SESA Presenter Images and Bios
Dr. Ed Albin holds the rank of Associate Professor / Program Director for the Department of Space Studies at the American Public University System, coordinating courses dedicated to aerospace, astronomy, earth science, and space policy. His passion is for planetary science, and has been involved in the field of Space Studies for more than 30 years.
Most of his career was spent at Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta as an instructor of astronomy. In that position, he presented planetarium programs, assisted in the direction of the facility's Zeiss planetarium and associated observatory's 36-inch reflecting telescope. Inspired by the Apollo Moon landings in the 1960’s - 70’s, he acquired a Master's degree in planetary science from Arizona State University, and a PhD in planetary geology at the University of Georgia. Much of his research interest is centered around the study of meteorites and impact craters, with special emphasis focused on the geology of the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. Finally, he holds a lifelong love for aviation, and is professionally trained as a commercial helicopter pilot.
Todd Barber is a NASA JPL senior propulsion engineer, wrapping up two decades as lead propulsion engineer on the Cassini mission to Saturn, following part-time work on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, Deep Impact mission, and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, which landed the large rover Curiosity on the red planet on August 5th, 2012. Cassini was launched on October 15, 1997 on its two-billion-mile, seven-year journey to the ringed planet. It “took the plunge” into Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017 after thirteen years in orbit around Saturn. The MER team launched twin rovers to the red planet in June and July of 2003, and Spirit and Opportunity lasted six years and fourteen years, respectively, into their three-month missions. Todd also worked as the lead impactor propulsion engineer on Deep Impact, which successfully crashed into Comet Tempel-1 on Independence Day, 2005, at twenty-three-thousand miles per hour. 
Todd recently completed working on the Dawn mission, an ion propulsion mission to the two largest main-belt asteroids, Vesta and Ceres. He also recently began supporting the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and the Mars2020 project. Much to Todd’s delight, he is now supporting the Voyager mission as well, more than forty years after launch.
Todd recently completed working on the Dawn mission, an ion propulsion mission to the two largest main-belt asteroids, Vesta and Ceres. He also recently began supporting the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and the Mars2020 project. Much to Todd’s delight, he is now supporting the Voyager mission as well, more than forty years after launch.Mr. Barber worked on the Galileo project for over seven years and his primary responsibility was getting Galileo into Jupiter orbit on December 7, 1995. Todd also worked part-time on the Space Infra-Red Telescope Facility (SIRTF) mission and on the Stardust mission, as well as the Mars Sample Return mission and a Mars airplane study. Todd received NASA's Exceptional Achievement Award in 1996 for his work on Galileo. In 2018, Mr. Barber was also honored to receive NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal for heading up Cassini’s propulsion team for nearly two decades.
Mr. Barber is a native of Wichita, Kansas, and attended MIT between 1984 and 1990, obtaining BS and MS degrees in aerospace engineering, with a humanities concentration in music. He is also a composer of church choral music, with two pieces published to date. His hobbies include singing charitably and professionally, playing the piano, snagging degree confluences (exact integer latitude/longitude intersections), visiting all the U.S. tri-state corners and national parks, playing basketball (though it’s been a while), and amateur astronomy.
Dr. Wally Boston, currently serves as President Emeritus for the American Public University System. Dr. Boston had previously served as president from 2004 to 2016, and from September 2017 through August 2020. In addition, Dr. Boston served as CEO and as a director of American Public Education, Inc. (APEI), the parent company of American Public University System (APUS), from 2004 through September 2019. Dr. Boston led APEI when it went public with its Initial Public Offering on Nasdaq in 2007, on two successful secondary stock offerings in 2007 and 2008, and during its 2013 acquisition of Hondros College of Nursing. He led the company at a time when it was ranked repeatedly in the top ten “America's Best Small Public Companies” by Forbes (#9 in 2009; #3 in 2010; #2 in 2011; #3 in 2012). Boston earned an AB in History from Duke University with minors in English and German, an MBA in Marketing and Accounting from Tulane University, and EdD in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of business administration degree from the APUS Board of Trustees in 2008. In June 2016, he was recognized as the inaugural recipient of his namesake Leadership Award. In August 2020, he was appointed as a Trustee Emeritus of APUS after his retirement as president.
