Laura Cesafsky
UX Design Researcher
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi
Laura Cesafsky is a UX Researcher at Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi working on AI-intensive automotive systems and services. She does foundational and evaluative UX research, concept creation, and human-AI interaction design experimentation in order to shape future mobility experiences. Prior to joining industry, she earned a PhD in Urban Geography from the University of Minnesota and was a Fulbright Scholar-Researcher to Colombia, where she conducted extensive ethnographic research on urban mobility politics.
Jim Arndt
Application Scientist
MOBILion Systems
Jim Arndt earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from West Virginia University under Stephen Valentine focusing in ion mobility-mass spectrometry of peptides in a native state. After graduate school, he spent three years as a Scientist Janssen Research and Development in the large molecule characterization lab. After a brief stint at Waters Corporation as a Mass Spectrometry Sales Specialist, he landed as a Scientist at MOBILion Systems, Inc. where he helps develop and commercialize large molecule methods on a next-generation ion mobility device.
Erin Young
Device Scientist
Apple
Erin completed her PhD in materials science at the University of British Columbia, where her research focused on development of novel semiconductor alloys based on GaAs. She then held a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSB from 2007 to 2010, working on development of III-N based alloys by molecular beam epitaxy for device applications. She continued working in R&D of III-Nitrides with the UCSB Solid State Lighting Energy Center through 2017 as a Project Scientist. Erin is currently in the role of Device Scientist at Apple, developing new display technologies.
Asmita Patel
Deputy Division Director
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Asmita Patel is the Deputy Division Director, Operations in the Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Asmita earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at UC-Riverside and conducted postdoctoral research at UC-Santa Barbara. In the course of over 16 years in biotech, healthcare, and diagnostics in the private sector, she started her career as a scientist in the lab and transitioned to research support functions, including strategy planning, business operations, financial management and communications. As she progressed through leadership positions, Asmita also earned an executive MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley. This new career path led her to Berkeley Lab and to her principal role during the last several years: leading a multifunctional team that provides the business and support functions for a research division, including strategic planning; financial management; proposal development and submission; administrative services; operations management; environment, safety and health; outreach and education; and communications.
Christina Babbitt
Senior Manager
Environmental Defense Fund
Christina Babbitt manages the California Groundwater Program at Environmental Defense Fund where she is working to advance and scale replicable groundwater sustainability pilot projects across California’s Central Valley. Christina holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln; a M.Sc. in Environmental Science and Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems from Florida International University; and B.A. in International Relations from Rollins College.
Jenna Tosh
President & CEO
Planned Parenthood California Central Coast
Jenna Tosh has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Florida, a Master of Arts in Political Science/Public Policy Analysis, and a Ph.D. in Public Affairs/Governance and Policy Research, both from the University of Central Florida. She began working at Planned Parenthood in 2005 as the Director of Education & Advocacy of Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando. She eventually held the position of CEO of that organization. She has been the CEO of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast for five years.
Aaron Marshall
Chief Operating Officer
Santa Barbara Zoo
Aaron Marshall has graduate degrees in Philosophy (MA) and Education (PhD) and he is currently the Chief Operating Officer for the Santa Barbara Zoo. He also teaches adjunct courses for University of Miami and Westmont College, consults/coaches executives and team, and writes children’s fiction.
Julie Maldonado
Director of Research
Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network
Julie Maldonado’s doctorate is in public anthropology, and she currently serves as the Associate Director for the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN), a link-tank for policy-relevant research toward post-carbon livelihoods and communities. In this role, she is the co-director of the Rising Voices: Climate Resilience through Indigenous and Earth Sciences program, which facilitates intercultural approaches for understanding and adapting to extreme weather and climate events, variability, and change. She also works with the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals as an instructor and facilitator to support tribes’ climate change adaptation planning. She is a lecturer in UCSB’s Environmental Studies Program and for Future Generations University.
Michael McCourt
Data Scientist
Invoca
Michael McCourt studied astrophysics as a PhD student, and continued working in the field for 3 years as a postdoc before making the jump to the tech industry. Now he works for a great startup in downtown Santa Barbara! His current role is to lead the R&D efforts behind their AI technology.
