Shehu is an accomplished administrator, teacher, and scholar. She currently serves as George Mason’s Inaugural VP and Chief AI Officer in which capacity she also continues to provide leadership for the Institute of Digital InnovAtion (IDIA) for which she served as Associate Vice President for Research during 2022 and 2024.

Shehu also serves as an Associate Dean for AI Innovation in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), where she is also a tenured Professor in the Department of Computer Science.

Source: CEC webpage

Thema (pron: Tay-mah) Monroe-White is an Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government and Department of Computer Science (joint) at George Mason University. Her broad interests include bias mitigation in artificial intelligence (AI), critical quantitative and computational methods, and racial equity in innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E).

As an interdisciplinary scholar, her work explores the systemic biases that affect the workforce and educational journeys of racially minoritized groups within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. She is particularly concerned with understanding the pathways to achieving social and economic empowerment for minoritized groups via I&E, AI literacy, and emancipatory data science.

Source: GMU page

Alan R. Shark is an associate professor in the School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. His research focuses on technology leadership, artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, governance, cybersecurity, and civic engagement.

In addition to and formerly, he served 20 years as executive director of the Public Technology Institute (PTI).

Jesse Kirkpatrick is a Research Associate Professor, Acting Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy,  and Co-director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) at George Mason University.

Jesse is also an International Security Fellow at New America and serves as a consultant for numerous organizations. His most recent consulting engagement is with Noblis Inc., a non-profit science, technology, and strategy organization that delivers technical and advisory solutions to federal government clients, where he is a member of the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Committee; AI Review Board; and Biosafety and Bioethics Committee.

A naval officer and military pilot from 1988-1999, Cummings was one of the U.S. Navy’s first female fighter pilots. She is now the director of Mason’s Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) and a professor at George Mason University. She holds faculty appointments in the Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computer Science departments. She is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Fellow and recently served as the senior safety advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Cummings received her BS in Mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1988, her MS in Space Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994, and her PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004.

Source: GMU webpage