2026 Symposium: Science at a Crossroads

The Honorable Sethuraman Panchanathan served as the 15th Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2020-2025. He is a leader in the fields of science, engineering, and education, with more than three decades of experience in higher education and government. During his tenure as director of NSF, he established the first new directorate in 31 years, the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, aimed at delivering "Innovation Everywhere for Everyone" by accelerating the translation of science and technology for economic progress, national security, and societal impact. He also pioneered the GRANTED program to democratize participation and access to research and education investments from the NSF. Panchanathan currently serves as the University Professor of Technology and Innovation and Foundation Chair in Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University, where he has held a faculty appointment since 1997.

M. Anthony Mills is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Technology, Science, and Energy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He studies the federal government’s role in science and innovation, the relationship between scientific expertise and democratic governance, and the ethics of science and technology. Dr. Mills is concurrently associate professor of the practice at the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame. Additionally, he is a senior fellow at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, an affiliated scholar of Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, a scholar associate of the Society of Catholic Scientists, and a member of the Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Seth Masket is a professor of political science at the University of Denver. He is the author of Learning from Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020 (Cambridge, 2020), as well as the forthcoming The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders (Cambridge 2026) and several other books on political parties, reform movements, and election narratives. He studies political parties, campaigns and elections, and state legislatures, and has been published in such journals as the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and the Quarterly Journal of Political Science.

He holds a bachelors degree from UC Berkeley and a doctorate from UCLA. He was the Senior Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University in 2024-25. He writes occasionally for Politico, the L.A. Times, NBC.com, and other publications, and maintains the popular Substack newsletter "Tusk.” 

Cristin Dorgelo works at the intersection of government capacity and the future of U.S. research and innovation. She served in the Office of Management and Budget as Senior Advisor for Management during the Biden Administration. Cristin was previously the President and CEO of the Association of Science and Technology Centers, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, a founding team member with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Governance Project, and a Visiting Fellow at Northeastern University’s Burnes Center for Social Change. She served in the Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama Administration as Chief of Staff and Assistant Director for Grand Challenges. 

Prior to her government service, Cristin was Vice President of Prize Operations for the XPRIZE Foundation, a nonprofit that uses large-scale incentive competitions to crowdsource technology solutions. She helped launch several startup companies at the longest-running technology incubator, Idealab, including as part of the founding team of X1 Technologies. Cristin began her career in operations at the Los Angeles Times and organizational development at Times Mirror, then a major newspaper and print media publisher. 

She holds a BA in history with a minor in anthropology from UCLA. She has served on national and international advisory boards including the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, the NASA Advisory Council STEM Engagement Committee, and the International Science Council Committee for Science Planning.

Justin Milner leads a cross-cutting portfolio at Arnold Ventures focused on evidence-based policy and evaluation. His team oversees research investments to move promising social interventions along the evidence continuum, increase the effectiveness of social spending by scaling what works, and work to embed evidence into policymaking processes.

Justin brings over 20 years of experience focused on the intersection of research, policy, and impact in the non-profit, philanthropic, and public sectors. Prior to joining Arnold Ventures, he was vice president of the Research to Action Lab at the Urban Institute, where he directed a team of 40+ staff and led strategy development, program innovation and design, and day-to-day management. At Urban, Justin also served as principal investigator for a range of projects, launched and hosted the organization’s podcast, and published research featured in The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Atlantic’s CityLab, GovExec, and Huffington Post. In previous roles, Justin worked at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and as a kindergarten teacher in Los Angeles through Teach For America. He holds a master’s degree of public administration from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.

Dan Powers is the Executive Director of CO-LABS, a Colorado non-profit consortium of over 30 federally funded research labs, joint research university institutes, technology companies, and economic development organizations that nurture and champion Colorado as a global leader in scientific research and technology. He joined CO-LABS in 2016 with over 25 years of experience in policy assessment and public engagement for both government agencies and economic development organizations. Previously, he was the Director of the Society for Science at User Research Facilities (SSURF). His work champions how taxpayer-funded scientific research is the taproot of innovation necessary to address America’s national challenges and maintain global leadership. 

Jesus Salazar is a 6th-generation Coloradan and the Co-Founder and CEO of Pico AI, a technology company using artificial intelligence to transform how we manage and sustain our commercial buildings. A seasoned technology executive with over 20 years of experience, Jesus has led software engineering and technology strategy initiatives for major global enterprises, including Microsoft, Amgen, and Yamaha. Before founding Pico, he founded and serves as Chairman of Prosono, a social impact consulting firm named the 2019 "Startup of the Year" by the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce.

Deeply committed to the intersection of science, education, and public policy, Jesus holds key governance roles in organizations shaping the region's future. He serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees for the Colorado School of Mines, a premier R1 research university driving innovation in earth, energy, and the environment. His civic leadership includes serving as Vice Chair of Pinnacol Assurance, an Independent Director for Empower Mutual Funds, and a founding board member of Elevate Quantum. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and serves as an Advisor to the Institute of Science & Policy. Previously, he was a board member of Energize Colorado, supporting the state's small business ecosystem. Additionally, he holds the title of Chairman Emeritus for several prominent organizations, including Rocky Mountain Public Media, Colorado Succeeds, and others. Jesus brings a unique perspective to his work, as his career spans the public, private, and philanthropic sectors, giving him a broad understanding of how society functions at large.