Rebecca Reitz
Senior Associate & Data Scientist
KPMG US
Rebecca Reitz is a Data Scientist in the KPMG’s Lighthouse group whose current project involves natural language processing in tax applications. She completed her PhD in Materials at UCSB in 2018, defending her thesis just after completing the Insight Data Science Bootcamp in Seattle.
Tristin Beckman
Data Scientist
Eventbrite
Tristin did a PhD in political science with an emphasis in quantitative methods in the social sciences (QMSS) and an MA in economics at UCSB. Then he did a post-doctoral fellowship in political economy and experimental research at Oxford. He is now a senior data scientist at Eventbrite in San Francisco. Some projects at Eventbrite have been to build a generalized forecasting tool to predict variables such as revenue, paid tickets sold and acquisitions; building a price recommendation system for diverse event creators; using natural experiments to measure the impact of price changes.
Kim Schlesinger
Lead Data Scientist
RealSelf
Kim earned her PhD in Physics from UCSB, where she did research using network modeling, simulation, and statistics to detect and understand patterns in human brain activity. In 2017, she transitioned to a data science career through the Insight Data Science program in Seattle. She is currently Lead Data Scientist at RealSelf, where she leads a team that uses data and modeling to help bring relevant information about medical aesthetic procedures and doctors to the public.
Allison Shapiro
Data Scientist
Evidation Health
Allison Shapiro completed a PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences at UCSB in June 2019. Afterwards, she began her current job as a data scientist at Evidation, here in Santa Barbara. She currently analyzes data from large-scale research projects that combine behavioral data from wearable devices (e.g. fitness trackers) with self-report measures (e.g. survey responses) to measure health outcomes.
Nick Fichtenbaum
Co-Founder and VP of Engineering
Navitas Semiconductor
Nick Fichtenbaum is a co-founder and Vice President of Engineering at Navitas Semiconductor and brings with him 15 years of experience developing GaN materials and devices. Prior to Navitas, Nick was a VP at the private investment firm Malibu IQ, which led to the creation of Navitas. As an early employee of Transphorm, Nick served as both a member of the technical staff and manager of materials engineering where he developed the GaN on Si epi technology. Nick has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles based upon his GaN research and been awarded 20 patents related to GaN power electronics. Nick holds a BA in physics from Denison University, a BS in electrical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Aaron Marshall
Chief Operating Officer
Santa Barbara Zoo
Aaron Marshall has graduate degrees in Philosophy (MA) and Education (PhD) and he is currently the Chief Operating Officer for the Santa Barbara Zoo. He also teaches adjunct courses for University of Miami and Westmont College, consults/coaches executives and team, and writes children’s fiction.
Mark Kram
Chief Technology Officer
Groundswell Technologies
Dr. Mark Kram earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), an M.S. degree in Geology from San Diego State University, and his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from UCSB. Dr. Kram is the Founder and CTO for Groundswell Technologies, Inc., a group specializing in automated Cloud based monitoring and modeling of environmental sensor and analytical instrumentation networks. Groundswell is an outgrowth of Dr. Kram’s inventions while at UCSB to integrate Geographical Information Systems with environmental sensors and automated geospatial processing and response.
Louis Perez
VP of Technologies
Apeel Sciences
Lou leads the Technical Division here at Apeel. Lou completed his PhD studies in Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, advised by Profs. Guillermo C. Bazan and Edward J. Kramer. He was awarded several fellowships during his graduate studies, the NSF GRFP, NSF IGERT, and GEM, and was nominated for a graduate student award from the Materials Research Society. Lou’s PhD work focused on the molecular design, synthesis and structure-property relationships of innovative, functional materials for applications in organic electronics.
Jessica Berlow
Foreign Service Officer
U.S. Department of State
Jessica Berlow is a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, focused primarily on political issues in the Asia-Pacific region. She has worked overseas in Pakistan, China, and Japan; and in Washington, DC, including her current assignment covering U.S.-India relations. Jessica is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She began her career in public service as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF), and first discovered her love of international affairs as a university student and Fulbright Fellow in Japan.
