public and private sectors to her work with the organization. Prior to Internews, Jennifer served as a strategic planning, marketing and communications consultant and team member for startup, nonprofit and corporate organizations. In addition to her work with a series of venture-backed technology companies, her corporate clients have included BEA, Sybase, IDG, Lotus Development and HewlettPackard. In the nonprofit arena, Jennifer was the founding director of the Computerworld Honors Awards, a cofounder of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, the founding consultant for the Haas Jr. Fund’s Flexible Leadership Award program and a member of the executive team at the World Affairs Council of Northern California. Most recently, she served as the Head of Marketing for civic start-up, Captricity. Jennifer has a passion for technology that advances social good and published a book about the evolution of technology in 1998, Cybergrace: The Search for God in the Digital World. She attended Amherst College and holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in ethics from Union Theological Seminary
Sheldon Himelfarb is the President and CEO of PeaceTech Lab. Sheldon joined USIP from The Corporate Executive Board, where he was on the Technology Practice Leadership Team, working with chief information officers from governments, universities, and multi-national corporations. Prior to this, he served as foreign policy adviser to a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the head of North American Documentary Development for Yorkshire TV, and the CEO/Executive Producer for Common Ground Productions, the media division of Search for Common Ground. He is an award-winning filmmaker, former commentator for National Public Radio (Sunday Morning Edition) and author of numerous articles on politics, popular culture and conflict. He has managed peacebuilding programs in numerous conflicts, including Bosnia, Iraq, Angola, Liberia, Macedonia, Burundi and received the Capitol Area Peace Maker award from American University.
He holds a doctorate from Oxford University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Johns Hopkins University. He has held visiting or guest scholar positions at the Brookings Institution, Harvard University and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Megan Beyer was appointed by President Barack Obama to be the Executive Director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She led the first official U.S. Cultural Delegation to Cuba, which included directors of four U.S. cultural agencies and prominent artists, including Usher, Joshua Bell, Smokey Robinson, and Dave Matthews. The mission resulted in the first government-to-government public collaborations following President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba.
Beyer is a journalist, activist, and life-long advocate of women’s rights and gender issues. In 2010, she founded the bilateral Swiss-U.S. project, Sister Republics, which accelerates private market drivers to break the glass ceiling. As the Chair of Sister Republics, Megan organized international conferences–which brought women together to promote gender certification and gender lens investing. Upon returning to the U.S. in 2013, Megan was the External Relations representative for the Swiss-based EDGE Gender Certification, a company that certifies companies achieving a global standard of gender certification.
Giselle Lopez works for the Creative Development Lab at Creative Associates International, where she focuses on incorporating technology-enabled solutions in election monitoring, political transitions, citizen security, governance, and countering violent extremism programs. In this role, she has led a training on local asset mapping for youth in the Caribbean, the use of social media and crowdsourcing for election monitoring in Iraq, and the analysis of narratives surrounding Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin. As part of PeaceTech Lab at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Giselle led several programs applying data and social media analytics to the practice and study of peacebuilding, including the development of the Open Situation Room Exchange, a program designed to make data more accessible to the peacebuilding community, and the use of social media analytics to monitor hate speech online surrounding the South Sudan conflict. She has organized and led technology workshops in India, Myanmar, Turkey, and Egypt to build capacity for peacebuilding organizations to incorporate low-cost, easy-to-use technology solutions to support their efforts. Giselle received an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University’s School of International Service and a BA in international studies at the University of Washington. Giselle previously worked for the National Democratic Institute’s ICT team and Crimson Hexagon, a social media analytics company in Boston, where she managed the Social Impact Program to extend access to the technology for nonprofits. Giselle is also a Senior Fellow with Humanity in Action.
Carine Umuhumuza is the Associate Director of Communications at Devex. She has launched over a dozen major campaigns in partnership with leading communicators from a range of development agencies, major corporations, NGOs, and social enterprises. Her passion for connecting people and creating impact through stories is homegrown, inherited from her father — a journalist at one of the leading newspapers in Rwanda. Carine got her journalism and storytelling chops at Syracuse University's Newhouse School and moved to D.C. to start her career in social media and digital strategy. As Devex's resident social media guru, Carine has a digital-first approach to storytelling and content curation. She hasn’t found a social media platform she doesn't love.
