Pablo de León is the director of the Human Spaceflight Laboratory at the University of North Dakota, where he is also a professor and chair of the space studies department. He has been working in the space field for three decades as an aerospace engineer in his native Argentina and in the United States.

Ava Halvai is the founder of ARTXV, the first non-fungible token (NFT) collective for neurodivergent artists. She uses her platform to amplify the work of the disabled community on Web3 and blockchain to ensure they are at the forefront of new technologies.

Alex Hanna is director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), an independent organization that studies the development and impact of artificial intelligence. Previously, Hanna was a senior research scientist at Google studying ethical artificial intelligence and fair machine learning. A sociologist by training, her work centers on the data used in new computational technologies.

Malakai is a director who describes her mission as “to be a disruptor by telling world-building and fantastical narratives that turn archetypes of the Black diaspora on its head.” She is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Made in Her Image, which provides opportunities to women and nonbinary youth of color to create their own films, scripts, content and more.

Saif Shahin is a professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Shahin researches technology policy; the implications of disinformation online; media coverage of global politics; diversity and inclusion efforts in digital spaces; and online social movements.

Piyush Mehta is an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and space systems at the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University. He’s an expert in astrodynamics, machine learning and space weather — conditions caused by solar winds, explosions on the sun’s surface, and other solar phenomena.

Veena Dubal is a law professor at the UC College of Law, San Francisco, and is an expert on the intersection of employment and labor law, technology and work in the precarious gig economy.

Jason Hong is a professor at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is part of the Human Computer Interaction Institute.

An Xiao Mina works on program strategy and operations at Meedan, a technology nonprofit that builds software for newsrooms and NGOs to improve the quality of information online.

Shashi Shekhar, a McKnight Distinguished University Professor at the University of Minnesota, is a leading scholar of spatial computing (think Google Maps, Uber and geotagging) and Geographic Information Systems.

Nat Gyenes is a researcher who focuses on the intersection of the Internet and public health. She has looked at how epidemics, prolonged public health challenges and digital health misinformation effect societies.

Mutale Nkonde is an artificial intelligence policy analyst and a fellow at both the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and at Stanford University’s Digital Civil

Moriba Jah is an associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas, Austin.

César A. Hidalgo leads the Collective Learning group at the MIT Media Lab and is an associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT.

Delaram Kahrobaei is the university dean for research at the City University of New York, tenured professor in computer science and mathematics at Queens College, and doctoral faculty in computer science at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Alvaro Bedoya is the founding director of the Center on Privacy and Technology and a visiting professor at Georgetown Law.

Sarah J. Jackson is Presidential Associate Professor and co-director of the Media, Inequality & Change Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

Tristan Walker is a technology entrepreneur who aims to diversify the tech industry by recruiting top young Black and Latinx talent to Silicon Valley.

Deen Freelon is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Arun Sundararajan is the Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship and a professor of technology, operations and statistics at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an associate professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a senior research fellow at the Center for

Derrick L. Cogburn is an associate professor at the School of International Service and the Kogod School of Business at American University.

Pedro Domingos teaches computer science at the University of Washington.

Shaundra “Shani” B Daily is a professor of practice in electrical and computer engineering and computer science at Duke University.

Patricia Williams is a professor at Northeastern University’s law school and in the department of philosophy and religion. She is an expert in critical race theory, bioethics, health law, gender, genetics, algorithms and other topics.

Charles Isbell is the dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, a professor of interactive computing, executive director of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing, and an expert in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Armando Fox is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Victor McCrary is vice president for research and graduate programs at the University of the District of Columbia, an HBCU and the only public university located in Washington, D.C.

Neal Sáles-Griffin is managing director of the tech accelerator Techstars Chicago and a venture partner at MATH Venture Partners.

Amir Muhsin Abo-Shaeer is an American teacher and mechanical engineer. In 2001, during his first year of teaching, he established the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy (DPEA) on the Dos Pueblos High School campus.

Laura Donnelly, founder and CEO of Latinitas, a digital magazine empowering Latina youth through media and technology, told KUT she wants to teach young Latinas to replace negative media representations of Hispanic women

Sabrina Harvey Merritt is the founder and CEO of Atlanta-based October Social Media, a social media marketing, training and consulting company.