Joel Day
Department Director
City of San Diego
Dr. Joel Day has over 15 years of global and local public policy experience, currently serving as an advisor and director on international relations, civic engagement, hate crimes, extremism, and homeland security issues at the City of San Diego. Day is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. Day’s work on counterterrorism and violence prevention has appeared in Politics and Religion, Review of Faith in International Affairs, Small Wars Journal, Foreign Policy, Journal of Peace Research, Perspectives on Terrorism. In politics, Day has worked on citywide, state, congressional, and presidential campaigns as a policy advisor. Day holds a PhD from the University of Denver and is a Lecturer in Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California San Diego.
Tanya Das
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. She covers a range of issues in energy policy including manufacturing emissions, grid modernization, energy storage, and technology transfer. Prior to joining the Committee, she was an AAAS Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Chris Coons where she supported the Senator’s work on advancing U.S. economic competitiveness. Tanya has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Jonathan Abboud
General Manager
Isla Vista Community Services District
Jonathan Abboud is a UCSB graduate with a BA in political science and a Masters in Technology Management. He helped form the Isla Vista Community Services District where he is currently serving as the General Manager. In addition, he is also an elected member of the SBCC Board of Trustee.
Garrett Glasgow
Associate Director
NERA Economic Consulting
Garrett Glasgow received his Ph.D. in the Social Sciences from Caltech in 1999. After a 1 year postdoc at Harvard, he then worked as a professor in the UCSB Political Science Department from 2000 to 2014. He is now an Associate Director at NERA Economic Consulting, where he works as a litigation consultant specializing in environmental, consumer protection, antitrust, and intellectual property cases.
Katherine Nelson
Communication Consultant
InGenius Prep
Katherine completed her PhD in Linguistics at Rice University in 2013 and was then an instructional assistant professor at Illinois State University teaching linguistic theory and the intersection of language, culture, identity, and education. She served as the language curriculum developer for a language revitalization project for an American indigenous tribe and as a consultant for an international education prep company, where she also developed and managed an online English Communication Course.
Michael-James Hey
Oil and Gas Consultant
MJ & Anne Hey Consulting LLC
Petroleum/Reservoir Engineer with BP promoted to VP level running corporate strategy & performance. Took early retirement now running own consulting LLC whilst lecturing on TMP MTM program and TMP120, manages wealth, retirement & property portfolios.
Sarah Shivers
Research Scientist Specialist
McKinsey & Company
Sarah Shivers received her PhD in Geography from UCSB in March 2019. In April she moved to Denver, CO and started a position as a data scientist at McKinsey & Company as part of the ACRE team which does advanced analytical work for agricultural-related clients.
Jai Ranganathan
Director
SciFund Challenge
Jai Ranganathan is an ecologist (Ph.D. Biological Sciences, Stanford University) and a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Through the organization SciFund Challenge, Jai trains and supports researchers in their science engagement; he also researches the links between science outreach and science funding via crowdfunding.
Danna Staaf
Author, Squid Empire
Freelance
Danna Staaf pursued her obsessions with octopuses, art and literature at UCSB’s College of Creative Studies in the early 2000’s, then went on to earn a doctorate in marine biology from Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in 2010. Since then she’s been working as a freelance science writer, cartoonist, and public speaker. Her first book, Squid Empire, was one of NPR’s best science books of 2017, and now she’s writing a middle-grade biography of the little-known female scientist who invented aquariums in the 1830’s.
Caroline Corner
Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst
Westwicke
Caroline Corner has a PhD in Bioengineering (Cornell, ’03) which she used to become a medical technology analyst in investment banking. After 12 years of that, she moved over to her current role to do investor relations and IPO advisory for medical device and diagnostic companies.
Eric Dew
Operating Partner
Enter Capital
BS in Math and Nuclear Engineering at UCSB, 1985. PhD in Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, 1991. Worked at various high-tech companies including NeXT, SUN Microsystems, Handspring. Currently consulting with startups to help them achieve traction and funding.