Director, American Communities Project, Michigan State University Dante Chinni is a data and political journalist and director of the American Communities Project, which is based at the MSU J-School. He is a winner of the Knight-Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism and co-author of the book Our Patchwork Nation. Chinni is a contributor to and writer for the Wall Street Journal and to NBC News's Meet the Press, for which he produces the weekly Data Download segment. Starting in November of 2022, the American Communities Project is embarking on a three-year study of American Fragmentation, funded by a $2.4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That study will combine survey research, data analysis and on-the-ground reporting in an effort to better understand what is dividing the country and what might help stitch it back together. A graduate of Michigan State, when Dante is not in East Lansing he can usually be found living in Washington with his wife Christina Ianzito and their dog Skeeter.
Director of Professional Practice, Georgia Institute of Technology Dima Nazzal is a Principal Academic Professional in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. She is responsible for project-based learning in the Industrial Engineering undergraduate curriculum, including the capstone senior design course, and the cornerstone junior design course. She is also research director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she was Director of Research and Development at Fortna, Inc., an Engineering Design and Consulting company.
Professor, Classics and Archaeology; Philosophy, Queen's University, Ontario Daryn Lehoux is Professor of Classics and Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s University. He has published widely on the history and philosophy of the sciences in their historical contexts, asking questions about how facts become constituted, accepted, doubted, rejected, and forgotten.
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, University of Oxford I am a social anthropologist with ethnographic specialization in the Middle East. I have studied forced settlement of mobile herding societies - Bedouin - in Syria,Lebnaon and Jordan as well as Oman. And protracted forced migration among Palestinian youth in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan , West Bank and Gaza, as well as among Sahrawi refugee youth in Algeria and Afghan refugee youth in Iran.
Instructor, Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan University Dr. Deena Kara Shaffer (she/her) is Adjunct Faculty at Toronto Metropolitan University, teaching their popular learning+happiness course, and is the Director of the Office of Student and Academic Services for York University's Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. Prior, Deena served as Manager of Thriving Innovations in Student Wellbeing and lecturer in TMU's Psychology Department. Deena is also the Founder and CEO of Awakened Learning, designing compelling learning experiences for students of all ages, parents, and leaders, and the best-selling author of "Feel Good Learning." Deena was a two-term President of the Learning Specialists Association of Canada, a former learning strategist for students with disabilities, and a skilled certified high school teacher. Deena is the co-founder of the now international Thriving in Action academic resilience intervention, and co-author of Thriving in Action Online and Thriving in the Classroom. Deena holds a doctorate in holistic learning strategies, is a trained yoga and mindfulness meditation teacher, is a published poet, and is a public speaker on learning and well-becoming. Deena's ideal day is spent outdoors getting muddy with her kids.
