Innovation Policy Conference Speakers
The speakers at our conference on 'The Evolving Role of Universities in the American Innovation Ecosystem' include leaders and experts from universities, government, and private industry.
President
Arizona State University
Dr. Michael M. Crow is an educator, knowledge enterprise architect, science and technology policy scholar and higher education leader. He became the sixteenth president of Arizona State University in July 2002 and has spearheaded ASU’s rapid and groundbreaking transformative evolution into one of the world’s best public metropolitan research universities. As a model “New American University,” ASU simultaneously demonstrates comprehensive excellence, inclusivity representative of the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the United States, and consequential societal impact.
Lauded as the ”#1 most innovative” school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for seven straight years, ASU is a student-centric, technology-enabled university focused on global challenges. Under Crow’s leadership, ASU has established twenty-five new transdisciplinary schools, including the School of Earth and Space Exploration, the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and launched trailblazing multidisciplinary initiatives including the Biodesign Institute, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, and important initiatives in the humanities and social sciences.
Dean
Duke University School of Law
MODERATOR PANEL 1
Kerry Abrams is the James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke Dean of the School of Law and professor of law at Duke Law School. A scholar of immigration, citizenship, family, and constitutional law, Abrams is well-known for her scholarly writing on family-based migration, the legal regulation of immigrant families, and the history of immigration law. Prior to Duke Law, she served on the law faculty of the University of Virginia for thirteen years; and, more recently, as vice provost for faculty affairs, responsible university-wide for faculty policies, faculty recruitment and retention, tenure, and professional development programs for faculty. Abrams received her B.A. with highest honors from Swarthmore College and graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she was president of the Moot Court Board and the co-chair of Women of Stanford Law. After law school, she clerked for Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, practiced as a commercial litigator for several years at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP, and served as acting assistant professor of lawyering at NYU Law. She is a member of the New York State Bar and the United States Supreme Court Bar.
Associate Professor of the Practice, Watson Institute in Brown University
Dany Bahar is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Watson Institute in Brown University. An Israeli and Venezuelan economist, he is also affiliated to the Growth Lab at Harvard Center for International Development, the Brookings Institution, CESifo Group Munich and IZA Institute of Labor Economics. His research sits at the intersection of international economics and economic development, focusing on the diffusion of technology and knowledge within and across borders, as measured by productivity, structural transformation, exports, entrepreneurship and innovation, among other factors. Lately, his research has focused on migrants and refugees as drivers of this process and, more broadly, on the benefits that migrants and refugees bring to both their countries of origin and destination. Bahar holds a B.A. in systems engineering from Universidad Metropolitana (Caracas, Venezuela), an M.A. in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an M.P.A. in international development from Harvard Kennedy School, and a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University.
Faculty Co-Director
The Center for Innovation Policy at Duke Law
CO-CONVENER & MODERATOR PANEL 2
Stuart Benjamin is the Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law and co-director of The Center for Innovation Policy at Duke Law School. Benjamin is a coauthor of Internet and Telecommunication Regulation (2019) and Telecommunications Law and Policy (multiple editions), and has written numerous law review articles. He has testified before House and Senate committees as a legal expert on a range of topics. Before joining Duke, he taught at The University of Texas School of Law and the University of San Diego School of Law. Previously, Benjamin clerked for Judge William C. Canby of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter; worked in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice; worked as an associate with Professor Laurence Tribe; and served as staff attorney for the Legal Resources Centre in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He received his B.A. and J.D. from Yale University.
Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Rebecca Blank has served as chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the largest research universities in the U.S., since 2013. In her time at UW-Madison, she has presided over a major effort to expand access and improve educational outcomes, making sure that students are prepared to succeed in a rapidly changing economy. At the same time, she has worked to maintain the university’s position as a global leader in innovation and research, nurturing entrepreneurship and driving economic development. Dr. Blank is an economist who has worked in three different presidential administrations—most recently as deputy secretary and acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Obama. She holds a doctoral degree from MIT, and has served on the faculty at Princeton, Northwestern and the University of Michigan, where she was dean of the Ford School of Public Policy.
