Bob Hughes is Manager, Product Marketing for Georgia Power. Currently he is heading up the marketing and communication efforts for the new Electric Transportation and Solar/Renewables initiatives where he leads an internal team as well as three outside advertising, event marketing and social media firms to introduce a new product line to the state. In a little over 18 months he has helped the initiative go from zero followers to over 30,000 with more than 300,000 engagements, building a great community of electric vehicle supporters. Bob was also instrumental in the marketing of the innovative FlatBill® program. His campaign effort was awarded the Platt's Global Energy Award for best international marketing campaign.

Additionally, Bob is on the faculty of the University of Florida, where he leads classes in branding, social media marketing and strategic communications.

Michele Johnson trained in population biology at Washington University in St. Louis with a dissertation focusing on the evolution of behavioral ecology in Caribbean lizards. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral neuroscience at Michigan State University, studying the neuromuscular mechanisms underlying social behavior in lizards. In 2009, she joined the Department of Biology at Trinity University, where her laboratory combines approaches from behavioral ecology and behavioral neuroscience to understand the evolution of behavioral diversity in lizards. She was awarded the 2014 Outstanding Mentor Award from the Council on Undergraduate Research, Biology Division. Her work has been covered extensively on a blog for anole lizard enthusiasts, www.anoleannals.org.

Dr. Deepak V. Kilpadi is a Staff Scientist and Scientific Lead in Acelity’s Research & Technology department headquartered in San Antonio, TX. Acelity is a global wound care and regenerative medicine company created by uniting the strengths of Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI), LifeCell Corporation and Systagenix Wound Management, Limited. With approximately $1.9 billion in revenue and products available in more than 80 countries, Acelity is the undisputed leader in negative pressure wound therapy, the number one provider of regenerative tissue products used for breast reconstruction and hernia repair, and the market leader in collagen dressings.

At Acelity, Dr. Kilpadi has been involved with bench, in vitro, animal and clinical research. More recently, he has led a number of research activities and co-managed the preclinical group that performed the bulk of studies associated with negative pressure wound therapy. He was a charter member of the Patent Evaluation Team, previously managed the Research Presentations & Publications Review committee, and currently sits on the Investigator Initiated Studies review committee for Advanced Wound Therapeutics.

Dr. Kilpadi has 17 peer-reviewed publications/papers, more than 100 conference presentations, four book chapters, and two issued patents. He previously chaired the membership committee of the Wound Healing Society, is currently on the editorial board of Annals of Plastic Surgery, and has reviewed papers for Wound Repair and Regeneration, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and abstracts submitted to various scientific meetings. Prior to joining Acelity in 2001, Dr. Kilpaldi worked with small medical device and venture firms. 

Dr. Kilpadi earned a Bachelor of Technology in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras. He also simultaneously earned a Master of Business Administration and a Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science (Biomaterials) at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where he studied the surfaces of dental/bone implants. Following graduation, Dr. Kilpadi did a post-doctoral fellowship in wound healing and subsequently served as an adjunct assistant professor at UAB where he and his co-investigator obtained a grant and set up a wound assessment clinic in conjunction with the vascular surgery group in order to assess new wound evaluation modalities.

Born in Hubli, India, Dr. Kilpadi has lived in a variety of regions, including Nairobi, Kenya, which greatly contributed to his world view and appreciation of the natural beauty of East Africa and its people. This exposure inspired Dr. Kilpadi’s deep desire to give back to society, and ultimately, influenced his career path in science with a focus on helping people heal.

Dr. Lamsam has extensive experience in practical, ground level efforts as well as in research and academia. In her career, she has accelerated development by connecting research and communication solutions to real world problems. She is the Executive Editor of Native Health News Alliance, an independent nonprofit news agency. She currently serves as vice chair of the Osage Nation Editorial Board. Her research focuses on creating communication knowledge for the purpose of alleviating socio-economic problems, improving individual and community health, and building influence and leadership. Dr. Lamsam’s communication career has taken her across Europe, Asia and the U.S. and introduced her to diverse groups of people and their organizations. Those experiences have helped shaped her philosophy that the wisest practices in organizations start with a community-conscious approach. She recently founded Trumbly Lamsam & Co. as a Native American-owned communication and research consultancy to connect a network of professionals who have made a difference in communities, organizations, and businesses. She received her master’s degree in media management and doctorate from the Missouri School of Journalism. Dr. Lamsam is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation, a federally recognized tribal entity in the United States.

Trained as a virologist, Robert Lanford has worked with nonhuman primate disease models for 30 years, having established his lab at TBRI (then the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research) in 1984. Recently, his primary research focus has been hepatitis B and C viruses, with an emphasis on viral-host interactions and the innate immune response, and how these influence either viral clearance or persistence and disease progression. Lanford has extensive experience in testing new antiviral therapies in the chimpanzee as the final preclinical step before human trials. His work with chimpanzees has demonstrated the potential for a broadly protective vaccine for hepatitis C. Lanford received his PhD in virology from the Baylor College of Medicine. He was founding co-editor of the journal Viral Immunology and has been an editorial board member for two virology journals. He has served on several NIH review boards and organized international conferences on the hepatitis C virus.

Danielle N. Lee is an Outreach Scientist who studies animal behavior and behavioral ecology. In addition to her lab and field research in Tanzania, Africa, Lee is passionate about science outreach and is well known for her science promotion and outreach in social media. Her outreach efforts emphasize science engagement with general audiences, particularly under-served groups. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the National Black Journalists Association. In 2013, Lee helped found the National Science & Technology News Service, a media literacy initiative to bring more science news to African-American audiences and promote science news sources diversity in mainstream media. She writes about science, research news, and diversity outreach in science, technology, engineering, and math for several online communities and at her blog, The Urban Scientist on the Scientific American Blog Network.