Ruth Berkelman, M.D., Assistant Surgeon General, US Public Health Service (retired), is a Rollins Professor Emerita of Epidemiology and Preparedness at Emory University. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, she is board certified in pediatrics and internal medicine. She began her public health career in 1980 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in infection control, then led the nation’s surveillance of HIV/AIDS, followed by appointment as Deputy Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at CDC. She led CDC’s initiative on emerging infectious diseases, and was recognized internationally in infectious disease surveillance. Following retirement from CDC, she established the Emory Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research with an endowed chair. She hosted numerous city-wide meetings on preparedness, participated in the Nunn Business Roundtable on preparedness, and conducted research and training in the fields of preparedness and infectious diseases. She has served on numerous national and international committees and boards related to infectious diseases and biodefense, including the HHS National Biodefense Science Board, the National Academy of Science (NAS) Board of Life Sciences, the Public and Scientific Affairs Board of the American Society of Microbiology, the National Academies’ Microbial Threats to Health Committee and Forum, and a Department of Homeland Security Committee on biodefense. From 2012-2018, she chaired CDC’s Board of Scientific Counselors for Infectious Diseases. She has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Microbiology and the American Epidemiologic Society. She currently is a member of the external advisory committees for the College of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Florida, the Center for Health and Well-being at Princeton University, and the NAS Water, Science and Technology Board.

Donald S. Burke, M. D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Health Science and Policy, Professor of Epidemiology, and Jonas Salk Chair in Population Health at the University of Pittsburgh and former Dean Graduate School of Public Health. He leads a team that develops computational models and simulations of epidemic infectious diseases and other dynamic public health problems, and uses these simulations to evaluate prevention and control strategies for corona viruses, influenza, childhood infectious diseases. Prior to joining Pittsburg, 23 years Director US Army Virology Research at Walter Reed including diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs. He designed and set up the US Military HIV testing program and the DoD Serum Repository which now contains over 50 million stored sera.( Dr. Debra Birix, current member of the White House Task Force on the Coronavirus Epidemic, worked for Dr. Burke and then succeeded him as Director of the US Military HIV Research Program. They co-authored 23 medical/scientific papers on HIV/AIDS. He is a recipient of the John Snow Award from the American Public Health Association for excellence in epidemiology. He has served on Scientific Advisory Committees and Boards for the CDC, DoD, NIH and WHO. He has been a member of the Board of Health of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) for more than a decade. is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.

Dr. Steve Ostroff, M. D. is retired from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in early 2019. He joined the FDA in 2013 and served as the agency’s Acting Commissioner on two occasions (April 2015-February 2016 and January 2017-May 2017), as the Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine and as FDA’s Chief Scientist.

Before joining the FDA, Dr. Ostroff worked at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta for more than 20 years on infectious disease surveillance and outbreak investigations, especially management and coordination of complex emerging infectious disease threats such as anthrax, Ebola, West Nile virus, SARS, and avian influenza. During much of that time, he was the Associate Director for Epidemiologic Science in the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and he also served as the Deputy Director of NCID. He was in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, attaining the rank of Assistant Surgeon General. After leaving the CDC in 2005, Dr. Ostroff performed similar work at the Pennsylvania Department of Health running the Bureau of Epidemiology and serving as the Commonwealth’s Acting Physician General.

Dr. Ostroff received his medical degree in 1981 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and did residency training in internal medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver and preventive medicine at the CDC. He has served on numerous advisory boards and panels, holds adjunct faculty appointments at Penn State School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and has authored more than 100 publications and book chapters on emerging infectious diseases and outbreak investigations.

