Plenary Speakers
Ryan Watkins
Professor
George Washington University
Ryan Watkins, PhD, is a Professor at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. He is the program director of the Educational Technology Leadership (MA) program, faculty lead of the interdisciplinary Human-Technology Collaboration (PhD) concentration (research lab), and Director of Education for the GWU Trustworthy AI initiative.
Dr. Watkins co-leads the GW Coders, where he routinely shares innovative uses of Python, PHP, and Javascript. He developed and maintains the social-sharing platform We Share Science, a place for scientists to share video abstracts about their research, and SciencePods, an automated tool for researchers to create podcasts. He co-developed Code2Learn as a clearinghouse for interdisciplinary coding tutorials, and recently developed the open source Python package PreprintScout.
As co-host of Parsing Science (2017-2021), a podcast where leading scientist from around the work share the stories behind their research, Dr. Watkins (along with Doug Leigh from Pepperdine University) explored science through many disciplinary lenses.
Some of his most recent publication include Teaching and Learning with Jupyter (free gitbook), The Art of Knowledge Exchange (World Bank, 2014), available for free online, and A Guide to Assessing Needs: Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results (World Bank, 2012), also available in print and free online. In 2013, A Guide to Assessing Needs was the most read online book available through the World Bank, with more than 57,000 reads.
He is also an author of the world’s top-selling text on e-learning (with more than 150,000 copies in press and in its 4th edition), the E-learning Companion: A Learner’s Guide to Online Success (Houghton Mifflin, 2005, 2007; Cengage 2010, 2013), along with other books including the Handbook for Improving Performance in the Workplace – Volume 2 (Pfieffer/Wiley, 2010), Performance By Design: The systematic selection, design, and development of performance technologies (HRD Press, 2006), and 75 E-learning Activities: Making online courses interactive (Pfieffer, 2005).
Pre-COVID, Dr. Watkins was an active member and past Board Member of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), a member and TIG lead in the American Evaluation Association (AEA), and was a vice president of the Inter-American Distance Education Consortium (CREAD). In 2005, Dr. Watkins was a visiting scientist with the National Science Foundation (IPA), and he routinely consults on projects with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank on applying needs assessment, evaluation, instructional design, and performance improvement to international assistance programs (including work in Kenya, Tunisia, China, Mexico, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Laos PRD). Dr. Watkins has also facilitated monitoring and evaluation workshops for the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (in Switzerland and China).
Moshe Safdie
Founding Partner
Safdie Architects
Moshe Safdie is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author. Over a 50-year career, Safdie has explored the essential principles of socially responsible design through a comprehensive and humane design philosophy. His wide range of completed projects include cultural, educational, and civic institutions; neighborhoods and public parks; housing; mixed-use urban centers and airports; and master plans for existing communities and entirely new cities. A citizen of Israel, Canada, and the United States, Safdie’s projects can be found in North and South America, the Middle East and throughout Asia.
Safdie has been the recipient of numerous awards, honorary degrees, and civil honors including the Companion of the Order of Canada, the Gold Medal from both the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the American Institute of Architects, the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian, and recently the Wolf Prize in Architecture—awarded for a career motivated by the social concerns of architecture and formal experimentation.
Plenary Panelists
Team Science and Translating Research Findings for Application in the Real World:
Understanding and Addressing the Challenges
Stephen M. Fiore
Pegasus Professor, Cognitive Sciences
University of Central Florida
Stephen M. Fiore, PhD (he/him/his), is the director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory and Pegasus Professor with the University of Central Florida's (UCF’s) Cognitive Sciences Program in the Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Simulation & Training. He maintains a multidisciplinary research interest that incorporates aspects of the cognitive, social, organizational, and computational sciences in the investigation of learning and performance in individuals and teams. Dr. Fiore’s primary area of research is the interdisciplinary study of complex collaborative cognition and the understanding of how humans interact socially and with technology. He is the past president of the International Network for the Science of Team Science and past president of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research. Dr. Fiore was a member of the expert panel for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment, which focused on collaborative problem-solving skills. He was previously a member of the National Assessment of Educational Progress report Collaborative Problem Solving. Dr. Fiore was inducted into UCF’s Scroll & Quill Society (2020) as recognition of his scholarship having an international impact. He also received UCF's Luminary Award as recognition for his work having a significant impact on the world (2019), and UCF's Reach for the Stars Award (2014), as recognition for bringing international prominence to the university. In 2023 he was given the title of Pegasus Professor, UCF’s highest academic rank. Dr. Fiore has contributed to working groups for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in understanding and measuring 21st century skills and was a committee member of their Science of Team Science consensus study, which produced the 2015 report, Team Science Effectiveness. He has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
M. Khair ElZarrad
Director, Office of Medical Policy, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
US Food and Drug Administration
Khair ElZarrad, PhD, MPH, is the Director of the Office of Medical Policy (OMP) in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). As Director of OMP, Dr. ElZarrad leads the development, coordination, and implementation of medical policy programs and strategic initiatives.
Amanda Vogel
Senior Advisor
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS/NIH)
Amanda Vogel, PhD, is the Director of the Education Branch within the Office of Policy, Communications and Education, at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS/NIH). Vogel provides leadership and coordination for Center-wide efforts to advance translational science education and training.
