James O'Brien Senior Vice President of University Affairs and Chief of Staff to President Michael Crow, Arizona State University
Anne-Marie Slaughter President and Chief Executive Officer, New America
The Future of War Conference brings together a collection of experts to address key issues and challenges arising from the changing nature of conflict and war. The conference is a part of initiative linking New America, a nonpartisan research public policy institute and civic enterprise, and Arizona State University, one of the nation’s largest public research universities.
Registration for this event has now closed. On-site registration will open at 8:00 a.m. Please bring a business card with you to register.
James O'Brien Senior Vice President of University Affairs and Chief of Staff to President Michael Crow, Arizona State University
Anne-Marie Slaughter President and Chief Executive Officer, New America
General Mark Milley Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army
Aric Toler Contributing Writer, RuNet Echo, Global Voices
Maj. Gen. Maggie Woodward, Retired Former Director of the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office of the Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force and former Commander of the 17th Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Africa
Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle Principal Deputy Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, Office of the Secretary of Defense and former Deputy Commandant for Aviation, U.S. Marine Corps
Lt. Gen. Rusty Findley, Retired Former Vice Commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base and former Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, U.S. Central Command
Lt. Gen. Ben Freakley, Retired Former Commanding General, United States Army Accessions Command and former Commanding General, 10th Mountain Division
Moderated by Kevin Baron Executive Editor, Defense One
Abdalaziz Alhamza Co-founder, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently
Major Joe Byerly Founding Member, Military Writer's Guild
Vivian Salama Deputy U.S. Political Editor and former Baghdad Bureau Chief, Associated Press
Sharon Weinberger National Security Reporter The Intercept
Moderated by Tom Ricks Senior Advisor to the International Security Program, New America and Contributing Editor, Foreign Policy magazine
Rosa Brooks Senior Future of War Fellow, New America/ASU
Dr. Rob Johnson Director, Oxford Changing Character of War Programme
Moderated by Daniel Rothenberg Co-Director ASU/New America Future of War Program
Sir Lawrence Freedman Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London
Moderated by Peter Bergen Vice President, New America
General Robert B. Neller Commandant of the Marine Corps
Dr. George Poste Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems and Regents' Professor and Del E. Webb Chair in Health Innovation at Arizona State University
Rania Abouzeid Fellow, New America and Journalist
Janine di Giovanni Middle East Editor, Newsweek and author, The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches From Syria
Nir Rosen Special Advisor, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue
Michael Semple Former Deputy to the European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan
Moderated by Jeffrey Eggers Senior Fellow, New America and former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Andrew Herr Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Helicase LLC and Mind Plus Matter LLC and Adjunct Professor of Security Studies, Georgetown University
Captain Brent Chapman Army Silicon Valley Cyber Liaison and Army Element of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx)
Captain Frederick "Erick" Waage Cyber Officer and Research Scientist, The Army Cyber Institute at West Point
Admiral John M. Richardson Chief of Naval Operations
Dr. Fotini Christia Associate Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Christian Davenport Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster Director, Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General, Futures, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
Dr. Will H. Moore Professor in the School of Politics & Global Studies and affiliated faculty with the Center on the Future of War, Arizona State University
Moderated by Dr. Erin Simpson Chief Executive Officer, Caerus Associates
Dr. David Kilcullen Founder and Chairman, Caerus Global Solutions and ASU Senior Future of War Fellow, New America
T. Gibbons-Neff Staff Writer, Washington Post and former infantryman, U.S. Marine Corps
Nir Rosen Special Advisor, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue
Dr. Nadia Schadlow Senior Program Officer, Smith Richardson Foundation
Moderated by Dr. Douglas Ollivant Senior Future of War Fellow, New America and Managing Partner, Mantid International
Major Karen Courington Manager Product Data Operations, Facebook and Major, Air Force Reserves
Alan Easterling Corporate Director, Northrop Grumman
Dr. Lynne Parker Division Director, Information and Intelligent Systems, National Science Foundation and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee
Dr. Fran Zenzen Chief Operating Officer, Arizona State University Research Enterprise
Moderated by Sharon Burke Senior Fellow, New America
Fellow, New America and Journalist
Rania Abouzeid is an independent journalist based in Beirut. She has reported from the Middle East and South Asia for over a decade and is currently a New America Fellow and a writer in residence at the Carey Institute. Her work has appeared in TIME magazine, The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, National Geographic, Politico, and other outlets, both print and television.