Sara A. Carioscia worked as a Science Policy Fellow at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI), a federally-funded research and development center that supports Executive Branch agencies such as NASA. At STPI, her work included topics such as manned space exploration, space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic management (STM), and export controls on space technologies. She received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and is currently a PhD student at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Bert Chapman is Professor of Library Science and Government Information, History, and Political Science Librarian at Purdue University. He received his BA in history and political science from Taylor University, an MA in history from the University of Toledo, and an MSLS. in Library Science at the University of Kentucky. Prior to working at Purdue, he was a librarian at Lamar University. His research interests include government and scholarly literature on national and international security, his writings include six books such as Global Defense Procurement and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and articles in Astropolitics, Journal of Advanced Military Studies (JAMS) Security Challenges, Space Policy, and other venues.
Dr. Gary Deel is an accomplished polymath with a passion for development and a drive for intellectual challenge. He holds AS degrees in Hospitality and Culinary Arts from Valencia College, AS, BS, and MS degrees in Space Studies from American Public University (APUS), BS and MS degrees in Hospitality Management from the University of Central Florida (UCF), a JD in Law from Florida A&M University (FAMU), and a PhD in Hotel Administration from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). Dr. Deel has developed and taught courses in business, management, hospitality, leadership and ethics, sales and marketing, professionalism, law, human resources, engineering, and other areas. He currently serves as faculty director for the APUS School of Business where he oversees a team of 100+ faculty who teach courses in transportation and logistics, supply chain dynamics, defense contract management, finance, accounting, analytics, and entrepreneurship. He has authored more than 250 articles on various subjects including aerospace and astronomy, business, law, hospitality, ethics, philosophy, medicine, teaching and learning, and others. In addition, Deel also hosts an American Public University System-sponsored weekly podcast called Intellectible on topics such as space exploration, legal news, hospitality industry trends, and more.
Maria Demaree is Vice President and General Manager, Mission Solutions, Lockheed Martin Space for Lockheed Martin Corporation. In this capacity, she is responsible for approximately 4,400 employees and an annual sales base of over $1.5B in support of government defense and intelligence agencies. Mission Solutions develops, delivers, and operates solutions mission critical including development of innovative enterprise, cloud and application-based solutions for mission management, command and control, collection orchestration and tasking, processing, and data analytics, along with premier operations and sustainment of space-based programs.
Previously, Ms. Demaree was Vice President of Engineering, Mission Systems and Operations, for Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Space Systems Company. In that role, she was responsible for matrix management and leadership of 5,000 engineers, cyber technologists, mission operators and software engineers. Her team engaged in a range of programs from satellite ground systems and flight software to detailed mission analytics and operations from January 2016 to June 2018.
She previously served as Engineering and Technology Director of Mission Systems, for Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS). In that role, she was responsible for all aspects of leading the Mission Systems Capabilities organization of 3,500 software engineers from March 2014 to December 2015. Additionally, Maria served in Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Enterprise Business Services from August 2011 to March 2014. As Director of Enterprise Desktop Services, she was responsible for the Lockheed Martin Service Desk, Unified Communications (E-mail, Mobility Services and Webcasting); Desktop Services and SharePoint implementation. Her team included 700+ matrixed employees with an annual budget of $90M.
Throughout her career, Ms. Demaree has led several critical initiatives for Lockheed Martin Corporation, including the LM corporation mobile transformation from Blackberry to iPhone; key member of the leadership team turning Army Global Command and Control system program from red to green; Vice President of Engineering providing leadership of IS&GS team of 4,100 employees transitioning into LM Space.
Ms. Demaree graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, and University of Pennsylvania with a Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering.
Ms. Demaree serves on the Lockheed Martin Executive Inclusion Council, the Co-Chair of the Women Impact Network (WIN Forum 2019), serves on the Zeta Board of Directors, is a March of Dimes Heroine in Technology Lifetime Achievement award recipient, and was named to the 2018 FedScoop Top Women in Tech.
