Opening Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ruja Benjamin, Professor, Department of African American Studies, Princeton University; Founding Director, Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab
Dr. Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and award-winning author of multiple books, including Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, and the recently released Imagination: A Manifesto.
Dr. Benjamin writes, teaches, and speaks widely about the relationship between innovation and inequity, knowledge and power, race and citizenship, and health and justice.
She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award and the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. In 2024 she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship.
Dr. Benjamin holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Ruha Benjamin
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Plenary Speaker: Dr. Ethan Mollick, Innovation Expert and Artificial Intelligence Thought Leader; Professor of Entrepreneurship, the Wharton School
Dr. Ethan Mollick is the Ralph J. Roberts Distinguished Faculty Scholar and associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies the effects of artificial intelligence on work, entrepreneurship, and education. His academic research has been published in leading journals, and his work on AI is widely applied, leading him to be named one of TIME magazine’s Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence. His book Co- Intelligence is a New York Times bestseller.
In addition to his research and teaching, Dr. Mollick is the co-director of the Generative AI Labs at Wharton, which build prototypes and conduct research to discover how AI can help humans thrive while mitigating risks.
Dr. Mollick received his Ph.D. and MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
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| Dr. Ethan Mollick |
Plenary Speaker: Dr. Karen A. Stout, President and CEO, Achieving the Dream
Dr. Karen A. Stout is president and CEO of Achieving the Dream (ATD), leading a national network of community colleges focused on whole-college transformation that directly addresses inequitable outcomes for students. She was named the American Association for Women in Community College’s Woman of the Year and one of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education’s Leading Women, Washington Monthly’s 16 most innovative higher education leaders, Washingtonian’s 500 most influential people in 2023, and Ed Tech’s 30 higher education IT influencers to follow in 2023. She is the recipient of the Robert Zemsky Medal for Innovation in Higher Education, among many recognitions.
Dr. Stout serves as chair of the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research Advisory Board at North Carolina State University, as co-chair of the University of Maryland Global Campus Doctorate of Management in Community College Policy and Administration Advisory Board, and is a member of the Community College Research Center Presidents Advisory Board, Common App Board of Directors, and College Promise National Advisory Board. She also represents Achieving the Dream on the Washington Higher Education Secretariat, participates as faculty and mentor for the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship and Aspen New Presidents Fellowship, and has been a presenter for the League of Innovation Executive Leadership Institute since 2005. In 2022, Dr. Stout was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate to serve a six-year term as a member of the National Council on the Humanities.
Before joining ATD in 2015, Dr. Stout was president of Montgomery County Community College. Upon leaving the college, the Board granted her President Emerita status and named the student success center in her honor.
A frequent speaker and writer, Dr. Stout focuses on strategies for enhancing student success, equity and completion; accelerating and scaling innovation; advancing next generation metrics; and launching a new era of community college fundraising.
 Dr. Karen A. Stout |
Come back soon for information on additional speakers.