Dr. Courtney Brown is the Vice President of Strategic Impact and Planning at Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest private foundation focused specifically on increasing Americans’ postsecondary success. Brown oversees several of the Foundation’s efforts in the areas of strategic planning, research, evaluation, data, and learning. She also leads Lumina’s international engagement efforts.  Brown has decades of experience and is a frequent national speaker and writer on postsecondary data, evaluation, performance measurement and strategic planning. Dr. Brown received her B.A from James Madison University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Leader in rapidly growing analytical software business. Helped build business from inception to $125M in total sales in 2017, working in global roles in sales, product development, and business development. Managed global team of 30+ consultants. Managed $600M research portfolio and staff of 50 at Top-10 research institution. Led successful $6M full-lifecycle implementation of critical software system. Restructured business operations and staff to leverage new systems capabilities and improve service delivery. Expertise in strategic planning and business analysis. MBA in Finance and International Business

Eric Koester is the only two-time entrepreneurship professor of the year at Georgetown University and the founder/CEO of the Creator Institute. He is a leading expert on how we create credibility and expertise to live an entrepreneurial life, and his innovative courses have been recognized by his peers as the most innovative in the country.Eric is a serial entrepreneur having raised tens of millions of venture capital from investors from Kleiner Perkins, Ashton Kutcher, SV Angel, Floodgate Capital, Felicis Ventures, OS Fund, Meg Whitman and more. He’s a founding partner and served as the managing partner of NextGen Venture Partners, a seed stage venture fund. Eric is a sought after public speaker, author and coach, having been recognized by multiple 40 under 40 lists. Eric is currently the subject of the Creator Institute Show, an online documentary series showcasing his experiences helping hundreds of people become published authors, podcast hosts and creators of all types. He shares what it’s like to coach, teach and empower the next generation of creators. Eric recently launched his podcast, The Eric Koester Creator Institute.

Margo leads facilitation, strategic planning, and client services for CED. Previously, she served as CED’s Lead Analyst and worked in the education sector for numerous school districts and universities in California and Alaska, as well as served as a VISTA volunteer with UCLA BruinCorps.

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Johnathan Holifield was appointed by President Trump on Oct. 2, 2017, as executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). He is the co-founder of ScaleUp Partners, the nation’s leading consultancy blending economic inclusion and competitiveness and building community systems to improve the productivity of underserved Americans in the Innovation Economy.

Cameron J. McCoy, Ph.D., is the Vice President and Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives at Lehigh University. He is accountable for leading enterprise-wide external engagements, aligning careers and economic development, and enabling institutional innovation through design thinking and internal consultation. Dr. McCoy’s research interests combine economics and educational administration in evaluating university organizational economic engagement approaches. McCoy is a graduate of the Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership and the OU Economic Development Institute. McCoy served as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at George Mason University and Southern New Hampshire University in 2018.

Arno Meerman is the founder and CEO of the University Industry Innovation Network, a knowledge leader on university-industry interaction, entrepreneurial & engaged universities and strategic partnerships. In his role Arno conducts research, provides training, and consults government, universities and industry on university-industry interaction. For more than a decade Arno has been actively working with the European Commission, European Institute for Innovation and Technology, and other government bodies towards the advancement and professionalisation of university-industry interaction across the globe. He has led a number of UIINs large-scale research and development projects for the European Commission on innovation alliances, research valorisation, and university-business cooperation.

“G. Nagesh Rao has worked in the Public, Private, and NGO sectors over the last 20+ years. He is well known for co-developing programmatic endeavors such as i6 Green, Patents for Humanity, VT-Arc Additive Manufacturing Prize Challenge, SBA Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, and USAID’s-SBAR Program. Furthermore he co-led the revamp and modernization of the SBIR.gov and SBA.gov digital platforms. As well he has curated IP-Portfolios and strategies for a number of startups and major corporations over the years.

Nagesh’s musings (written and oratorical) have been featured and/or quoted via Wired, TechCrunch, WAMC-NPR, The Scientist, The National Academies, The Hill, FedTech Magazine, DC Inno, Technical.ly DC, NextGov, Daily Mirror (Sri Lankan version), Financial Times (Sri Lankan version), and The Courier-Journal.

Nagesh is a 2004 Mirzayan Fellow of The National Academies and a 2016 USA Eisenhower Fellow. His credentials include a BSc from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a MSc from Albany Law School-Union University, and a MBA from University of Maryland-College Park, as well a license to practice Patent Law from the US Patent and Trademark Office. Among many accolades that Nagesh has received over the years, prominent ones include the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman & Hind Rattan awards from the NRI Welfare Society, BT 150, ACT-IAC Collaboration Award, DC Inno 50 on Fire, and the RPI Alumni Key Award.

Tobin (Toby) Smith oversees the policy department of the Association of American Universities. In this role he engages in a wide range of science and higher education policy issues as well as issues relating to U.S. competitiveness, economic development and innovation. He is also oversees work on AAU’s undergraduate STEM and PhD education initiatives. Toby previously worked as a federal relations representative for the University of Michigan and MIT. He began his career on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to Congressman Bob Traxler (D-MI). He is the co-author of a 2008 book on national science policy titled, Beyond Sputnik – U.S. Science Policy in the 21st Century. He serves on the Advisory Boards to the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI) and the International Network for Advancing and Evaluating the Societal Impact of Science (AESIS). He is active in AAAS where he is the current chair and an honorific fellow of the Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering (Section X). He also serves as a member of the AAAS Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPP). Toby holds a master’s degree in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree from the University of Michigan.

Dr. James K. (Jim) Woodell helps higher education institutions to demonstrate their value to economic and societal growth within their communities and regions. His professional services focus on planning and building partnerships between the institutions and their current and prospective partners in the private, civic, and government sectors.

Jim’s 30+ year career has spanned multiple areas of expertise and impacts. To date, he has worked in:

• Community development where he and his partners demonstrably improved quality of life in regions through higher education engagement, outreach, and public service
• Education, training, and workforce development, including strategies for design and delivery of programs
• Research and Development and innovation, including technological advancement, entrepreneurship, and regional technology-based economic development

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