Lieutenant Jordan Foley is a Naval Officer in the Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps. In 2012, he graduated at the top of his class for Military Order of Merit from the United States Naval Academy. Following graduation, Jordan was assigned to MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Space Systems Analysis group. He earned two Master of Science degrees from MIT and published his thesis titled, "Strategy for International Cooperation in Planning the Chinese Space Station." As a fluent Mandarin speaker, he personally translated hundreds of pages of Chinese space doctrine to produce this research. He then qualified as a Navy Space Cadre Operations Officer and commenced nuclear power training where he began his tour as a Submarine Officer. Jordan served on the Los Angeles Class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis as the Communications Officer and Reactor Control Assistant. After four years as a nuclear submariner, he was accepted into the Navy JAG Corps and is currently finishing his law degree at Georgetown. Jordan has designed training for the Navy JAG Corps on space operations and worked with the White House National Space Council. Jordan comes from a family of high school teachers in the Pittsburgh, PA area and is dedicated to educating national security lawyers working in space law.
Bruce Gagnon is the Secretary/Coordinator of the GN. He has been working on space issues for the past 30 years and helped create the GN in 1992. His book, called "Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire", was republished in 2008. For 15 years he coordinated the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice. He was trained as an organizer by the United Farmworkers Union and is also a member of Veterans for Peace.
Professor Karl Grossman is a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College of Old Westbury on Long Island, N.Y. Karl is a cofounder of the GN and regularly writes about plans to launch nuclear power into space. His most recent book is entitled “Weapons in Space” and he has produced
Ivàn Gulmesoff is a current Global Security doctoral student at American Military University and a 2014 alumnus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He holds a Master’s of Science degree in Aeronautics with a dual specialization in Aviation/Aerospace Management and Space Studies. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1998, with a passion for aeronautics and eagerness to excel in the United States Navy. To this day, he continues to have the same passion. He has been stationed in Rota, Spain, and Atsugi, Japan, as well as multiple locations on the east and west coasts of the United States. He’s worked in intermediate and organizational aviation maintenance levels, primarily with the F/A-18 and P-3 Orion aircraft. He has completed seven deployments to the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Fleet areas of operations. Today, he is an Aerospace Maintenance Duty Officer, currently assigned to an F/A-18 squadron. His research interests have expanded over the years to include global security, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, and space weaponization.
Michelle Hanlon is co-director of the Air and Space Law Program and instructor of aviation and space law at the University of Mississippi School of Law and its Center for Air and Space Law. She is also a co-founder and president of For All Moonkind, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that is the only organization in the world focused on protecting human cultural heritage in outer space. For All Moonkind has been recognized by the United Nations as a Permanent Observer to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Michelle chairs the International Committee of the National Space Society and is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Space Law, the world’s oldest law journal dedicated to the legal problems arising out of human activities in outer space.
Dr. Aruna Kammila obtained her PhD from Andhra University, her thesis title was “Cyber Wafare vis-a-vis International Humanitarian Law”. For her Master’s degree she specialized in Public International Law and International Criminal Law at the University of Greenwich, London, UK and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Cyber Laws and Intellectual Property Rights from the University of Hyderabad. Currently she teaches Maritime Law, Air & Space Law, Public International Law and Cyber Laws at the School of Law, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Tamara Lorincz is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has a Master’s degree in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford, U.K. and a Law degree and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University. Her research is on the climate and environmental impacts of the military. She is a member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. is Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and the Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California, San Francisco, and Adjunct Professor of Research at Touro University-California. Dr. Lustig’s career has focused on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system, and the pathogenesis of chronic metabolic and mental health diseases. He is one of the leaders of the “anti-sugar” and “real food” movements to improve global health. Dr. Lustig is also the Chief Science Officer of Eat REAL, a non-profit dedicated to reversing childhood obesity and diabetes by impacting the global food supply. He is also on the Advisory Boards of Nutritious Minds, a London psychiatric consultancy; MindHealth360, a metabolic/mental health platform; and Simplex Health, a Philadelphia-based metabolically-based healthcare services company.
Dr. Lustig graduated from MIT in 1976, received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1980, completed his pediatric residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 1983, and his clinical fellowship at UCSF in 1984. From there, he spent six years as a research associate in neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University. In 2013 he received his Masters in Studies of Law from UC Hastings College of the Law. Dr. Lustig is the author of 200 academic works, and of the popular books “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease”, the “Fat Chance Cookbook”, and “The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of our Bodies and Brains”. A new book titled “METABOLICAL – the Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine” will be published in May, 2021.
