Research Scholar, Center for Sustainable Urban Development, Climate School, Columbia University Jacqueline Klopp is an Research Scholar and Director at the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at teh Climate School at Columbia University, Previously, she taught the politics of development at the School of International and Public Affairs for many years. A political scientist by training, her work focuses on the political processes around land-use, transportation, violence, displacement and planning in African cities. Klopp is the author of articles for Africa Today, African Studies Review, African Studies, Canadian Journal of African Studies, Comparative Politics, Forced Migration Review, Urban Forum, World Policy Review among others. Recently, she has been experimenting with creative urban mapping projects for both analysis and advocacy and is a founding member of the DigitalMatatus consortium which has produced the first open transit data and public transit map for Nairobi's quasi-formal "matatu" transit system. She helped start the blogs CairofromBelow and nairobiplanninginnovations.com to provide more grounded and open urban information to citizens. She is also a founder and Board member of the Internal Displacement Policy and Advocacy Center (IDPAC) based in Nakuru, Kenya. She is currently writing a book on the politics of planning in Nairobi. Klopp received her B.A. from Harvard University in Physics and her Ph.D. in Political Science from McGill University.
Assistant Professor of Management, Information Systems and Entrepreneurship, Washington State University I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship at Washington State University’s Carson College of Business. I received my Ph.D. in Organization and Management from the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine in Spring 2022. My research primarily examines organizational behavior and entrepreneurship at the micro level, and I am currently focusing on questions related to how emotions and emotion management influence entrepreneurial pitches, creativity, and decision making. My research won the Best Paper Award and the Distinguished Paper Award from the Academy of Management annual meeting 2021. I am also passionate about teaching. I have taught organizational behavior as part of the core curriculum for undergraduate business majors and assisted in several MBA or undergraduate courses. I won the Outstanding PhD Instructor Award for the undergraduate program at the Paul Merage School of Business for the 2020-2021 academic year. Prior to graduate school, I earned my bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University with double major in psychology and economics. I also conducted research at the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at Johns Hopkins University and worked at a consulting firm in Washington D.C. In a former life, I was a singer, lyricist, and ran a music composition club.
Senior Manager - Agrimetrics, Agricultural Research Council Aart-Jan Verschoor has a PhD in agricultural economics and rural development. He joined the ARC in 2003, and is the Senior Manager for Agrimetrics since 2014. Responsibilities include guidance of post graduate students and interns and managing a team of statisticians. He is active in inter-institutional, trans-disciplinary R&D that integrates natural and social science. He manages an EU funded development project and conducts scientific evaluation (M&E) of various projects. He has contributed and authored scientific and popular publications. He is married and has three children, likes nature, coin collecting, music and sport.
Assistant Professor of Conflict Management, Kennesaw State University I am an Assistant Professor of Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development. As an anthropologist and scholar-practitioner, I specialize in genocide and mass atrocity prevention, emerging technologies and disinformation, post-conflict reconstruction, and war-related environmental degradation. A specialist in Ukraine and Russia, I have worked in 25+ countries including across Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. Supported by National Science Foundation, Fulbright, USAID, and other grants and fellowships, I am writing a book about the Ukraine-Russia war. This book discusses Joseph Stalin's historical genocide against Ukraine (the Holodomor) and how modern leaders interpreted this history to predict both Russia's modern genocidal war and Ukraine's stunning resistance. This book draws from more than 8 years of research on the Russia-Ukraine war, including 2.5 years of fieldwork across 32 Ukrainian cities and towns. My book is also based on my doctoral dissertation, which won the Kellogg Institute for International Studies Distinguished Dissertation in Democracy and Human Rights Award and was nominated for several other university and international awards. I received my joint PhD in peace studies and anthropology from the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Department of Anthropology. I hold M.A. degrees in anthropology (2019) and in international development (2012) from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies respectively. My B.A. in anthropology is from the University of Florida, where I graduated as a valedictorian. Prior to my time in academia, I served as a policy advisor at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations and as a political/economic officer in an embassy abroad. I received a U.S. Department of State Meritorious Honor Award for my work on preventing and responding to mass atrocities and was a 2013-2015 Presidential Management Fellow. I have also held leaderships roles at several international development and conflict resolution non-governmental organizations (NGOs). At George Mason University's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, I served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Better Evidence Project which bridges gaps in policy, research, practice, and donors in the war prevention field. In 2017, I was recognized with the Society for Applied Anthropology's Human Rights Defender Award. Presently, I am a non-resident fellow at the Marine Corps University's Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare. I regularly consult with government, multilateral, and human rights organizations.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Binghamton University, State University of New York Yizeng Li received her PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for NanoBioTechnology. Her backgrounds are in theoretical mechanics and applied mathematics with applications to biophysics and mechanobiology. Li develops physiology-based mathematical models for cell motility, polarization, volume regulation, electro-homeostasis, signal transduction, and other biophysics problems. She also combines mathematical models with experimental data to explain non-intuitive cell biology phenomena.
