Anthony Midey
Senior Application Support Scientist
Waters Corporation
Anthony Midey received his Ph.D. in spectroscopy and mass spectrometry from the University of Rochester. He was an Air Force Research Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellow in atmospheric ion chemistry at AFRL, Hanscom AFB. He continued collaborating with the DoD on research in combustion chemistry and chemical weapon detection with mass spectrometry as a contract R&D Scientist for Visidyne, Inc. and Research Analyst for Boston College’s Institute for Scientific Research (ISR). He currently works in the analytical instruments industry, first for start-up Excellims Corp. in applications and customer support, and since 2015, for Waters Corp. As Senior Applications Support Scientist, he supports Waters’ Biomedical Research group, providing pre- and post-sales support in imaging mass spectrometry, metabolomics, and lipidomics.
Devin Leonard
Research Scientist
FLIR
Devin Leonard is a Research Scientist at FLIR Systems. He finished his graduate work in 1995 at UC Santa Barbara where he received a PhD in Materials. His research focused on crystal growth and characterization of fabricated semiconductor structures which confine electrical carriers into very small spaces, sometimes called ‘quantum dots.’ He has continued to apply his experience in semiconductor materials and processing to a variety of engineering efforts at W.L. Gore and Associates, Rockwell Scientific Company, and Praevium Research, Inc. In his current role within FLIR’s Industrial Business Unit in Goleta, he performs data and failure analysis for the creation of cheaper and better infrared camera products.
Michelle Radeke
Application Scientist and Customer Service Manager
Wyatt Technology
Michelle completed her PhD in Physical Chemistry at UCLA. She has worked as a Senior Researcher/Analyst for an information technology publication and co-founded a B2B ecommerce software company. Michelle is now an Application Scientist and Customer Support Manager for Wyatt Technology Corporation in Goleta.
Jessica Sexton
Senior Microbiologist
Apeel Sciences
At Apeel, Jessica brings the combined perspectives of a molecular microbiologist, environmental scientist, and industry veteran to bear on the development of novel treatments for crop diseases. She is dedicated to reducing the use of harsh chemical pesticides, and her research is focused on finding innovative ways to inhibit microbial food spoilage without threatening human health or harming beneficial organisms. Jessica earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from Washington University in St. Louis and holds a Masters degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her B.A. in Biology from Boston University, where she was a Trustee Scholar and scholarship springboard diver. Following extensive academic training in bacterial and fungal pathogenesis, Jessica transitioned to industry research, most recently serving as a laboratory head in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Novartis (Cambridge, MA), where she ran a molecular biology lab specializing in analysis of new antifungal drugs for treatment of bloodstream infections.
Lauren Broder
Director of Research and Evaluation
826 National
Lauren Broder is the Director of Research and Evaluation for 826 National, a writing and education nonprofit aimed at amplifying youth voice. In this role, she leads evaluation capacity-building efforts for the national network of youth writing centers while also strengthening, advancing, and developing the metrics and tools, and communicating data to stakeholders. Lauren received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Connecticut where she conducted research on social-emotional development. She has a strong background in statistical analysis, research writing, and data management, including working with national data from the NICHD. Lauren also served as a lab manager for a cognitive development lab at the University of Colorado, overseeing multiple research projects on early infancy. Lauren holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Colorado, as well as a M.A. in Psychology from University of Connecticut.
Sean O’Brien
Director of Exhibits
MOXI Museum
Sean O’Brien is the Director of Exhibits at MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation. Sean holds a PhD in Education, specializing in Maker education as it pertains to student teacher education. Prior to his time at MOXI, he spent 8 years as a teacher in elementary classrooms, 4 of which were at an international school in Berlin, Germany. Sean has worked over 30 different jobs, including working as a commercial welder, surfboard fabricator, and water ski instructor.
