Assistant Professor of Justice, Law & Criminology, American University Jessica L. Waters, J.D., has 25 years of experience as a lawyer, scholar, teacher, and higher education executive. Waters currently serves as the Director of the American University School of Public Affairs (SPA) Leadership Program where she focuses on equipping students with experience, skills, and knowledge to prepare them for leadership roles in public service. Professor Waters is also a Faculty Fellow in the Center for University Excellence, which brings university research expertise to pressing problems in the public domain. Waters recently served for seven years as American University’s first Dean of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost for Academic Student Services (2016-2023) after holding multiple leadership positions at the university. As Vice Provost and Dean, she was the leader and principal decision-maker regarding American University’s undergraduate curriculum and academic supports and was charged with strategic decision-making and risk assessment for university-wide undergraduate policies and procedures. Waters holds faculty appointments in the American University School of Public Affairs and the Washington College of Law. Her research focuses on reproductive rights law and policy, particularly exploring questions related to the legal impact of women’s medical decisions during pregnancy and childbirth, abortion regulation and access, state control of reproductive decision-making, employment-based conscience protections for reproductive health care providers, and reproductive rights of employees working for religiously affiliated employers. Her work has been published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Waters is a frequent media expert and commentator for local, regional, and national outlets (CNN, Fox News, NPR, NBC, VOA, BBC). She delivered a 2016 TedX talk, Changing the Reproductive Rights Conversation, and has recently authored op-eds for The Hill and USA Today.
Research Fellow in Management, Auckland University of Technology Most of my current work focusses on workforce sustainability issues in healthcare professions. I am interested in using theories and concepts from organisational behaviour, social psychology, employment relations and other disciplines to understand how healthcare systems can be redesigned for the benefit of workers and patients.
Associate Professor in Vision Science, Optometry Course Director, Deakin University I am a practicing optometrist, active researcher and the Course Director of the Deakin Optometry program. I have enjoyed a diverse academic career due to the fact that my PhD studies allowed me to study a number of quite different topics including the electrophysiological function of the eye, the role of maternal diet and the controllers of fetal development. I am regularly faced with trying to encourage my patients to take good care of their eyes in an environment where online shopping may result in them failing to understand the importance of taking care of eye health.
Associate Professor of Political Science and Computational Social Science, UMass Amherst My research interests include U.S. ideologies, political communication in mass and social media, public opinion, and the intersection of identity and political beliefs. I also work on methodological problems in measurement, text analysis, and network analysis, and am especially interested in methods that put statistical and computational tools to use in service of our ability to achieve rich qualitative insights. I have published work in the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, and several other journals and edited volumes. I am currently working on projects related to how media activists and politicians (opinion elites) invoke core values in order to frame arguments while at times contesting the very meanings and appropriate applications of these values. In related work, my coauthors and I are examining the processes by which extreme ideas may move from the fringe to the mainstream in contemporary U.S. political discussion. More generally, I am interested in the role of ideas in connecting political elites and the ideologically engaged public. I draw on scholarship by historians, social psychologists, and mass media & communication scholars, in addition to work by those who study political behavior and identities.
Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Drexel University John Kounios, PhD, has published cognitive neuroscience research on insight, creativity, problem solving, memory, aging, and Alzheimer’s Disease and coauthored the international Amazon Bestseller, The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain (Random House). John's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and has been reported by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London), National Public Radio and was featured in BBC Television and Discovery Science Channel documentaries. His work was profiled by The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post and is part of a permanent exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Psychonomic Society.
Honorary Associate, Sydney Environment Centre, The University of Sydney., University of Sydney James Bradley is an author and critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist, Clade and Ghost Species, a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus, and The Penguin Book of the Ocean. In 2012 he won the Pascall Prize for Australia's Critic of the Year. His latest book is Deep Water: The World in the Ocean.