Co-founder, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently
Abdalaziz Alhamza is a co-founder and a spokesperson for Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a Syrian citizen journalist collective and one of the few independent news sources that continues to report from inside the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital. He was arrested by the Syrian regime three times in 2012 when he helped organize nonviolent protests and acted as a media activist during the early days of the uprising against Assad.
Executive Editor, Defense One
Kevin Baron is executive editor of Defense One. He is also a national security/military analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Baron has covered the military, the Pentagon, Congress, and politics for Foreign Policy, National Journal, and Stars and Stripes. He previously ran investigative projects for five years at the Boston Globe’s Washington bureau, and cut his teeth at the Center for Public Integrity.
New America Vice President
Peter Bergen is a print, television, and web journalist, an award-winning documentary producer and author or editor of seven books, three of which were New York Times best sellers. He is vice president at New America, CNN’s national security analyst, a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University where he co-directs the Center on the Future of War, a fellow at Fordham University’s Center on National Security, and has held teaching positions at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins.
Senior Future of War Fellow, New America/ASU
Rosa Brooks is a senior fellow at New America. She works with the ASU Future of War project, writing about the changing nature of warfare, the changing role of the U.S. military. A professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Brooks served as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and as Special Coordinator for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy in the Pentagon from 2009-2011.
New America Fellow and former Assistant Secretary of Defense
Sharon Burke is a senior advisor to New America, where she focuses on international security and the security implications of energy, climate change, and other natural resource challenges. Before joining New America, Burke served in the Obama administration as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy from 2010-2014. She holds a B.A. from Williams College and M.A. from Columbia University.
Founding Member, Military Writer's Guild
Joe Byerly is an active duty Army officer and founding member of the Military Writers Guild. He has commanded a cavalry troop in Iraq and a headquarters company at Fort Stewart, Georgia. He frequently writes about leadership and leader development on his website www.FromtheGreenNotebook.com. He holds a B.A. from North Georgia College and State University and M.A. from the U.S. Naval War College.
Army Silicon Valley Cyber Liaison and Army Element of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx)
Cpt. Brent Chapman is a member of the Army Silicon Valley Cyber LNO Team and Army representative to the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) at Moffett Field, California. He joined the Army as a cryptanalyst before attending West Point as a cadet. A former Signal Officer and Network Engineer (FA24), he recently made the transition to the Army’s Cyber branch. In addition to having several industry certifications, he also holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy and M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Associate Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Fotini Christia is an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT. She has done extensive ethnographic, survey, and experimental fieldwork on ethnicity, conflict, and development in divided societies with a focus on the Muslim world. Her recent research projects have been in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.
Manager Product Data Operations, Facebook and Major, Air Force Reserves
Maj. Karen Courington is the Manager for Product Data Operations within Facebook’s Community Operations organization. Previously, Karen served as Senior Defense Policy Advisor to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and has consulted for LinkedIn and Deutsche Bank. She is a Major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and a former active duty C-17 pilot. She is a Truman National Security Fellow and CFR Term Member. She has a B.A. from the University of Virginia and M.S.F.S. from Georgetown University.
Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
Dr. Christian Davenport is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan as well as a Faculty Associate at the Center for Political Studies and Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. His primary research interests include political conflict (e.g., human rights violations, genocide/politicide, torture, political surveillance, civil war, and social movements), measurement, racism, and popular culture. He co-directs the Conflict Consortium and is the author of four books, including How Social Movements Die: Repression and Demobilization of the Republic of New Africa (2014) and Media Bias, Perspective and State Repression: The Black Panther Party (2010).
Middle East Editor, Newsweek and author, The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches From Syria
Janine di Giovanni is the Middle East editor of Newsweek and the Pakis Scholar at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she is concentrating on Track 2 Diplomacy, International Law, and International Security. She is also a non-resident International Security Fellow at New America, and an Associate Fellow at The Geneva Centre for Security Policy, where she moderates their geopolitical debate series. She is a frequent moderator of high-level panels and an analyst on foreign policy at conferences for the World Bank, the UN, Harvard, Princeton, the LSE, the World Economic Forum and other institutions.