Judith James, M. D., Ph.D., Chair, Judith A. James, M.D., Ph.D., is Chair of the Arthritis and Clinical Immunology Program and holds the Lou Kerr Chair in Biomedical Research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Dr. James is also the Associate Vice Provost for Clinical and Translational Science and Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. James’ research interests focus on understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome and related disorders, the evolution and pathogenic mechanisms of autoantibodies in systemic rheumatic disease, and the interplay of genetic risk and environmental responses in systemic autoimmunity. Her work has made seminal contributions to understanding how autoimmune diseases start and the concept of humoral epitope spreading. She has published over 270 articles in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Annals of Rheumatic Disease and Arthritis and Rheumatology. Dr. James currently serves as the principal investigator for several large, multi-investigator NIH-funded grants, such as the U54 Oklahoma Shared Clinical & Translational Resources from NIGMS, U19 Autoimmunity Center of Excellence from NIAID, and P30 Rheumatic Disease Research Cores Center from NIAMS. Dr. James has conducted lectures for the American College of Rheumatology and the International Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Meetings, among others. Dr. James has received several prestigious awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the Dubois Award from the American College of Rheumatology. She is a member of NIAMS Council with the National Institutes of Health and recently served as the elected Secretary-Treasurer of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. She has served on several other NIH advisory committees and chaired an NIH Roundtable regarding preclinical autoimmunity. Dr. James also was selected to provide testimony supporting the NIH at the Nobel Laureates’ Hearing for the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. Dr. James received her medical degree and Ph.D. in Immunology from the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and is a board-certified adult Rheumatologist. She continues to practice adult rheumatology, focusing on SLE, incomplete lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome and related rheumatic diseases.

Jill Taylor, Ph. D. is Director of the Wadsworth Center, New York’s state Public Health Laboratory. She is responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the Wadsworth Center as well as for maintaining close communication with Executive Staff within the Office of Public Health, the Department of Health and outreach to external organizations. She is also responsible for priorities for the Center, management of the laboratory’s response to public health emergencies. She is also DCLIA/CLEP Laboratory Director-of-Record, Wadsworth Center. As the Director-of-Record for Wadsworth Center’s Clinical Laboratory, she is responsible for the oversight of all diagnostic functions of the Wadsworth Center as a NYS permitted laboratory. She works closely with the Quality Assurance Officer and reviews all laboratory non-conformances, all proficiency test results that are less than one hundred percent and all laboratory audits that are performed regularly to detect potential problems. The laboratory is surveyed every two years by both CLIA and NYS (CLEP). Her particular scientific interests lie in the area of using laboratory data from molecular technologies and Next Generation sequencing to inform new approaches to surveillance for emerging infectious diseases.

Deborah Hung, Ph.D., M.D., Ph.D., is trained as a physician, chemist, and geneticist, and she joined the Broad Institute as a core member and Harvard Medical School as a faculty member in 2006. Hung combines chemical and genomic approaches to define host-pathogen interactions and to reveal essential in vivo gene functions of pathogens that may be potential therapeutic targets for antimicrobial development. In addition, by deploying small organic molecules on a genome-wide scale to both perturb and understand bacterial infection, she seeks to identify new therapeutic prospects for a variety of devastating pathogens, including Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She is playing a major role in the Broad’s role in screening clinical specimens for Coronavirus-19 as well as development of new screening assays for Coronavirus-19. Hung is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School. She also holds positions as an infectious disease physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital and an attending critical care physician in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In recognition of her discovery of a new kind of chemical inhibitor of V. cholerae, she was awarded the 2009 American Society for Microbiology Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award. She is also a recipient of a Pew Scholars Award in the Biomedical Sciences and a Doris Duke Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award. Hung serves on the Scientific Steering Committee of the New England Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. She received her A.B. from Harvard University, Ph.D. from Harvard University, and M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency in internal medicine and fellowships in infectious disease and critical care medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