Gregory A. Ruark
Program Manager, Dynamical Influences on Social Systems
DEVCOM ARL Army Research Office
Gregory Ruark, PhD, is a social scientist within Humans in Complex Systems competency, U.S. Army DEVCOM ARL Army Research Office. Dr. Ruark’s use-inspired program Dynamical Influences on Social Systems advances fundamental science through a multidisciplinary lens to support future Army capabilities.
Gregg E. A. Solomon
Program Director, Division of Research on Learning
National Science Foundation
Gregg E. A. Solomon, PhD is a Program Director with the Division of Research on Learning (DRL), US National Science Foundation. He does research in Cognitive Science, Education research, Multidisciplinarity, knowledge diffusion, and Citation Analysis.
David B. Daniel
Program Director
National Science Foundation
David B. Daniel, PhD, is Program Director at National Science Foundation; Professor Emeritus, James Madison University. At NSF he is with the Division of Research on Formal and Informal Learning, where he hopes to impact responsible discovery, translation and the development of usable knowledge for educational practice.
NAS Team Science 10-Year Report
Erin K. Chiou
Associate Professor of Human Systems Engineering
Arizona State University
Erin K. Chiou (she/her/hers) is an associate professor of human systems engineering at The Polytechnic School, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on human-automation interaction, job design with information and communication technologies, and trust in sociotechnical systems. Dr. Chiou’s multi-disciplinary and team-based research addresses complex work domains like education, healthcare, and defense. Recent research projects have been supported by the Department of Homeland Security, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. Dr. Chiou has served as a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, including as chair for two years, and was a recipient of the society’s inaugural Inclusion Award in 2024. She is a co-editor of Advancing Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Through Human Systems Engineering (2020), a winner of the Outstanding Academic Title recognition by Choice for the 2020 Open and Affordable Textbook Award from Rutgers University Libraries. Dr. Chiou is also an associate editor for the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision-Making. She has served as a reviewer and committee member for several National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine efforts, including as a member for the consensus study on Human-AI Teaming: State-of-the-Art and Research Needs. Chiou received her M.S. and Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering (human factors and ergonomics) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
Kelly Taylor
Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Kelly D. Taylor (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Prevention Science and director of the Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response in the Institute for Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research aims to address multiple chronic disease outcomes in minoritized communities by developing transformative public health solutions in collaboration with these communities. The goal is to advance equity and save lives by prioritizing the perspectives of individuals and communities at risk of poor health outcomes and empowering them and their care teams to effectively mitigate those risks. As a part of that work, Dr. Taylor leads a lab using immersive technologies and AI to. Her project, Combating Unequal Treatment in Healthcare Through Virtual Awareness and Training in Empathy, is a team science developed study that explores decreasing bias in health care experienced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color using patient-provider virtual reality simulations to exposure providers to patient’s experiences. She has also conducted biobehavioral surveillance research globally. Dr. Taylor was awarded National Institutes of Health pre-doctoral and postdoctoral traineeships to study health services research and AIDS prevention studies respectively. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Michael Frank
Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology
Stanford University
Michael C. Frank (he/him/his) is Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University and director of the Symbolic Systems Program. He studies children's language learning and development, with a focus on the use of large-scale datasets to understand the variability and consistency of learning across cultures. Dr. Frank is a founder of the ManyBabies Consortium and has led open-data projects including Wordbank and the ongoing Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE) project. He served as president of the Cognitive Science Society, has edited for journals including Cognition and Child Development, and is the current co-editor in chief of the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. Dr. Frank has received awards including the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences and the FABBS Early Career Impact Award. He received his PhD in brain and cognitive sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Stephen M. Fiore
Pegasus Professor, Cognitive Sciences
University of Central Florida
Stephen M. Fiore, PhD (he/him/his), is the director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory and Pegasus Professor with the University of Central Florida's (UCF’s) Cognitive Sciences Program in the Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Simulation & Training. He maintains a multidisciplinary research interest that incorporates aspects of the cognitive, social, organizational, and computational sciences in the investigation of learning and performance in individuals and teams. Dr. Fiore’s primary area of research is the interdisciplinary study of complex collaborative cognition and the understanding of how humans interact socially and with technology. He is the past president of the International Network for the Science of Team Science and past president of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research. Dr. Fiore was a member of the expert panel for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment, which focused on collaborative problem-solving skills. He was previously a member of the National Assessment of Educational Progress report Collaborative Problem Solving. Dr. Fiore was inducted into UCF’s Scroll & Quill Society (2020) as recognition of his scholarship having an international impact. He also received UCF's Luminary Award as recognition for his work having a significant impact on the world (2019), and UCF's Reach for the Stars Award (2014), as recognition for bringing international prominence to the university. In 2023 he was given the title of Pegasus Professor, UCF’s highest academic rank. Dr. Fiore has contributed to working groups for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in understanding and measuring 21st century skills and was a committee member of their Science of Team Science consensus study, which produced the 2015 report, Team Science Effectiveness. He has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Debbie DiazGranados
Associate Professor, Psychiatry
Virginia Commonwealth University
Dr. Deborah DiazGranados is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, an Associate Professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine. As an Organizational Scientist she focuses on understanding the complexity of a variety of work contexts. Deborah's research focuses on understanding teams, leadership, and collaboration between diverse individuals. Deborah’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Factors, Academic Medicine, Journal of Interprofessional Collaboration, Small Group Research, Human Resource Management, Journal of Management, Current Directions in Psychological Science and The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Dr. DiazGranados received her B.S. degrees in Management and Psychology from the University of Houston and her M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.