Corporate Director, Northrop Grumman
Cpt. Crawford Alan Easterling III (Ret.) is a member of the Corporate Strategy Group at Northrop Grumman where he conducts strategic planning, supports the Corporate Policy Council, Corporate Technology Council, Strategic Development Council, and serves as corporate strategy liaison with the Mission Systems Sector. Before joining the Corporate Strategy Group, he was the director of Strategic Development for Advanced Programs and Technology (AP&T) at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.
Senior Fellow, New America and former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Jeffrey W. Eggers is a senior fellow at New America researching concepts to enhance performance in public policy toward the renewal of American prosperity. Eggers transitioned out of public service in May 2015, having served at the White House for six years under two Presidents, most recently as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He is now founder and CEO of a strategic advisory firm specializing in organizational leadership and performance. He has a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy and M.A. from Oxford.
Former Vice Commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base and former Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, U.S. Central Command
Lt. Gen. Vern M. “Rusty” Findley II (Ret.) served as Vice Commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois from 2008 until 2011. Gen. Findley earned his Air Force commission in 1976 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at Arizona State University. He has held numerous operational positions, to include command of the 437th Airlift Wing, Charleston AFB, S.C., and 319th Air Refueling Wing, Grand Forks AFB, N.D. During Operation Allied Force, the air war over Serbia, he commanded the 92nd Air Expeditionary Wing, headquartered in Spain.
Former Commanding General, United States Army Accessions Command and former Commanding General, 10th Mountain Division
Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley (Ret.) serves as the Professor of Practice of Leadership for Arizona State University and as Special Advisor to ASU President Michael Crow for Leadership Initiatives. Additionally, he serves at The McCain Institute for International Leadership. He recently retired from the U.S. Army after more than 36 years of active military service, serving as Commanding General, U.S. Army Accessions Command, at the time of his retirement. He has a B.S. from West Point and a Master of Military Art and Science Degree from the School of Advanced Military Studies.
Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King’s College London
Sir Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King’s College London since 1982, and Vice-Principal since 2003. Before joining King’s College, he held research appointments at Nuffield College Oxford, IISS, and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, Freedman was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997.
Staff Writer, Washington Post and former infantryman, U.S. Marine Corps
Thomas Gibbons-Neff is a staff writer for the Washington Post. Based in Washington, D.C., Gibbons-Neff reports on conflict in the Middle East and the Ukraine. His work has also been published in the At War blog of the New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME, and others. A former Marine infantryman, he served two combat tours in Afghanistan and has also written about about his combat experience. He has a B.A. from Georgetown University.
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Helicase LLC and Mind Plus Matter LLC and Adjunct Professor of Security Studies, Georgetown University
Andrew Herr founded and leads Helicase and Mind Plus Matter, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University. Prior to his current positions, Herr was the Principal Investigator for Defense & Human Performance at Scitor Corporation, regularly taught courses on optimizing performance to U.S. government civilians preparing for deployment to Afghanistan, and worked with U.S. government agencies in a variety of capacities, ranging from policy development to prototype design and testing.
Director, Oxford Changing Character of War Programme
Dr. Rob Johnson is the Director of the Oxford Changing Character of War Programme, Senior Research Fellow of Pembroke College, and Associate of the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. Dr. Johnson’s areas of focus are in war, strategy and strategic thinking, and conflict in Southwest and Central Asia. Johnson’s primary research interests are in strategy, its development, and the history of war which informs it. His regional interests are in Afghanistan, South Asia, and the Middle East. Johnson is a member of the advisory panel of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, lecturer for the Royal College of Defence Studies, and the director of ‘insight and understanding’ programs for UK and U.S. Special Operational Forces and Security Services.
Founder and Chairman, Caerus Global Solutions and ASU Senior Future of War Fellow, New America
Dr. David Kilcullen is Founder and Chairman of Caerus Global Solutions, a strategic research and design firm that helps governments, global institutions, businesses, and communities build resilience in conflict, disaster-affected, and post-conflict environments. He is also the Founder and Chairman of First Mile Geo, a tech startup that pioneers open, online cloud-based platforms for collecting, analyzing, sharing, and visualizing social and spatial data. Before founding Caerus, Kilcullen served 24 years as a soldier, diplomat, and policy advisor for the Australian and U.S. governments.