Executive Director & CEO
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
Esther Brimmer, DPhil, serves as the executive director and chief executive officer of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Dr. Brimmer’s distinguished career includes three appointments within the U.S. Department of State, serving most recently as the assistant secretary for international organization affairs from April 2009 to 2013. Prior to joining NAFSA, Dr. Brimmer was professor of practice of international affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She was also an adjunct senior fellow for international institutions at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a senior adviser at McLarty Associates. She was previously deputy director and director of research at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and was a member of the faculty. She also taught at the College of Europe in Belgium, and was a senior associate at the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. Earlier, she served on Capitol Hill as a legislative analyst for the Democratic Study Group in the U.S. House of Representatives. Immediately after earning her doctorate from Oxford University, she spent two years as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Professor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Maryann P. Feldman is the Heninger Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Kenan-Flagler Business School and a Research Director at UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Her research and teaching interests focus on the areas of innovation, the commercialization of academic research and the factors that promote technological change and economic growth. Dr. Feldman is an editor of the journal Research Policy. Dr. Feldman was the winner of the 2013 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research for her contributions to the study of the geography of innovation and the role of entrepreneurial activity in the formation of regional industry clusters. Her dissertation, Geography of Innovation, examined the spatial distribution of industrial innovation and provided an empirical model of the factors and resources that affected the production of new product innovation. Feldman’s early work revealed that universities were necessary, but not sufficient, for technology-based economic development. These findings launched a new area of investigation into university technology transfer. She has written extensively on the process and mechanics of the commercialization of academic research. Currently, she is actively engaged in researching the industrial genesis of the Research Triangle region. Feldman is a prolific writer whose work appears in numerous journals, including: Management Science, Organization Science, Research Policy, The Journal of Technology Transfer, American Economic Review, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Economic Geography, and The Brookings Papers on Economic Policy.
Vice-Provost for International Affairs, Case Western Reserve University
David Fleshler arrived at Case Western Reserve University in May 2009, and he now serves as the inaugural Vice Provost for International Affairs. In this role, he leads the Office of Global Strategy, which provides university-level vision and leadership for international activities across campus. David works in partnership with faculty, staff, and students to enhance the university’s international focus. He also works to identify and pursue strategic partnerships with local, state, national and international organizations. Mr. Fleshler is the Immediate Past President of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA). David received his AB from the University of Michigan and JD from Boston College Law School.
Professor
Harvard University
Richard B. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University. He is Faculty co-Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at the Harvard Law School, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and co-Director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities. He received the Mincer Lifetime Achievement Prize from the Society of Labor Economics in 2006, and the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2007. In 2011 he was appointed Frances Perkins Fellow of the AAPSS. In 2016 he received the Global Equity Organization (GEO) Judges Award, honoring exceptional contribution towards the promotion of global employee share ownership. Also in 2016, he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. The award citation describes Richard as “an enormously innovative labor economist who has made pioneering contributions to virtually every aspect of the field.&rdquo His recent publications include:
Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
David Hoffman is the Steed Family Professor of the Practice of Cybersecurity Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy. He also formerly was the Associate General Counsel, Director of Security Policy and Global Privacy Officer for Intel Corporation. Hoffman currently chairs the Civil Liberties and Privacy Panel for the Director's Advisory Board for the US National Security Agency. He also chairs the board of the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law, serves on the Advisory Boards for the Future of Privacy Forum and the Israel Tech Policy Institute, and founded and chairs the board for the Triangle Privacy Research Hub. In the past, he has served with a wide variety of government offices and civic organizations, such as the Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance, and has testified before Congress. Hoffman is the author of many papers and articles on cybersecurity and privacy. His research and teaching has been aided by funding from Intel Corporation, The Crypsis Group, The Media Trust, and Mine. Hoffman earned his AB from Hamilton College and his JD from Duke Law School.
President
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Shirley Ann Jackson is the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Jackson’s career prior to becoming Rensselaer's president has encompassed senior positions in government, in industry and research, and in academia. She is an active member of the British Royal Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations; she is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow and past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She holds an S.B. in Physics, and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics — both from MIT. She is the first African American woman to receive a doctorate from MIT — in any field — and has been a trailblazer throughout her career, including as the first African-American woman to lead a top-ranked research university.