Dr. Kristen Miller received her Bachelor's degree in physics from Brigham Young University and went on to receive her Master’s and Doctoral degrees, both in astrophysics, from the University of Maryland. Dr. Miller’s thesis focused on computational studies of magnetic field turbulence in protostellar disks. Dr. Miller has been teaching online since 2005 and has been teaching for APUS as an associate professor of Space Studies for nearly 3 years. She is the faculty co-advisor for the APUS branch of the Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She is also the designer and lead advisor of a student-led research program that searches for new supernova events. Dr. Miller conducts research involving observations of exoplanet transits and educational research examining the efficacy of online laboratory exercises in introductory space studies classes.
Dr. Ahmed Naumaan is an engineer, computer science instructor, and independent higher education consultant with experience in both academics and as a practitioner. Dr. Naumaan recently served as national dean for DeVry University’s College of Engineering & Information Sciences, as dean of Kaplan University’s School of Information Systems and Technology, as academic director for engineering programs at National Technological University. Before entering academia, Dr. Naumaan served as principal engineer and manager for ITRON, Inc., and as principal scientist for APA Optics, Inc., receiving two patents for optical device technologies. Dr. Naumaan received his PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, where his research focused on devices and materials for integrated optics. He also completed the MBA Advantage Program from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Dr. Mark Riccardi serves as dean for the School of Security and Global Studies at American Public University System. Dr. Riccardi has presented at conferences around the world on topics that include Social Media use During Disaster Operations, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Emergency Response Operations. He retired from the United States Army after 21 years of active service spent in intelligence, military support to civilian authorities, and special operations. Dr. Riccardi holds a BA in English from the College of Staten Island – City University of New York, a Master of Education from Colorado State University, a Master of Criminal Justice from Boston University, a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a PhD in Education from Colorado State University.
Dr. Vernon C. Smith has more than 25 years of experience in higher education. He has an extensive background in online learning issues and practices, including effective quality, assessment, and retention strategies in higher education, and was an early adopter of using big data for predictive modeling and teaching excellence to promote student success. He joined APUS from the University of the Pacific where he led digital and adult learning initiatives including oversight of the Center for Professional and Continuing Education, the Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic Technology, and support for graduate hybrid and in-person programs on the Sacramento and San Francisco campuses.
Professor Dave Webb is the Convener of the GN and a retired university engineering professor who switched to Peace and Conflict Studies. He was also co-founder and Director of the Praxis Centre (for the study of Information and Technology for Peace, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights) at Leeds Beckett (previously Leeds Metropolitan) University. He retired from there in 2012 to focus on peace campaigning. He is currently chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the UK, a Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau and a patron of the UK group Scientists for Global Responsibility. Dave will chair the panel and each panel member will have 10-15 minutes to present their views on the topic and then questions will be taken from the audience and discussed by the panel members.
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Honorary Professor and Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham is an internationally renowned astronomer who has made pioneering contributions to the theory of cosmic dust. In 1974 he first proposed the theory that dust in interstellar space and in comets was largely organic, a theory that has now been vindicated. In collaboration with Sir Fred Hoyle he propounded the theory of cometary panspermia. Jointly with Sir Fred Hoyle, he was awarded the International Dag Hammarskjold Gold Medal for Science in 1986, and in 1992 he was decorated by the President of Sri Lanka with the titular honor of Vidya Jyothi. He was awarded the International Sahabdeen Prize for Science in 1996. He holds the ScD degree from the University of Cambridge, and an honorary doctorate from the Soka University of Tokyo, Japan, an honorary doctorate from Ruhuna University of Sri Lanka, along with several other international distinctions. A Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, 1962-1973; Staff Member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in the University of Cambridge, 1965-1973; Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, Cardiff University 1973-1990; Professor of Mathematics, Cardiff University 1990-2000; Director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, 2000-2010; Honorary Professor and Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham. An award-winning poet and the author or co-author of over 25 books and over 350 scientific papers, 70 of which are in Nature. He has held visiting professorial appointments in a large number of universities world-wide and has at one time been an advisor to the president of Sri Lanka and Founding Director of the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Sri Lanka.