George J. Netto, M.D., is Professor and the Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair of Pathology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).   Dr. Netto received his medical degree from Damascus University before residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at Baylor University Medical Center and fellowships in surgical pathology at the Washington University School of Medicine, and in urologic pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2005 he joined the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty and served as Director of Surgical Pathology Molecular Diagnostics and Professor of Pathology, Urology and Oncology. He currently serves as Pathologist-in-Chief and Senior Scientist at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Civitan International Research Center at UAB.   His research, focused on urologic and molecular diagnostic pathology, has helped characterize the incidence and role of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion and PTEN loss as a prognostic biomarker in prostate adenocarcinoma. Dr. Netto and collaborators are credited with the important discovery related to the high incidence of TERT gene promoter mutation in muscle invasive bladder cancer and upper tract urothelial carcinoma. The discovery led to the development of a novel, noninvasive urine-based genetic assay for early detection of bladder cancer, UroSEEK, that promises significant decrease in the need for repeated invasive and costly cystoscopy procedures.  Dr. Netto is the incoming editor in chief for Modern Pathology. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals of Human Pathology, Pathology, and Virchow Archives European Journal of Pathology. He served previously as associate editor of the for translation and basic science for the journal Urology and the associate editor for the journals Urology Case Report and Advances in Anatomic and Molecular Pathology. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 articles and chapters, including four books in urologic pathology, and is the editor of a widely recognized textbook on genomics in pathology, Genomic Applications in Pathology, currently in its second edition.

d Nardell, M.D.- is a professor in the Departments of Medicine and of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an professor in the Departments of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is an associate in medicine in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), in both the Division of Global Health Equity and the Pulmonary Division. His research interests involve the control of tuberculosis under resource-limited conditions, with a focus on the pathogenesis of drug-resistant tuberculosis, its airborne transmission, and transmission control in institutions. He is recently tested interventions to prevent transmission of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) in a unique experimental facility in South Africa, in which large numbers of sentinel guinea pigs served to sample the air from a six-bed MDR-TB ward, part of an MDR-TB referral center. An early observation of this research led to new investigation on TB pathogenesis, specifically the possibility of transient TB infection in guinea pigs as well as humans. Another important finding is that effective treatment rapidly (within days) stops TB transmission, even due to MDR-TB. Further planned research will determine which drugs are responsible for this dramatic effect. Ongoing experiments are also studying the impact of inhaled TB drugs on TB transmission. Another long-standing research avenue is the application of germicidal irradiation to reduce airborne transmission. Dr. Nardell did a controlled study of UV air disinfection efficacy that has resulted in the first evidence-based dosing guidelines for wide application. He has also published on the safety of upper room GUV. Dr. Nardell also is developing more efficient, less expensive UVGI fixtures for resource-limited settings. In addition, he has worked on developing and validating a computer-assisted design software package to facilitate planning of UV installations in buildings.

David H. Sliney, Ph. D., holds a Ph.D. in biophysics and medical physics from the University of London (Institute of Ophthalmology), an M.S. in physics and radiological health from Emory University (Atlanta, GA, USA) and a B.S. in physics in from Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Blacksburg, VA, USA). From 1965 to 1995 he was Chief of the Laser Branch, Laser Microwave Division, of the US Army Environmental Hygiene Agency at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. With the creation of the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine in 1995, he was assigned as Program Manager, Laser/Optical Radiation Program, which he held until his retirement in 2007. Since then, his role has been as an independent consultant. He holds an associate faculty position with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore), Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, and an associate position with Drexel Institute of Technology (Philadelphia). He has been active in the establishment of health and safety standards for protection of the eye and skin from lasers and high‑intensity optical sources and his studies in vision, thermal and photochemical effects upon the retina have aided the development of laser applications in medicine and surgery. He is perhaps best known for two well-cited books: With Prof. Myron Wolbarsht , "Safety with Lasers and Other Optical Sources," and with Prof. Stephen Trokel, "Medical Lasers and Their Safe Use." He has published well over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and many relate to the development and optimization of safe use of lasers and laser applications in eye surgery and ophthalmic diagnostics. He has served on the editorial board of a number of scientific journals, including Lasers and Light in Ophthalmology and Annals of Ophthalmology and Glaucoma, Health Physics, J Laser Applications in Medicine and Surgery, and Photochemistry and Photobiology. Dr. Sliney was the chair of a task group on “Adjustment of guidelines for exposure of the eye to optical radiation from ocular instruments” under the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) during 1996-2005. He is a member of the Optical Society of America, the Society of Photo Optical Instrumentation Engineers, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery and a number of other societies. He serves on TC 76, "Lasers," of the International Electrotechnical Commission as a Convener. Dr. Sliney served three four-year terms as a member of the International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (1991-2003), and continued as a member of the Standing Committee IV, Optical Radiation until 2011. He is currently a director, and is a past-chairman of the Laser Safety Committee of the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery, a member of the Laser Safety Committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and was chairman of the Laser Safety Committee of the Optical Society of America. He served as Co-Chairman of the 1976 and 1984 Gordon Conferences on Lasers in Medicine and Biology. He was a member (1982 1985) of the Technical Electronic Product Radiation Safety Standards Committee of the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health. He was a member and past chairman of the Research Advisory Committee of the Lighting Research Institute (1980-1995), and was a member of the Panel on Impact of Video Viewing on Vision of Workers, Committee on Vision, National Research Council, 1981-83. He served as Director of Division 6 (Photobiology) of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) from 1991-2003. He also served as President of the American Society for Photobiology in 2009-2010. In 2005 he was awarded both the George M. Wilkening Award and the Schawlow Award of the Laser Institute of America. He received a Fulbright Fellowship to lecture at an International Summer School on Radiation Protection, held in Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia, in 1976. He also received the IEC-1906 Award from the International Electrotechnical Commission in 2006 and the Health Physics Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in 2009 and the Army Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Sliney retired from USACHPPM in 2007, but continues to be active as consultant and a member in five ISO and IEC technical committees, and as an instructor for the LIA and teaches in a noise and physical agents course at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Brian Shelton, M.S. During his career with PathCon, Brian has directed numerous high-profile investigations, including those involving Legionnaires’ disease, Norovirus and Anthrax. In his work with Legionella bacteria, he was the first to show an association between Legionella concentrations and the risk of disease in cooling towers. PathCon’s hazard criteria guidelines for Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks have been adopted by OSHA as its standard. In addition, this interpretive criteria is the basis for many other health agencies around the world. Mr. Shelton was also the first to link a decorative fountain to a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak. Under his guidance, PathCon played a vital role in the discovery of Anthrax-contaminated news media facilities in New York City and U.S. Postal facilities around the country after the 9-11-2001 attacks – including the Brentwood Postal Distribution Center in Washington, D.C. Brian received his MPH in Epidemiology from Emory University in Atlanta and his BSc degree in Microbiology from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He is a member of AIHA and chaired the Indoor Environmental Quality Committee in 2001.

Jay Bhattacharya, M.D. - Professor of Medicine Stanford University. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and at the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute. He holds courtesy appointments as Professor in Economics and in Health Research and Policy. He directs the Stanford Center on the Demography of Health and Aging. Dr. Bhattacharya’s research focuses on the economics of health care around the world with a particular emphasis on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations. Dr. Bhattacharya’s peer-reviewed research has been published in economics, statistics, legal, medical, public health, and health policy journals. He holds an MD and PhD in economics from Stanford.