President
Carnegie Mellon University
Farnam Jahanian is the 10th president of Carnegie Mellon University. He previously served as the university’s provost and as well as its vice president for research. A nationally recognized computer scientist, entrepreneur, and higher education leader, Dr. Jahanian previously led the National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering; and was a professor at the University of Michigan, where he served as chair for Computer Science and Engineering. Dr. Jahanian has served as chair of the National Research Council’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) and as a board member of the Computing Research Association (CRA). He sits on the executive committee of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness and is active with the World Economic Forum. Dr. Jahanian holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy, National Science Foundation
Dr. Rebecca Spyke Keiser is Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy (CRSSP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF), a position she has held since March 2020. Keiser is the first CRSSP, a position established in March 2020 to ensure the security of federally-funded research while maintaining open international collaboration. In this role, Keiser provides the NSF director with policy advice on all aspects of research security strategy. She also leads NSF’s efforts to develop and implement efforts to improve research security and the agency’s coordination with other federal agencies and the White House. Until March 2020, Keiser was the head of the Office of International Science & Engineering (OISE) at NSF. Keiser served as head of OISE since coming to NSF in 2015.
Executive Director, Industrial Liaison Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Karl Koster designs and implements strategies to foster successful partnerships between corporations and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In coordination with the staff of the MIT Office of Corporate Relations he has identified and designed a number of major international programs for MIT which have been characterized by the establishment of strong, programmatic linkages among universities, industry, and governments.
Founding Partner
Culper Partners
David Kris is a founder of Culper Partners LLC. An expert in intelligence, law enforcement and security issues, he has more than 25 years of experience in government, the private sector, and academia. Prior to forming Culper, Kris was General Counsel at Intellectual Ventures and Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance officer at Time Warner, Inc. He is currently an outside advisor to Cybereason, a cybersecurity firm. In government, Kris was the presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division; a senior advisor to Republican and Democratic Attorneys General and Deputy Attorneys General; and a federal prosecutor for more than eight years. He currently serves on several government advisory boards. An authority on U.S. foreign intelligence surveillance, Kris is co-author of the leading treatise in the field, National Security Investigations and Prosecutions (3d ed. 2019), as well as the author of other articles and blog posts. He is a member of the board of directors and a Contributing Editor of the Lawfareblog, adjunct professor at the University of Washington Law School, a University Affiliate at Georgetown University, and a member of the advisory boards for the National Security Institute (NSI) at George Mason University, the Tech, Law, Security (TLS) Program at American University, and the Pandemic Response Commons, a data ecosystem designed to address COVID-19. He is a graduate of Haverford College and Harvard Law School, and a former law clerk to Judge Stephen S. Trott of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
President
Duke University
Vincent Price is the 10th President of Duke University, where he is also Walter Hines Page Professor of Public Policy and Political Science in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. A leading global expert on public opinion, social influence, and political communication and former editor-in-chief of Public Opinion Quarterly, President Price came to Duke in 2017. Since arriving on campus, he has turned his attention to the future of the university, developing a strategic framework focused on five core principles: empowering people, transforming education, building community, forging partnerships, and engaging a global network. He has also overseen a series of major new initiatives at Duke—including a comprehensive commitment to anti-racism, continued strategic advancement of the arts, implementing next-generation residential programs, investing in Duke science and technology, and broadening and deepening engagement with Durham and the surrounding region. Prior to coming to Duke, Price served as Provost of the University of Pennsylvania and was the Steven H. Chaffee Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Professor of Political Science in the School of Arts and Sciences. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he earned his PhD (1987) and MA (1985) in Communication from Stanford University and a BA magna cum laude (1979) in English from the University Honors Program at Santa Clara University.