Jessica Tade
Executive Director and Third District Commissioner
Casa del Herrero and Santa Barbara County Human Services Commission
Jessica Tade, PhD, is the executive director of Casa del Herrero, a historic house museum and gardens located in Montecito, California. In this role, she oversees all aspects of operations including stewardship of the house and gardens; preservation of the fifteenth and sixteenth-century fine and decorative arts collection; fundraising; outreach; and implementation of the organization’s strategic plan. Previously, Jessica was the director of marketing and communications for the Santa Barbara City College Foundation, the director of communications and marketing for the Santa Barbara Foundation, and an associate editor for the McGraw-Hill Companies. Jessica is always looking for ways to positively impact her community. She is on the board of the Santa Ynez Valley Foundation and a third district commissioner for the Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission of Santa Barbara County. She is also a past Steering Committee member for Partnership for Excellence, a yearly conference bringing together leaders from Santa Barbara County’s philanthropic sector in order to build relationships and explore ideas, strategies, and skills that enhance nonprofit organizations and their work. She received the Pacific Coast Business Times 40 Under 40 award in 2017. Jessica is a three-time graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she received a doctorate in Art History specializing in Romanesque architecture and sculpture.
Beth Hough
Scholarship and Student Support Coordinator
California Polytechnic University-San Luis Obispo
Beth Hough is the Scholarship and Student Support Coordinator at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She has her M.A. in English from Cal State Long Beach and is advanced to candidacy in English at University of California, Riverside. She has worked in non-fiction publishing as well as higher education fundraising.
Eric Zackrison
Owner and Consultant
Effectiveness Consultants
Eric is the President and CEO of IDI.US Inc. which controls the rights to the Interpersonal Dynamics Inventory (IDI), a powerful multi-rater personality/behavioral styles measurement tool. After 25 years as a manager and entrepreneur and completing his MA, MBA, and PhD, Eric has taken up the mantle of his father both in furthering the awareness and use of IDI through training and licensing others, as well as adopting the name of his father’s consulting firm, Effectiveness Consultants. He focuses heavily on relationships as key to success and integrates this into his consulting and into his role in the community. Eric received his PhD from the Department of Communication at UCSB and beyond his consulting works as a lecturer, teaching management and business communication for the Technology Management Program (TMP) at UCSB.
Summer Sivas
North America Channel Manager, Single Use Technologies
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Summer Sivas received her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry. After her post-doctorate, she joined Thermo Fisher Scientific where she has held various sales and consulting roles over the last eight years within the company. Most recently as Bioproduction Channel Manager for Single Use Technologies, she oversees their distribution partner relationships and technical support.
Erin Murphy
Managing Scientist
Exponent
Dr. Murphy is a technical consultant in the field of polymer science and materials chemistry, specializing in forensics analysis of failed plastic and rubber components in the consumer electronics, biomedical, construction, and oil & gas industries. Prior to joining Exponent, she spent seven years in industry working at Kraton Corporation in both research and technical management roles. While at Kraton, her work focused on the use of styrenic block copolymers and their derivatives and compounds in oil & gas applications. Before joining industry, Dr. Murphy completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Virginia Tech after receiving her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UCLA under the guidance of Fred Wudl (’09).
Kristin A. Denault
Founder and CEO
Fluency Lighting Technologies
Kristin founded Fluency Lighting to develop and commercialize next-generation, energy-efficient light sources, based on laser technology and materials design. Kristin currently leads Fluency as the Founder and CEO, where the team is working to introduce energy-saving light sources in applications where LEDs cannot compete, and inefficient xenon or halogen light sources are still being used. Kristin has years of experience working in materials science and engineering and has published numerous scientific papers and patents in the field of solid-state lighting. She received her PhD in Materials from UC Santa Barbara in 2015, while also completing the Graduate Program in Management Practice certificate from the Technology Management Program at UCSB, focused on providing a foundation in business and management skills. During that time, the concept for Fluency was conceived and debuted in UCSB’s New Venture Competition in 2014.
Vijaysekhar Jayaraman
Founder
Praevium Research
Vijaysekhar Jayaraman received his Ph.D in electrical engineering from UCSB in 1994, under the guidance of Professor Larry Coldren. Since 2001, Dr. Jayaraman has been founder, CEO, and principal investigator at Praevium Research, Inc, in Santa Barbara, where he leads several efforts focused on developing widely tunable semiconductor lasers for medical imaging and spectroscopy.
Bob Lansdorp
Co-founder
Milo Sensors
Bob Lansdorp obtained his PhD in 2015 from the UCSB Materials Department. Shortly after graduating, Bob co-founded Milo Sensors, a startup company in the CNSI Technology Incubator, and has led the technical development of the world’s first discreet wearable alcohol sensor.
