The list of speakers will be updated periodically. Make sure to check back frequently for more exciting announcements!
Speakers listed alphabetically
Speakers subject to availability
Dr. Nelli Babayan
Microsoft, AI Director
AI at the Final Frontier: Your Autonomous Agents in Space
Dr. Nelli Babayan is the AI Director at Microsoft, overseeing AI initiatives with U.S. Federal Civilian agencies. She leads virtual cross-solution teams to advance mission outcomes, directing strategy and secure implementation of AI by fostering collaboration and developing mission-specific use-cases. She has delivered numerous talks and moderated panels at both US-based events and international conferences. Nelli supports government efforts with her extensive and cross-industry background, having managed research and policy projects at DC-based think-tanks, lectured at universities and published in peer-reviewed journals.
Brian Brown
Razorfish, SVP Executive Creative Director and Creative Innovation Lead
AI and Marketing
Brian Brown is the SVP Executive Creative Director and Creative Innovation lead at Razorfish. A designer, storyteller, coder, and cultural anthropologist—Brian thrives at the intersection of technology, culture, and creativity. Brian's work is helping to shape the future of digital marketing. From reimagining brands in the metaverse to pioneering AI-driven campaigns, he’s spent over 20 years merging emerging tech with pop culture to craft experiences that resonate and inspire.
Brian’s work has earned accolades from BDA’s, Effies, OMMA, IAB, Campaign, and Adage, but he’s more interested in what’s next than resting on past successes. Leading a team of creative technologists, he bridges the gap between technological innovation and human connection, turning complex ideas into engaging stories and boundary-pushing campaigns.
As a thought leader, Brian has spoken at universities, industry events, and conferences, offering sharp insights on generative AI, immersive storytelling, and the cultural shifts sparked by emerging tech. His fascination with how technology drives societal change—slowly at first, then all at once—fuels his work and his passion for innovation.
Heidi Connelly
Microsoft Federal, Cloud & AI Platform Leader
AI at the Final Frontier: Your Autonomous Agents in Space
Heidi Connelly is the Cloud & AI Platform Leader for Microsoft Federal, where she drives strategic initiatives across government sectors with a focus on digital transformation and AI solutions. She has almost 20 years of experience supporting the Federal Government. Heidi joined Microsoft in 2017, and her past roles include General Manager of the National Security Group Specialist Team, Azure Sales Leader, Army Account Team Leader, and Azure Specialist. She is a former United States Army Signal Officer and served as a Department of Army Civilian prior to joining Microsoft. www.linkedin.com/in/hconnelly1
Dr. Jack Francis
AI Solutions Director, Davidson Technologies Inc.
AI for Enhanced Productivity: Mastering Prompts and a Modern Toolkit:
Generative AI is reshaping the modern workplace. While millions of professionals use tools like ChatGPT, most only scratch the surface of their capabilities. If you regularly use AI but feel you could be getting better, faster, or more creative results, this workshop is designed for you.
This hands-on session will provide the essential skills to elevate your AI proficiency. You will be introduced to:
Advanced Prompting Frameworks: Go beyond basic questions to master prompting techniques that deliver more accurate, high-quality, and strategically aligned responses from any large language model. Through hands-on exercises, you will learn prompting strategies for any professional task.
A Curated Spectrum of AI Tools: Discover a range of powerful AI applications built for specialized applications, including in-depth research, automated meeting intelligence, and dynamic content creation. We will explore the best-in-class tools to curate your modern productivity toolkit.
This workshop is for any professional who wants to work smarter, not harder, in the age of AI. You will leave with practical skills you can use immediately to improve your productivity.
As the AI/ML Solutions Director for Davidson Technologies Inc., Dr. Jack Francis shapes the company's AI vision, leading the design and deployment of impactful initiatives that drive innovation and operational efficiency. His career is marked by significant technical achievements and leadership across diverse organizations, including KBR, Nike, Amazon, and PepsiCo.
Dr. Francis holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Mississippi State University, where his highly cited research focused on Bayesian Transfer Learning for Additive Manufacturing. His contributions have been recognized with awards including induction into the MSU Graduate School Hall of Fame and 1st place in the Navy HacktheMachine Data Science Competition. An active community leader, Dr. Francis serves on the Steering Committee for Leadership Greater Huntsville Management Academy and contributes his expertise to Huntsville, AL.
Bruce Holsinger - Dinner Speaker
Author, Culpability
Bruce Holsinger is the author of five novels, including Culpability, The Displacements, and The Gifted School, as well as many works of nonfiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age. His books have been recognized with the Colorado Book Award, the John Hurt Fisher Prize, the Philip Brett Award, the John Nicholas Brown Prize, the Modern Language Association's Prize for a First Book, and others. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications and he has been profiled on NPR's Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. A Guggenheim Fellow and Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, he teaches in the Department of English at the University of Virginia and serves as editor of the quarterly journal New Literary History. He also teaches craft classes and serves as board chairman for WriterHouse, a nonprofit in Charlottesville.
Culpability (Oprah's Book Club) explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.
Jason Kearns
Director of Cybersecurity, Davidson Technologies Inc.
AI and Cyber: Automating Exploitation with Agentic Systems:
This workshop offers a hands-on guided exploration of how AI can be applied to red teaming. You’ll deploy an Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) agentic system with customizable agents capable of automated target scanning, web enumeration, and vulnerability detection.
Through challenges against vulnerable targets, you will learn how to harness these agents for reconnaissance and exploitation leading to system compromise; showcasing AI’s ability to break through common technical barriers. We’ll focus on agentic principles: empowering AI to autonomously execute tasks and extend capabilities beyond traditional penetration testing.
By the end, you’ll have built and deployed a practical, AI-powered penetration testing system.
Jason Kearns serves as Director of Cybersecurity at Davidson Technologies, where he leads the design and implementation of advanced enterprise security architectures supporting Department of Defense programs and corporate operations. In addition to operational leadership, he regularly contributes to internal research and development efforts supporting innovation initiatives, emerging technology studies at the cross-section of cybersecurity and AI/ML and operates an internal cybersecurity community of interest to further technical capabilities in the domain.
Prior to Davidson, Jason was the Senior IT Security Architect at telecommunications engineering firm ADTRAN, where he led global cloud security modernization, developed enterprise threat intelligence capabilities, and enhanced cyber resiliency across global operations. His work directly advanced ADTRAN’s security posture and alignment with international cybersecurity frameworks. With more than a decade of multi-domain technical expertise, Jason brings unique depth in secure network design, distributed cloud architecture, security automation, and threat analytics development. He holds top industry security engineering, architecture and cloud certifications to include ISSEP, ISSAP, AWS Security and Solutions Architecture Professional.
Jason remains active in the Huntsville community through Leadership Greater Huntsville, and previously Rotaract Club, supporting initiatives that foster professional growth and civic- engagement.
J. Langley
Chief Technology Officer, Cohesion Force, Inc.
Building Your First AI Agents:
This workshop introduces AI agents and explores what makes an agent truly autonomous. We'll start with a clear overview of what an agent is, examining the essential components like a large language model (LLM), memory, and a "tool-using" ability that lets it interact with the outside world. The session is designed to be hands-on, guiding you through the steps of building your very first agent. We'll look at popular frameworks and discuss how agents can communicate and collaborate with each other. By the end, you'll have a solid foundational understanding of AI agents and the practical knowledge to start building your own.
J. Langley is the Founder of Huntsville AI and Chief Technical Officer of CohesionForce, Inc. With over 25 years of experience in Department of Defense (DoD) architecture, systems, and software development, he has a proven track record of delivering innovative solutions. Since 2006, he has specialized in artificial intelligence, focusing on natural language processing (NLP), image recognition, recommendation systems, and audio transcription technologies. In 2018, he founded Huntsville AI, creating a thriving community of practice to advance AI collaboration and innovation in Huntsville. Since its inception, Huntsville AI has held over 220 local meetups, 2 remote NeurIPS meetups, and been an active supporter of the NASA SpaceApps Challenge, the HudsonAlpha Tech Challenge, and the AI Huntsville Taskforce.
COL (Ret.) Howard D. McInvale, PhD
Guidehouse, Inc., Director of Defense, Diplomacy, & Intelligence
Insights From My Foxhole: Aligning AI Strategy and Development for Optimal Impact
Howard D. McInvale serves as a Director of Defense, Diplomacy, & Intelligence at Guidehouse, Inc., an integrated commercial and public sector consulting firm headquartered in McLean, VA. Doug leads Guidehouse Huntsville, AL office activities supporting numerous Army and DoD clients in the areas of Modernization, Acquisition, and Sustainment (MAS). His teams of experts address contemporary challenges in Digital Transformation, Supply Chain Risk Management, Predictive Analytics, Process Improvement, Fleet Management, and Artificial Intelligence. In his current role, Dr. McInvale applies his career of military experience as an Army officer and his intelligence experience as Distinguished Visiting Professor for Operations Research Technology at the National Security Agency, to deliver enterprise-level data solutions for sophisticated operational and acquisition organizations that support the Warfighter. An expert in system of systems engineering and mathematics, Doug is passionate about helping strategic partners foster more data-centric approaches and optimize their business goals.
Prior to his tenure with Guidehouse, Dr. McInvale worked as a Principal Operations Research Analyst & Space Engineer for a Federally Funded Research and Development Corporation (FFRDC) where he led Digital Transformation activities for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Dr. McInvale is an award-winning researcher with 15 peer-reviewed scholarly journal publications and 50 professional talks. Doug is a graduate of West Point and an Airborne Ranger with duties in combat and at the Pentagon and positions of leadership from Infantry Commander to Academy Professor. Doug is a credentialed Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt (MBB) from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). His advanced degrees are an M.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Systems Engineering and Decision Science from Vanderbilt University. Doug and his wife, Amy, have three children and reside in Madison, AL.
Mickey Mentzer
Cincinnati Reds, Senior Director of Baseball Systems
AI & Baseball
Mickey Mentzer is the Senior Director of Baseball Systems for the Cincinnati Reds. In this role his teams are tasked with managing the massive amounts of data for both the sport and business side of the organization. His teams are also responsible for the interfaces for the front office, coaching staff, sports science, and players. Before his role with the Reds, he had the opportunity to work in the innovation space for companies like P&G, Kroger, Anthem and 5/3. He also architected a platform for the social app ooVoo that supported 180 million users globally during its time.
Andrew Miller
Brooklyn Law School, Assistant Professor of Law
AI and Law
Professor Andrew Miller joined Brooklyn Law School as Assistant Professor of Law in the summer of 2025, bringing expertise in privacy law and technology, including artificial intelligence (AI). He teaches Civil Procedure, Administrative Law, and courses relating to the intersection of law and technology.
Professor Miller previously taught at Yale Law School, where he was a Clinical Lecturer in Law, Clinical Fellow in Private Law, and Associate Research Scholar in Law. He also served as the Director of Yale Law’s Private Law Clinic, which he co-founded in 2022 and where students worked on cutting-edge and theoretically challenging matters in consumer protection, contract, tort, and property law. His research focuses on the theoretical and doctrinal implications of algorithmic decision-making in consumer markets. He is also a frequent presenter at scholarly symposia on AI and the law, speaking on topics such as bias in AI, perspectives on the No AI Fraud Act, comparative perspectives on facial recognition regulation, and the future risks, opportunities, and challenges of AI.
After graduating from Yale Law School in 2018, Professor Miller clerked for Judge Diane Wood on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and spent two years at Loevy & Loevy, a Chicago civil rights firm. At Loevy & Loevy, Miller focused on seeking redress for people harmed by the misuse of facial recognition, digital surveillance, and other artificial intelligence technologies.
Shane Morris
Beautiful Majestic Dolphin, Partner
The Hidden NASA: Climate, Chaos, and the Data We Forgot to Brag About
Shane Morris is a senior technologist, data engineer, and AI-builder working at the intersection of national security, federal innovation, and absurdly specific dipping sauces. He’s built scalable data systems for the Army, Navy and Air Force, designed anomaly detection frameworks for critical infrastructure, and led AI enablement efforts across DoD and civilian agencies. Shane also moonlights as a tech influencer with a significant TikTok following, where he breaks down policy, bureaucracy, and machine learning with a voice equal parts professor and stand-up comic. He’s worked with the DoD, DHS and a host of other alphabet agencies, and still somehow finds time to make terrible dad jokes on the internet. Prior to his career working with the federal government, Morris enjoyed a decade plus long run in the music business, which means his playlists are probably better than your playlists.
Grant Moyle
ROI Training, Chief Technology Officer and Master Trainer
AI 101 Workshop
Grant Moyle is the Chief Technology Officer and Master Trainer at ROI Training. Over the last 20+ years, Grant has worked with the world’s leading organizations to modernize their computing operations into the Cloud, and leverage AI and ML to solve business problems. His customers include NASA, NIH, Google, Goldman Sachs, Mayo Clinic, and HSBC.
A 2-time Google Cloud Trainer of the Year, Grant has trained thousands of business and technology professionals around the world. He has degrees from Johns Hopkins University in Biomedical, Electrical and Computing Engineering. He holds multiple certifications from Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft and ISC2. Since a young age, Grant has had a passion for technology and is an avid space enthusiast. Grant enjoys annual visits to the US Space and Rocket Center for his space camper son Duncan.
Focused on helping organizations achieve digital transformation thru upskilling, ROI Training is the global leader in customized technology and management training solutions. ROI is an AWS Advanced Tier Training Partner and has been awarded Training Partner of the Year six times by Google Cloud. ROI has authored 10 Generative AI classes and trained over 500,000 people on Cloud and AI technologies.
Josh Phillips
Chief Digital Officer, CohesionForce, Inc.
From Prompts to Processes: Engineering Agentic Development Environments:
Large language models are powerful, but raw prompting isn’t enough for sustained engineering tasks. This session dives into configuring reproducible agent environments: structured prompts, tool servers, test scaffolds, sub-agents, and memory layers that allow AI to reason across complex repositories. We’ll walk through advanced IDE integrations (Claude Code, Cline, Cursor) and provide a pre-built repository with setup scripts developers can adapt to their own projects.
Josh Phillips is Chief Digital Officer at CohesionForce, where he leads digital transformation and artificial intelligence initiatives. He has over a decade of experience spanning software engineering, data engineering, and AI application development, with recent work focused on multimodal models, agentic systems, and AI-assisted test & development. In addition to his role at CFI, he organizes a monthly paper review series on emerging AI research and regularly speaks on practical applications of AI in engineering and business contexts.
Denise Zheng
Accenture Federal Services, Chief AI Officer and Data & AI Lead
How Agentic AI will change the Workplace
Denise Zheng is Chief AI Officer and Data & AI Lead for Accenture Federal Services. Previously, she was Managing Director and Global Generative AI and Ecosystem Lead at Accenture where she helped companies navigate adoption and scaling new classes of artificial intelligence. She has held various leadership roles at Accenture including as Strategic Initiatives Lead for Accenture’s Chair and CEO.
Denise has a unique blend of expertise, including advanced technology R&D initiatives, strategy, and driving major cross-industry initiatives on artificial intelligence, data privacy, and cybersecurity working with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
Prior to joining Accenture, Denise was head of technology and innovation at Business Roundtable. She also led the Strategic Technologies Program at CSIS, ranked top thinktank in the United States, and served as lead systems engineering and technical advisor and chief of staff of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s foundational cyber and AI program – Plan X.
Denise has testified multiple times before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives as an expert on digital trade, data privacy, and internet governance issues. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and she has been interviewed by CNN, BBC, CBS, and NPR on a range of technology issues.
Denise completed her bachelor’s and graduate studies at University of Michigan, London School of Economics, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business.