Vishwanath Pingali, Ph.D. - is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in India. Dr. Pingali has led critical investigations in the fields of regulatory economics, applied econometrics, behavioral economics, and pharmaceutical economics since 1999. Dr. Pingali earned his PhD in Economics at Northwestern University, an MA in Economics, and an MS in Quantitative Economics from the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta. Following his studies, Dr. Pingali was an Associate at Cornerstone Research in Boston, Massachusetts, where he made significant contributions to economic analyses of patents, antitrust issues, and financial fraud. Dr. Pingali was a George C. Lamb Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and Assistant Professor at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai, India. His research has appeared in numerous international, peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Health Economics, Economic Modelling, International Journal o fIndustrial Organization, Energy Policy, and Studies in Microeconomics, among others. is Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

Janet Shoemaker Busali - Director, Public Affairs, American Society for Microbiology (1990--retired 2017). BA, University of Massachusetts. Graduate studies in Public Policy, George Washington University. Responsible for work, over 40 years, to influence legislative and regulatory policy related to biomedical research, public health and biothreats. Worked with Congress on the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act that established a new regulatory framework for controlling hazardous biological agents, Section 817 of the 2001 Patriot Act to create criminal law prohibiting the use of biological agents for bioterrorism, the 2002 Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response legislation, following September 11, to register select agent laboratories and expand controls over dangerous biological agents, legislation on the role of the Department of Homeland Security and biological agents in 2002, and the 2009 draft bill on Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness. Directed a survey in 2006 on the location, capacity and status of Biosafety 3 laboratories. Provided advice to government agencies on safety for high containment laboratory policy, risk assessment of select agents and worked with the Interagency Task Force on Optimizing Biosafety in laboratories. Participated in congressional and government policy advisory groups concerning regulatory policy on biosafety, biosecurity and dual use research concerns.

Stuart Mott Dansby was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, raised in Birmingham, and graduated from high school at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. He is a first-generation Birminghamian, his mother being from Flint, Michigan, and his father from Ozark, Alabama. Stewart graduated from St. Andrews University in North Carolina with a B. A. in Environmental Studies/Biology. He later received an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Stewart’s career has included working in the urban planning division of a Birmingham architectural firm, two years in Detroit with an investment counseling firm, and five years with the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce where he was Manager of the Public Affairs Department. He later co-founded a GIS consulting firm, American Cadastre, Inc., also known as “AmCad,” that advises clients on computerized mapping. In addition to the United States, AmCad did work in several countries including Russia, Armenia, Canada, Mexico and Kazahkstan. In 1999, the company was sold, and Stewart became the first Executive Director of the Vulcan Park Foundation. He later served as both president and chairman. Stewart currently spends most of his time pursuing “ impact” investments and nonprofit activities. He has served as chairman of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF) and its supporting foundation, the Global Network Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to facilitate global philanthropy in partnership with foundations, institutions, corporations and individuals by leveraging the expertise of SIBF members to further global understanding. The Foundation focuses on projects that permit members to give of their time and expertise as well as their financial support. Stewart serves on the boards of several institutions including the Susan Mott Webb Charitable Trust, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Emergency Assistance Foundation, Birmingham Landmarks, Inc., and the Friends of Linn Park. He is a former chairman of Mc Wane Science Center, and is a past board member of the Ruth Mott Fund, the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Birmingham Historical Society, Lakeshore Foundation, Alabama Symphony Orchestra Endowment, UAB Research Foundation, Fuqua School of Business Alumni Council, Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation, St. Andrews University, the Advisory Board of the UAB School of Health Professions, the Advisory Board of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at the Fuqua School of Business, City of Mountain Brook Design Review Committee, and the Aviation Committee of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce. He has also served on the board of directors of Long Island Water Corporation, Northern Illinois Water Company, Northwest Indiana Water Corporation, and St. Louis County Water Corporation. He is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham. In 1996. Stewart was named “Outstanding Civic Leader” by the Alabama Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Maria A. Fierro has worked during the past eight years, as the Border Infectious Disease Surveillance Officer with the Imperial County Public Health Department-Epidemiology Unit in Imperial County, California. She has a particular interest in border health issues and Binational Surveillance Programs along California-Baja California border region and more specifically on the Mexicali-Imperial County border. During the past 6 years, doctor Fierro has been coordinating several surveillance programs related to emerging and re-emerging infection diseases including Influenza and other Respiratory pathogens, coccidioidomycosis, rocky Mountain spotted fever, acute gastrointestinal illness, mosquito-borne diseases on the Mexicali-Imperial border region and enhancing binational collaboration through the implementation of binational surveillance programs to detect and response to infectious diseases incidents and threats along the California-Baja California border region. Dr. Fierro has a medical degree from the University of Baja California, Mexico and Master’s in Public Health from the University of Arizona where she collaborated in environmental research projects related to children’s exposure to pesticides and household toxic substances and occupational research projects related to fire fighters chemical exposure. She also worked during five years at the Arizona Respiratory Center in asthma related research projects.