Michael Wyrsta
Founder and President
Panavation
Michael Wyrsta received his Ph.D in materials from UCSB in 2002, under the mentorship of Professor Timothy Deming. Since 2002, Dr. Wyrsta has been involved in a number of start-up ventures. More recently he is a co-founder and CEO of Lixivia, Inc, located in Santa Barbara. Lixivia’s mission is to be a leading technology supplier to the mining and minerals industry. Their primary focus is to use technology to better utilize mining waste and low-grade minerals.
Steve Brown
Senior Data Scientist
Intuit
Steve Brown is a Senior Data Scientist at Intuit where he works on natural language understanding for dialogue agents. Previously he was an Insight Data Science technical advisor, an Insight Data Science fellow, and a Citrine Informatics data science intern. As a technical advisor, he helped tens of PhDs get their first job in data science. He got his PhD in Materials from UCSB and helped organize the first two Beyond Academia conferences at UCSB.
Nathan Danneman
Principal Data Scientist
Data Machines
Nathan is the Chief Data Scientist at Data Machines Corp, a cloud and data science consulting firm. Previously, he was a Principal Data Scientist at IronNet Cybersecurity. Nathan received a PhD in political science from Emory University in 2013, with focuses on international conflict and quantitative methods. He went straight from grad school into industry, serving as a methodological generalist in three companies over 6 years, with substantive research and development efforts centered on cybersecurity, image analysis, and experimental design.
Nikki Marinsek
Data Scientist
Evidation Health
Nikki is a Data Scientist at Evidation Health, a company that aims to measure health in everyday life. Her work focuses on analyzing data from wearable devices to better understand, monitor, and predict individuals’ wellness and behavior outside of the clinic. Before joining Evidation, Nikki received a PhD in Dynamical Neuroscience from UCSB, where she researched the neural dynamics of inferential reasoning with fMRI and tDCS. She is an NSF Graduate Fellow, a UCSB Doctoral Scholar, and a SAGE Center Graduate Fellow.
Angela Glymph
Vice President of Programs and Strategic Learning
Peer Health Exchange
Dr. Glymph is currently the Vice President of Programs and Strategic Learning at Peer Health Exchange (PHE), a non-profit organization that promotes health equity and education among high school students attending under-resourced high schools. She leads PHE’s national vision and strategy for program impact to build a more integrated model for health education. She is responsible for actualizing PHE’s vision for advancing healthy equity to improve health outcomes for young people, overseeing PHE’s program design and evaluation priorities nationally, and leading the National Program team. Dr. Glymph has 10 years of combined experience in the fields of program evaluation, psychological and educational research, educational assessment, statistics, and psychometrics. Prior to joining PHE, Dr. Glymph worked for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is the statistical arm of the US Department of Education. At NCES, she worked on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), where she was responsible for the design, analysis, reporting, and dissemination of NAEP assessment data, as well as managing quality assurance activities and program evaluation work in NAEP. She is published, and frequently asked to make presentations and sit on professional panels based on her expertise in her field. Dr. Glymph has a doctorate and Master’s degree in psychology from Howard University and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She resides in Upper Marlboro, MD with her spouse, Tyriek, and two-year old son Tyson.
Drew Anderson
Associate Economist
RAND Corporation
Drew M. Anderson is an Associate Economist at the RAND Corporation and a Core Faculty member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He studies the economics of education finance and household financial decision making. His research evaluates how financial aid and financial education affect household investments, as well as how public policies shape markets for education, health, and financial products. Drew earned his PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Education at UW-Madison before coming to RAND. At RAND he focuses on building partnerships with state policymakers and educators, as well as charitable foundations and government funders, to evaluate
Stuart Kasdin
Mayor Pro Tem and Councilmember
City of Goleta
Stuart Kasdin is a councilmember for the city of Goleta and an adjunct professor at Santa Barbara City College. He received his PhD in political science from UCSB in 2009. He has previously taught at George Washington University in DC, and before getting a PhD, he worked in the federal government in the Office of Management and Budget.
Tanya Das
Democratic Professional Staff Member
U.S. House of Representatives
Tanya Das is a Professional Staff Member on the Energy Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, where she covers a range of issues in energy policy including carbon free energy generation, advanced manufacturing, grid modernization, technology transfer, and electric vehicles. Prior to joining the committee, she was an AAAS Congressional Fellow covering economic policy in the office of Senator Chris Coons. Before this fellowship, Tanya obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Concurrently with obtaining her Ph.D., Tanya explored issues in STEM higher education through her work in program evaluation and was also part of the workforce development team for the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics.