Glenn Akins serves as Assistant Executive Director of a large faith-based non-profit. Based in Richmond, VA. He spent last 36 years helping churches pioneer their next chapters of service to their communities. Coaching, conferencing, and consulting comprises the bulk of my work. He enjoys learning and acquiring new skill sets to improve his service among our constituents. Though a product of Midwestern cities, he has spent most of his adult life in the Southeast and has enjoyed the cultural differences. His primary hobby is raising Old English Sheepdogs.”
Bes Pittman Baldwin has a broad research background that includes preclinical research and development of novel implantable cardiovascular devices an
d clinical trials experience in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, neurology, and women’s health. She served in a variety of roles at academic research organizations and biotech, pharmaceutical, and CRO companies, including positions in project management, clinical site monitoring, research protocol development, data quality assurance, research study coordination, analysis of global feasibility, and development of country and site strategies for projects in all phases of clinical development. Bes currently works for a global pharmaceutical company based in Belgium, crafting operational strategies for clinical trials of drugs in development.”
“James Doughman is a born and raised Texan and currently resides in Spring, TX with his daughter and fiancee. He currently works within the Cyber Defense Departme
nt at AIG as a, CISSP Certified, Information Security Analyst. He has gathered valuable skills while previously working as a System Administrator, Network Engineer, Forensic Analyst, and PCI-DSS Compliance Consultant. James graduated from Sam Houston State University with a degree in Computer Science specialized in Information Assurance. His hobbies include motorcycles, firearms, and technical tinkering.” https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessamdoughman
“Steve Lohrenz is a Principal Consultant with a technology company.
He has 18 years of experience in IT having been a network administrator, programmer, systems analyst and software architect before his current role. He currently resides in California with his wife and son, thave also lived in Ireland and Montana. His hobbies include hiking, aikido and developing cool things with software.”
“Yasamina (‘Mina) McBride is pursuing the MS in Foresight to help organizations and individuals both anticipate and exact more influence over the environment of continuous change 
that exists in the 21st century. Currently, she works with a team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health and Global Environment. The team produces Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership programs designed to enable senior leaders to learn powerful new strategies that position sustainability as a driver of organizational engagement, authenticity, agility, innovation, and change-capability. As a corporate and independent trainer, she has led corporate training programs, produced and facilitated workshops, developed curricula, and designed instructional materials. An ALB graduate from Harvard University, her research interests include peak performance and how to affect behavioral change on an organizational and individual level.”
“Tim Morgan has had a lifelong fascination with the future. A natural optimist, he has constantl
y looked forward to how technological and social changes could improve life for everyone. To this point, Tim’s primary outlet for futurism has been a voracious reading habit in science and technology related fields along with philosophy, sociology, economics, history and a host of other subjects. His interest in the future lead him to Science Fiction at an early age. This interest culminated in becoming president of the Dallas Future Society between 2011-2015. The Dallas Future Society is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to promoting Literature, Science, Art, Music primarily via literary Science Fiction conventions, lectures, and other events. Several years ago, Tim attended our week-long certificate course and finally found the time to pursue the full degree.”
“Natalie Pacheco has over 13 years of experience working for a Fortune 500 Financial Services company in San Antonio, TX. Her experience has varied from call center operations, speech to text analytics, agile project management, and interactive voice response systems. She currently works as a decision scientist, where she helps the company make the best decisions backed by data. Her undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Arts in Business with a focus on accounting. Natalie spends her free time reading, painting, baking, and learning ballet. She and her husband, Jason, have two ‘fur-babies’. A cat named Chicken and a dog named Rainbow.”
“Ileana Perez is currently a pre-graduate student seeking the Certificate in Strategic Foresight. Employed as the financial coordinator for the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston. Received Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston in 2013.”
Dave Ramirez has experience in increasingly responsible roles within marketing at several companies. Notably, he has served as marketing director for two publishing companies where he was
responsible for managing all marketing, licensing, operations, and sales activities. One company focused on the energy industry and the other company developed fantasy and sci-fi graphic novels and children’s books.During this time, he has managed large, complex events & product launches in several large cities including New York, Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Frankfurt, Germany.
His leadership has helped his employers win several industry awards. Lastly, Dave also has extensive experience assisting start-ups with marketing strategy and communications technology. He also has a BS in media studies from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.”
“Andrea Ratzlaff was born and raised in the Ozarks in Arkansas, she moved to Virginia in 1997 and outside of 6 months living in San Diego have been there ever since. After earning a BS in Nursing in 2004 from Old Dominion University, she spent about 6 years working as an ICU nurse. In 2007, she began her MS in Nursing, but had to put that on hold about a year into it due to life (read kids!). From there she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the major oncology group in my area for almost 7 years. Most recently, she has been working as a contractor for a medical software company based in New York and finally getting back to school to finish her graduate degree. When she’s not working or studying, she’s busy spending time with her three kids, reading, or traveling.”
“Daniel Riveong loves to connect the dots between individual behaviors, social dynamics, and the technology that enables them. He has over 18 years of experience in technology and advertising. The past few years, he has conducted a few foresight workshops in Asia. Most recently, he helped establish the first data science training program in Indonesia. Previously, he led the Asian regional office for a San Francisco-based digital consultancy. A relentless learner, he has attained certificates in design thinking, risk management, and data science from UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and Coursera/John Hopkins, respectively.”
“Bo Roe is passionate about leading creative teams to drive business growth through culturally relevant innovation. Over the past 11 years, he has led projects in Brazil, China, Colombia, Japan, France, Mexico, Switzerland, Turkey, and the US. In his most recent role as Director, Innovation at Newell Brands, Bo and his team led over 100 future-oriented innovation sessions delivering over 300 innovation platforms currently in development. His professional experience includes global work in consumer insights, creative problem-solving facilitation, innovation strategy development, and industrial design. Bo holds a B.S. in Industrial Design from Georgia Tech and a graduate certificate in Creativity, Innovation, and Change Management from the State University of New York. He has completed consumer insights training at both RIVA and the Burke Institute. Bo is defined by his insatiable curiosity, recently spending his spare time taking photographs from high altitude balloons, sailing, brewing beer, and dancing with his wife, two kids and dog to made up songs in the kitchen of their mid-century home in Kalamazoo, MI.”
Cyndi Whitecotton is a Behavior Researcher who enjoys connecting people to their favorite organizations through meaningful experiences. I’m currently researching how people perceive, interpret, interact and respond in a media rich world. Her focus to date has been on the decision-making processes users experience as they adopt or reject digital technologies. Additionally, she applies best practices in the areas of content analysis, user experience and quantitative behavioral research. By combining her knowledge in the areas of Media Psychology, Technology and Futures Work, she can assist organizations to create for how their audiences live and work in this digital age.”