Scott Shigeoka is an internationally recognized curiosity expert, TED speaker, and the award-winning author of. His work focuses on how we can strengthen our well-being and relationships, including as a Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and as the Head of Curiosity Cultivation at the Eames Institute. He is also a playwright and artist. 

Vanessa Otero is the Founder and CEO of Ad Fontes Media, a company renowned for its innovative approach to assessing news bias and reliability. Otero's journey began with the creation of the Media Bias Chart in 2016, which quickly gained traction for its insightful categorization of news sources. This chart laid the groundwork for Ad Fontes Media, established in 2018, with a mission to rate all the news and positively transform society. Otero's leadership at At Fontes Media is marked by her commitment to bridging political divides and fostering informed communities. Her efforts have been pivotal in encouraging advertisers to invest in news media, emphasizing the importance of supporting reliable journalism as a cornerstone of democracy. 

Waleed Abdalati is Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU-Boulder). Research at CIRES, which is an institute of CU-Boulder that has partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for more than 55 years, focuses on understanding the physical, chemical, biological, and social aspects of the Earth’s environment at time scales that range from minutes to millennia, and spatial scales that range from the microscopic to global. Dr. Abdalati is also a Professor in CU-Boulder’s Geography Department. His own research focuses on the use of satellites and aircraft to understand how Earth's glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice are changing and the implications of those changes for the Earth System. Dr. Abdalati spent 14 years working for NASA in various research and leadership capacities, most recently as NASA Chief Scientist. In this role, he advised the NASA Administrator on matters related to NASA’s science programs and strategic planning and served as the key NASA science interface to the White House, Congress, and other federal agencies.  He has served on various National Academy of Sciences committees, most recently chairing the Earth Science and Applications from Space Decadal Survey.  Dr. Abdalati earned a B.S. from Syracuse University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from The University of Colorado Boulder.

Kelly Brough has deep expertise in the public, private and non-profit sectors with specific expertise in economic development, workforce development, life sciences, healthcare, housing, public policy/regulation, and energy. She currently serves as the President and CEO of Fitzsimons Innovation Community in Aurora, Colorado, a campus where innovative health and life sciences companies conduct research to cure diseases, save lives, and improve care.

In prior roles, Kelly served as the President and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce with almost 3,000 members. She also served as Chief of Staff to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, where she was responsible for over 12,000 employees and over $2 billion in budgets.

She currently serves as a director on the boards for History Colorado, The Denver Foundation and the Colorado Bioscience Association. In her career, she has served on a number of boards including: Delta Dental of Colorado, the US Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, Haselden Construction, The Denver Zoo, and Colorado Mesa University board of trustees.

Kelly holds an MBA from the University of Colorado - Denver. She attended Harvard Business School programs on the Role of Directors on Public Traded Boards and Making Corporate Boards More Effective. She has been a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) for more than 10 years.

Lu’s background spans government, industry, and nonprofit work throughout her career. In government, she works with Colorado Governor Jared Polis on Strategic Planning and Projects, currently heading the Global Energy Business Park. Formerly, she headed the Colorado Department of Revenue and was a finance advisor to the Governor of Wyoming. She was Chairman of our district Federal Reserve Bank and was appointed and served for three terms on the Business Research Advisory Council of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In industry, she’s a five-time CEO/President, navigating companies through start-up phase to maturity and international scope. Since 2000, she has been the CEO of Corlund Industries, a diversified international holding company. She also serves on public company boards, most recently the Kansas City Southern Railroad which just completed a $31B merger, the largest in transportation history, with Canadian Pacific Railroad. She also served on the Board of Euronet Worldwide, an international payments company. She was CEO of Acteva, and has held C-level roles at @Home Network (Excite@Home), McGraw-Hill Standard & Poors, and Money Market Services International.

Her nonprofit work includes chairing CTEK, a global nonprofit breaking down barriers to entrepreneurship worldwide. She serves on the Research Advisory Council for CU Boulder, and has served on multiple local and international entrepreneurship foundation boards. She completed both undergraduate and graduate work in economics at Berkeley.

Massimo Ruzzene, Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Dean of the Institutes at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has led the campus research enterprise since 2022, initially in an acting capacity before being formally appointed in March 2023.

Previously, Ruzzene was associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU Boulder. Ruzzene is the Slade Professor of Mechanical Engineering and holds a joint appointment in the Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department.

He joined CU Boulder in the summer of 2019, after serving as the Pratt and Whitney Professor in the Schools of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.  Ruzzene received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) in 1999 and is author of 2 books, more than 200 journal papers and 280 conference papers.  Most of his current and past research work has focused on solid mechanics, structural dynamics and wave propagation with application to structural health monitoring, metamaterials, and vibration and noise control. 

Ruzzene is a Fellow of ASME and SES, an Associate Fellow of AIAA, and a member of AHS, and ASA.

Bina Venkataraman is an editorial leader, journalist, and science & innovation policy expert whose leadership roles have spanned The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and the White House. She is the author of , named a top business book by The Financial Times and a best book of the year by National Public Radio.  Bina served as Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe from 2019-2022. During her tenure, the Globe penned two Pulitzer finalist series in editorial writing and forged a historic partnership with Boston University. She then became The Washington Post's inaugural columnist of the future and the first Editor-at-Large for strategy and innovation on the Post’s masthead, roles she held until August 2025. She teaches courses on science, technology, and society at MIT and has also taught graduate student classes at the Harvard Kennedy School.