Eva-Maria Dimitriadis joined C5 to run the worldwide accelerator program. She studied PPP at Oxford University and has spent the last ten years working in the art market. Eva served as Chief of Staff to the CEO at Christie’s, where she supported Christie’s digital strategy. Prior to that she worked in Business Development focusing on the company’s expansion into growth markets such as India, China, the Middle East and Africa. Eva is passionate about tech startups and social impact. She sits on the committee of the Audaces Foundation which raises awareness about impact investing amongst next generation leaders.
Mike Young is the CTO of Classy, a social enterprise that creates world-class online fundraising tools for nonprofits, modernizing the giving experience to accelerate global social impact. Since 2011, fundraising on the Classy platform has doubled each year—resulting in thousands of nonprofits collectively raising over half a billion dollars. Classy partners with organizations of all sizes, from the fastest-growing non-profits such as Team Rubicon and Malala Fund, to some of the world’s largest social organizations, such as Acumen Fund, Oxfam, and Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Previously, Mike was the CTO at Redfin in Seattle, cofounded San Diego-based startup Yapert, and was Chief Architect at Plumtree Software in SF. Mike graduated with honors from UC Berkeley (EECS '92).
Bill Casebeer is the Senior Research Area Manager in Human Systems and Autonomy for Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (LM ATL), where he leads a team of thirty professionals focused on building human-autonomous system performance improvement technologies. He has a decade of experience in program management and is transitioning to become the Director of the Innovation Lab for Beyond Conflict. Bill was a DARPA Program Manager in the Defense Sciences Office and the Biological Technologies Office, where he started the Narrative Networks and Low-Cost EEG programs, and led Accelerated Learning, Education Dominance, Strategic Social Interaction Modules and other programs. His last military command position was as Deputy Director of the Technology Advancement and Warfighter Training Department for the 500-person Joint Warfare Analysis Center (a DoD modeling and simulation unit), and he has multiple tours with deployed time as a US Air Force intelligence Lieutenant Colonel. He has a joint PhD in Cognitive Science and Philosophy from UC-San Diego, MA in National Security Affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School, MA in Philosophy from the University of Arizona and a BS in Political Science from in USAF Academy. Bill is the author of the books “Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism and Moral Cognition” and co-author of “Warlords Rising: Confronting Violent Non-State Actors.” He has multiple peer-reviewed publications ranging from International Affairs to Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Achol Jok Mach is a Specialist at PeaceTech Lab Africa. Achol works on the implementation of the Sawa Shabab peacebuilding radio drama in South Sudan and in Kakuma refugee camp and on the Lab’s work countering hate speech in South Sudan and Kenya. Previously, she was the project manager for #defyhatenow and Radio La Benevolencija, both of which are based in South Sudan and use training, community engagement, and radio production to counter and raise awareness of the offline impact of online hate speech. Achol has a degree in Literature from the University of Alberta, Canada and speaks five languages.
Rohini Srihari is the Chief Data Scientist at PeaceTech Lab and founder of groundTruth Global. Rohini brings her expertise as an educator, scientist, and entrepreneur to PeaceTech Lab, where she oversees the data and technology programs. She is responsible for PeaceTech Lab’s data and analytics hub which is used by peacebuilders around the globe to rapidly configure solutions for their specific needs. She manages the development of innovative artificial intelligence solutions involving content such as social media, satellite imagery, and data obtained through trusted, local networks.
Rohini is a professor of computer science at the University at Buffalo and received her PhD in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Bruce Sherman is a strategic advisor at PeaceTech Lab. As a strategic advisor, Bruce leads two peacebuilding media projects: 24/7 TV and digital channels with leading local partners, Channels TV in Nigeria and Hum Network Ltd in Pakistan. Bruce also manages the Lab's partnership with the Netherlands-based RNW Media and directs the joint Deep Dive series examining the role of media in conflict zones. Prior to joining the Lab, Bruce served in varying capacities from 1996-2016 as head of strategy, research, and development for the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, parent organization of Voice of America, and other U.S. government-funded media properties. Bruce holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from St. John’s College and the University of Florida, respectively. He is a fluent Spanish speaker.
Candice Charlton is a Business Development Manager on the Worldwide Public Sector (WWPS) Venture Capital (VC) and Startup Team at AWS. In this role, she works to drive innovation into the public sector through engagement with the global startup community. Prior to this role, while also at AWS, Candice was a Senior Bid and Proposal Manager on the WWPS Capture & Proposal team. Previous to AWS, Candice has held Director and Consultant roles at systems integrators including BAE Systems and Booz Allen Hamilton, a financial services firm, and startups. Candice holds an MBA from George Washington University and a B.S. in Finance from Auburn University.