Director, Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General, Futures, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster assumed duties as the Director, Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General, Futures, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command on July 15, 2014. Prior to his arrival at Fort Eustis, he most recently served as Commanding General, Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning from June 2012 to July 2014. Previously he served as Commander, Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force Shafafiyat (Transparency) in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is the author of Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam.
Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army
Gen. Mark A. Milley assumed duty as the 39th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army on August 14, 2015 after most recently serving as the 21st Commander of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He has served in command and leadership positions from the platoon and operational detachment alpha level through Corps and Army Command including the 82nd Airborne Division and the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, California; the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York; the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea; the Joint Readiness Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana; the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and the 1st Cavalry Division and 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad, Iraq.
Professor in the School of Politics & Global Studies and affiliated faculty with the Center on the Future of War, Arizona State University
Dr. Will H. Moore‘s research focuses on dissident-state interactions including human rights, coercion, protest, rebellion, repression, and terror. He joined the faculty of the School of Politics & Global Studies at Arizona State University in the fall of 2015. He previously taught at the University of California, Riverside (1991-1997) and Florida State University (1997-2015). He was a visiting research fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Center for International Peace Studies (2011-12) as well as a visiting fellow at The Institute of Quantitative and Theoretical Methods at Emory University (2015). He was the 2013-14 President of the Peace Science Society (International) and 2014-15 Vice President of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association.
Commandant of the Marine Corps
Gen. Robert B. Neller is the 37th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. Prior to his current assignment, he served as the Commander, Marine Forces Command from July 2014 to September 2015 and Commander, Marine Forces Central Command from September 2012 to June 2014. He has served as an infantry officer at all levels, including command of Marine Security Force Company Panama during Operations JUST CAUSE and PROMOTE LIBERTY.
Senior Vice President of University Affairs and Chief of Staff to President Michael Crow of Arizona State University
James O’Brien serves as Senior Vice President of University Affairs and Chief of Staff to President Michael Crow of Arizona State University. He is responsible for implementing complicated strategic and tactical objectives of the Office of the President. He is an attorney who previously worked as corporate counsel to several publicly traded companies as well as in private practice. He has also worked in public affairs at the state and federal levels. He received a B.A. from Iowa State University and a J.D. from Drake University.
Senior Future of War Fellow, New America and Managing Partner, Mantid International
Dr. Douglas Ollivant is an ASU Future of War senior fellow at New America. He is writing a book on hybrid warfare. He is also a managing partner of the strategic consulting firm Mantid International. A retired Army officer, he spent a total of three years deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, both in uniform and as a contractor, and was Director for Iraq at the National Security Council during both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Division Director, Information and Intelligent Systems, National Science Foundation and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee
Dr. Lynne E. Parker is the Division Director for the Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) Division in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the National Science Foundation. She is at NSF on leave (since Jan. 2015) from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). She has been on the UTK faculty since 2002, and served as Associate Head of the EECS Department from 2010-2014. Parker is the founder and director of the Distributed Intelligence Laboratory at UTK, which performs research in multi-robot systems, sensor networks, machine learning, and human-robot interaction.
Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems and Regents' Professor and Del E. Webb Chair in Health Innovation at Arizona State University
Dr. George Poste is Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative (CASI), Regents’ Professor and Del E. Webb Chair in Health Innovation at Arizona State University. He assumed this post in February 2009. He serves on the Board of Directors of Monsanto, Exelixis, Caris Life Sciences and Scientific Advisory Boards at the University of Michigan, Synthetic Genomics and Haplogen GmbH.
Chief of Naval Operations
Adm. John Richardson is the 31st Chief of Naval Operations, serving since September 18, 2015. At sea, he served on the USS Parche (SSN 683), USS George C. Marshall (SSBN 654), and USS Salt Lake City (SSN 716). He commanded the USS Honolulu (SSN 718) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He holds a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and National Security Strategy from the National War College.