Rosie London, MSM, MHR, Executive Director, West Central Alabama AHEC. She is an enthusiastic professional with experience managing resources, students, residents, and projects with proven ability to streamline costs and to increase efficiency and effectiveness of programs. Her greatest strength is her ability to establish and sustain relationships. As a leader in the non-profit environment, she continues to build on those relationships to fulfil AHEC’s mission.

Ruffner Page. G. Ruffner Page, Jr. has served as President and member of the Board of Directors of McWane, Inc., since 1999. He joined the company in 1993 working in mergers and acquisitions. Founded in 1921, McWane has been a global leader in water distribution and infrastructure that are integral to the function and development of plumbing and clean water works systems throughout the world. Throughout the years, many companies in the waterworks industry have moved their manufacturing operations overseas at the expense of American jobs. These companies seek to avoid the environmental and workplace health and safety standards required in the United States. McWane, however, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to modernize its plants and become the industry’s leader in cutting-edge technology. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, McWane has made their operations safe, efficient and compliant while preserving and creating thousands of well-paying American jobs. Mr. Page currently serves on the Board Southern Research, CenterState Bank, ProxsysRx and O’Neal Industries. He previously served for 12 years on the board of the Birmingham Airport Authority and as Chairman of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham Board. He currently serves on the Boards of the Birmingham Education Foundation, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the Downtown Rotary, Leadership Birmingham and Leadership Alabama. Mr. Page graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee with a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology with a minor in Economics. Upon graduation he worked at Bankers Trust Company in New York City and Atlanta. He is also a 1986 graduate of the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Founder, Greensboro Regional Opportunity Works and Managing Partner, Kalenjin & Company, LLC. Rhone’s work centers on helping organizations and individuals develop strategies and operations that lead to improved performance and faster growth. Through his experience in consulting, economic development, energy, consumer goods, technology, and healthcare he advises on issues ranging from product development, and economic mobility to operations transformation.

Kalenjin & Company is a consultancy Rhone founded that helps clients and innovators find uncommon growth. With work ranging from entrepreneurs to startups to corporate clients, he delivers tangible value creation through product launches, developing business models, and capital raising. He is the Founder of Greensboro Regional Opportunity Works, Inc. (GROW), an Alabama Black Belt based technology incubator that supports and inspires innovation, entrepreneurs, and established businesses.

As the former Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for a utility construction company, Rhone had overall responsibility for the company’s management, operations, and financial performance. Previously, he acquired and later sold the company. Rhone also was a founding partner of a Chicago-based acquisition company. Rhone has held executive roles with McDonald’s, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Accenture, Baxter, and Xerox. He currently serves as Founding President, Hale County Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of the Hale County Industrial Development Board. His additional board service with organizations included: NC Central University School of Business Board of Visitors, Boy & Girl Scouts (Chicago), Leadership Greater Chicago, and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, and currently resides in Greensboro, Alabama.

Christopher Spence is Director of Resource Development, Black Belt Community Foundation. The Black Belt Community Foundation serves 11 counties including Bullock, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Perry, Pickens, Sumter, and Wilcox. The Foundation focuses on: Arts and Culture, Community Economic Development, Education, and Health and Wellness. To fully develop each concentrated area, committees consisting of selected board members and volunteer community ambassadors are collectively working to design programs and garner financial support so each objective flourishes and remains sustainable.