Archives: Speakers
Aileen Owens
Aileen Owens is Director of Technology and Innovation at South Fayette School District. Currently her focus is on building computational thinking and creativity in the K-12 curriculum. She is developing a scope and sequence for computational thinking through STEAM curriculum that includes problem solving, habits… Read more »
Suzy Teele
Suzy Teele is the Head of Marketing and Communications for Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM), a national public-private partnership focused on accelerating transformative robotic technologies and education to increase U.S. global manufacturing competitiveness. Prior to joining ARM, she was the COO of two local technology… Read more »
Mike Skirpan
Mike Skirpan is an ethicist, writer, artist, educator, and concerned citizen based out of Pittsburgh, PA. Currently, he serves as the executive director at Community Forge and as a special faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University. Mike received my PhD from CU-Boulder’s Department of Computer… Read more »
Mila Sanina
Mila Sanina is the executive director of PublicSource, a nonprofit newsroom which presents a bold vision for local journalism and drives social change in the Pittsburgh region through original reporting, powerful storytelling and public events. Previously, she was the deputy managing editor at the Pittsburgh… Read more »
Ryan O’Shea
Ryan O’Shea, the founder of Future Grind and the host of the Future Grind podcast, is an entrepreneur and futurist speaker from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He currently serves as an advisor and spokesman for Grindhouse Wetware, which uses technology to augment human capabilities. Ryan has produced… Read more »
Natalia Martinez-Kalanina
A verb more than a noun, Natalia embodies a Founder-in-Chief, community builder extraordinaire, and resident madrina to the many businesses, organizations, and humans she helps incubate, develop, and inspire. An organizational psychologist and technologist with degrees from Harvard and Columbia University, she is laser focused… Read more »
Ani Martinez
Ani is the Community Manager & COO for Remake Learning. She loves to create strategies, design with other network members, produce events, use her imagination, support and catalyze the work of Remake Learning and its members, and ignite and sustain relationships across the world. Her… Read more »
Sunanna Chand
Sunanna T. Chand is Director of Remake Learning. She identifies and nurtures multi-sector collaborative opportunities that provide remarkable learning experiences for youth in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Remake Learning, active since 2007, is a network of 500 organizations igniting engaging, relevant, equitable learning in… Read more »
Osman Koç
Osman Koç is a creative technologist / artist, who uses technology as a medium for expression. Directed by his curiosities, Koç’s works touch many different fields such as cybernetics, artificial intelligence, biosensors, kinetic sculptures, reactive lighting, audiovisual performances and games with alternative physical controllers. In… Read more »
Amy Blackman
Amy Blackman was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. After receiving an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University, she moved to LA. There, she discovered her career-love path, Band Management, which she did for 18 years, managing the global businesses of multi-GrammyAward winning music… Read more »
John Battelle
John Battelle is Editor in Chief and CEO of NewCo, and also Chair of sovrn Holdings, Inc., a Board Director of Acxiom, Inc., a NYSE‐listed company, and a Director at Chute Inc. Best known for his work creating media properties, John founded Federated Media Publishing… Read more »
Amir Banifatemi
Amir Banifatemi joins XPRIZE with more than 25 years of experience in development and growth of emerging and transformative technologies. At XPRIZE he is the Prize Lead of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. Prior to joining XPRIZE, Mr. Banifatemi began his career at the European… Read more »
John Balash
John Balash leads the educational outreach initiative at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. Navigating efforts throughout the K-Grad school spectrum, John aligns students with available resources to maximize their learning experiences. John has experience in developing educational content for clients ranging… Read more »