Senior Advisor to the International Security Program, New America and Contributing Editor, Foreign Policy magazine
Tom Ricks is Senior Advisor on National Security at New America’s International Security Program. As a reporter, he was a member of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes for national reporting at the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He writes The Best Defense blog for Foreign Policy magazine. He is the author of five books about the U.S. military, among them Fiasco and Making the Corps.
Special Advisor, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue
Nir Rosen is a researcher who has worked in the Middle East since 2003 as an author and NGO worker. He has spent most of the last 13 years in Iraq and Syria but has also worked in Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Turkey, Somalia, Turkey, Pakistan, and elsewhere. He is the author of In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq and Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World. He is a former New America Fellow and a graduate of American University.
Co-Director New America/ASU Future of War Project
Daniel Rothenberg is Co-Director of the Center on the Future of War and an Arizona State University Future of War Fellow. He is writing a book on the economic, political, and social costs of the post-9/11 wars. Rothenberg is currently Professor of Practice in the School of Politics and Global Studies and the Lincoln Fellow for Ethics and International Human Rights Law at ASU. He is the co-editor, with Peter Bergen, of Drone Wars: Transforming Conflict, Law and Policy.
Deputy U.S. Political Editor and former Baghdad Bureau Chief, The Associated Press
Vivian Salama is The Associated Press’ Deputy U.S. Political Editor and previously served as the wire service’s Baghdad Bureau Chief. Salama has worked as both a television and print journalist, with more than a decade of experience covering the Middle East. For more than a decade, she reported from three continents, covering stories that include Egypt’s historic presidential election, the Arab Spring, the resurgence of violence in Iraq, drone deaths in Yemen, oil wars in East Africa and the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan. She entered North Korea via its hostile border with South Korea, and has taken several trips to China to cover its economic boom.
Senior Program Officer, Smith Richardson Foundation
Dr. Nadia Schadlow is a Senior Program Officer at the Smith Richardson Foundation. She plays a strategic planning role and manages programs to develop the intellectual foundation for more effective U.S. foreign and defense policies. She writes on national security matters and her articles have appeared in War on the Rocks, Parameters, The American Interest, the Wall Street Journal, Philanthropy, Armed Forces Journal, Foreign Policy, the Small Wars Journal, and several edited volumes.
Chief National Security Correspondent, CNN
Jim Sciutto is Chief National Security Correspondent for CNN, based in Washington D.C. He previously served as Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke from 2011 to 2013. Sciutto has reported from more than 50 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, including more than a dozen assignments each in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. He won Emmy awards in 2004 and 2005 for the best story in a regularly scheduled newscast, covering northern Iraq for “Iraq: Where Things Stand.”
Principal Deputy Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, Office of the Secretary of Defense and former Deputy Commandant for Aviation, USMC
Lt. Gen. Robert E. Schmidle, Jr., USMC, serves as the Principal Deputy Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Previously, as the Deputy Commandant for Aviation, he set policy and facilitated the manning, training and equipping of Marine Aviation units. His command assignments included: Commanding General of First Marine Aircraft Wing, Commanding Officer of Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Experimental, and Commanding Officer of Marine Fighter/Attack Squadrons 251 and 115.
Former Deputy to the European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan
Michael Semple is Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice, Queen’s University Belfast. He researches conflict transformation, political economy of conflict and the role of non-state armed actors, focusing on the Taliban movements of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He previously served in Afghanistan as deputy to the European Union Special Representative and as a United Nations Political Officer with the United Nations mission was part of the team that installed the post-Taliban regime. Semple is an alumnus of UWC Atlantic College.
Chief Executive Officer, Caerus Associates
Dr. Erin Simpson is the Chief Executive Officer of Caerus Associates and is a leading specialist in research design and analysis in complex environments. She has lectured extensively on applied social science, “big data” design, forecasting, and the role of intelligence in irregular warfare at DARPA, the Joint Special Operations University (JSOU), Defense Intelligence Agency, MIT’s Lincoln Labs, Google Ideas, Penn State, Georgetown, and the University of Pennsylvania.