Faculty Co-Director
The Center for Innovation Policy at Duke Law
CO-CONVENER & MODERATOR PANEL 4
Arti Rai, Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director, The Center for Innovation Policy at Duke Law, is an internationally recognized expert in intellectual property (IP) law, innovation policy, administrative law, and health law. Rai's extensive research on these subjects has been funded by NIH, NSF, Arnold Ventures, the Kauffman Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center. Her numerous publications have appeared in both peer-reviewed journals and law reviews. Peer-reviewed journals include Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA. Rai currently serves as a Senior Advisor on innovation-related law and policy issues to the Department of Commerce’s Office of General Counsel. She regularly advises federal and state agencies as well as Congress on these issues. She is a member of multiple distinguished councils, including the National Academies’ Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, the Polaris Advisory Council to the Government Accountability Office, and the American Law Institute. She has also served as a member of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research, as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and on numerous National Academies committees. Rai graduated from Harvard College, magna cum laude, with a degree in biochemistry and history (history and science) and received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1991.
Executive Vice-President, Research and Development, AMGEN Inc.
Dr. David M. Reese is executive vice president, Research and Development at Amgen. In this role, Dr. Reese oversees Discovery Research, Global Development, Global Regulatory Affairs and Safety, as well as Global Medical. Dr. Reese joined Amgen in 2005 and has served in various leadership roles within the Research and Development organization. This includes most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Translational Sciences and Oncology where he oversaw the translation of Amgen’s medicines from the lab into the clinic and the overall oncology strategy. Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Reese was director of Clinical Research for the Breast Cancer International Research Group (BCIRG) and a co-founder, president and chief medical officer of Translational Oncology Research International (TORI), a not-for-profit academic clinical research organization. Dr. Reese is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, and subsequently served on the faculty at UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco.
Executive Director
The Center for Innovation Policy at Duke Law
CO-CONVENER & MODERATOR PANEL 3
Dr. Denis Fred Simon is Executive Director of The Center for Innovation Policy at Duke Law, Senior Adviser to the President (of Duke University) for China Affairs, and Professor of China Business and Technology at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Simon has more than four decades of experience studying business, competition, innovation and technology strategy in China. In 2006, he was awarded the China National Friendship Award by Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing. Prior to returning to Duke, Dr. Simon served as Executive Vice Chancellor at Duke Kunshan University in China (2015-2020). Simon’s career included spells as senior adviser on China and global affairs in the Office of the President at Arizona State University; vice-provost for international affairs at the University of Oregon; and professor of international affairs at Penn State University’s School of International Affairs. He also has had extensive leadership experience in management consulting having served as General Manager of Andersen Consulting in Beijing (now Accenture) and the Founding President of Monitor Group China.
Professor
The Ohio State University
Caroline S. Wagner is a faculty member at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University since 2011, where she is an affiliate of Battelle Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the East Asian Studies Center. From 2011 until 2020, she held the Milton & Roslyn Wolf Chair in International Affairs. From 2011 until 2016, she served as the director the Battelle Center for Science & Technology Policy. Dr. Wagner earned a doctorate from the University of Amsterdam School of Communications Studies (ASCoR) in Science and Technology Dynamics, Netherlands; a Master of Arts degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy from George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, Washington DC; and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College, Washington, DC. Her career in science, technology, and innovation policy analysis has spanned work as an intelligence analyst, staff member at the U.S. Dept. of State and U.S. Congress, the RAND Corporation, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She has authored and co-authored numerous books and articles; and is a member of numerous organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Council of Foreign Relations.
Senior Advisor for Science & Technology, Duke University
R. Sanders "Sandy" Williams, MD, is a physician-scientist and biomedical executive. He serves currently as Senior Advisor for Science & Technology for Duke University. He is President Emeritus of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. Other previous positions include: Vice President for Research and Innovation (interim) at Duke University; Professor of Medicine at Duke and at UCSF; Dean of the School of Medicine at Duke University; founding Dean of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore; and Chief of Cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He was educated at Princeton University and Duke School of Medicine, and pursued advanced training in science and medicine at Harvard (residency at Massachusetts General Hospital), Duke (cardiology and biochemistry fellowships), Oxford University (molecular biology), and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (molecular biology). He is active at the interface between academia and life science industries, serving currently as a Director of public companies Amgen and Laboratory Corporation of America, and of private biotechnology companies Escape Bio and Tenaya Therapeutics. He served previously as a Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Williams is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.
Co-Sponsors