New America Strategist and Senior Fellow
Dr. Peter W. Singer is the author of multiple award-winning books, and is considered one of the world’s leading experts on 21st century security issues. He has been named by the Smithsonian Institution-National Portrait Gallery as one of the 100 leading innovators in the nation, by Defense News as one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues, and by Foreign Policy magazine to their Top 100 Global Thinkers List. Singer holds a B.A. from Princeton University and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
President and CEO, New America
Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter is the President and CEO of New America. From 2002-2009 she was the Dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. From 2009-2011 she served as Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State, the first woman to hold that position. Upon leaving the State Department she received the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award for her work leading the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. She is the author of A New World Order, The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith With Our Values in a Dangerous World, and most recently Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family.
Pentagon Correspondent, CNN
Barbara Starr is CNN’s Pentagon correspondent. She appears regularly on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, New Day, and other shows across the network, regularly breaking big news and delivering exclusive coverage on the U.S. military and politics on a global scale. Starr joined CNN in 2001 from ABC News where she had worked since 1998 as a producer for the network’s news originating from the Pentagon, providing on- and off-air reporting on military and national security affairs. While at ABC News, she won an Emmy Award as a location producer at NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain, covering the transition to the new millennium at Moscow rollover time.
Contributing Writer, RuNet Echo, Global Voices
Aric Toler is currently an editor with Bellingcat, an open source research collective. He previously worked as an intelligence specialist with Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. With Bellingcat, Aric writes, edits, researches, and translates articles, along with conducting training workshops for journalists in eastern Europe in open source investigation, verification, and digital forensics.
Cyber Officer and Research Scientist, The Army Cyber Institute at West Point
Capt. Frederick “Erick” Waage is a cyber officer and researcher at the Army Cyber Institute located at West Point, NY. Waage served with the 75th Ranger Regiment from 2010 to 2015 including multiple deployments. He most recently served as the Regiment’s Chief of Technical Operations responsible for managing and leading its Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA) programs. Waage received a B.S. from the United States Military Academy.
National Security Reporter, The Intercept
Sharon Weinberger is currently the National Security Editor at The Intercept, and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, where she is working on a project called “Black Helix: Science in the Age of Terror.” She recently completed a history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is being published by Knopf in Spring 2017. She is a longtime writer on national security issues, with a focus on science and technology. Her writing has appeared in Discover, BBC.com, Slate, Nature, Wired, the Washington Post Magazine, Foreign Policy, and the Financial Times, among other publications.
Former Director of the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office of the Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force and former Commander of the 17th Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Africa
Maj. Gen. Margaret H. Woodward (Ret.) was the Director of the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Office of the Vice Chief of Staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. She also served as Commander, 17th Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Africa. During Operation Odyssey Dawn, she served as Coalition Forces Air Component Commander. Her career includes a variety of operational and staff positions, including command at the squadron, group, wing and numbered Air Force levels. Gen. Woodward received a B.S. from Arizona State University, M.A. from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and M.A. from the National War College.
Chief Operating Officer, Arizona State University Research Enterprise
Dr. Fran Zenzen is Chief Operating Officer of the Arizona State University Research Enterprise (ASURE) overseeing all business development, research and operational functions. Zenzen has more than 30 years of experience in defense and security. Prior to joining ASURE, she was director of business development at General Dynamics, focusing on intelligence systems. Zenzen is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, Institute of Industrial Engineers, American Society of Quality, and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
Watch the full archived video of this year's conference at the links below.
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Pavilion Room
Washington, DC 20004
The conference is being held in the Pavilion Room of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. We strongly recommend entering the building through the 13 ½ Street Entrance off of Pennsylvania Avenue. We will have directional signs located throughout the building and staff wayfinders at the main entrances during registration.
Air travelers can fly into Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA), Dulles International Airport (IAD) or Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
DCA is located approximately 4 miles from the conference venue and driving without traffic should take approximately 10 minutes. IAD is located approximately 26.5 miles from the conference venue and driving without traffic should take about 45 minutes. BWI is located approximately 35.5 miles from the conference venue and driving without traffic should take just over an hour.
For more detailed driving directions to the Ronald Reagan Building, please click here. For parking information, please visit the Ronald Reagan Building website.
The nearest metro stops are Metro Center (Red Line) and Federal Triangle (Orange, Blue, and Silver Lines, connected to basement floor of the Ronald Reagan Building). For more detailed directions to the conference venue from the metro, please click here.
Registration for this event has now closed.
On-site registration will open at 8:00 a.m. Please bring a business card with you to register.