Events

Ellen Laipson is the Director of the International Security Program and Director of the Center for Security Policy Studies at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She joined GMU after a distinguished 25-year career in government and as President of the Stimson Center (2002-2015). Her last post in the US government was Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council (1997-2002). She also served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, the National Security Council staff, and at the Congressional Research Service. Currently she serves on several academic and non-government boards related to international security and diplomacy. She was a member of the CIA External Advisory Panel (2006-2009), President Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board (2009-2013), and the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board (2011-2014). She holds an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and an A.B. from Cornell University.

Ambassador (ret.) Richard Kauzlarich is Co-Director of the Center for Energy Science and Policy (CESP) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Mason’s Schar School. From 2003 until 2011, he was National Intelligence Officer for Europe at the National Intelligence Council. He was Director of the Special Initiative on the Muslim World at the United States Institute of Peace following a 32-year career in the Foreign Service. He served as United States Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to Azerbaijan. He also was Senior Deputy to the Secretary of State’s and the President’s Special Representative to the Newly Independent States. Ambassador Kauzlarich received his A.A. from Black Hawk College, B.A. from Valparaiso University, and M.A.s from Indiana University and the University of Michigan.

Charles “Chas” Richard serves as President of IDA, where he directs the activities of more than 1,000 scientists, technologists, and analysts. A distinguished leader and strategist, Chas served in the U.S. Navy for more than 40 years, culminating in his role as the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command from 2019-2022. In this capacity, he was responsible for the global command and control of all strategic U.S. nuclear forces, overseeing a workforce of over 150,000 personnel focused on strategic deterrence, nuclear operations, and missile defense. Following retirement in January 2023, Chas transitioned to academia as the Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

Colin Grabow is an Associate Director at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies where his research focuses on domestic forms of trade protectionism such as the Jones Act and the U.S. sugar program. His writings have been published in several outlets, including War on the Rocks, the Center for International Maritime Security, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Prior to joining the Cato Institute, he performed political and economic analysis for a Japan-based trading and investment firm and published research and analysis for an international affairs consulting firm with a focus on U.S.-Asia relations. Grabow holds a BA in international affairs from James Madison University and an MA in international trade and investment policy from George Washington University.

Amit Pandya is a lawyer and retired public servant, with a background in public international law, labor standards, South Asia, and the Arab world. His US Government experience includes senior positions at the Department of Labor, USAID and the Departments of Defense and State, and the U.S. House Government Operations and Foreign Affairs Committees. His non-governmental experience includes the American Civil Liberties Union and the Stimson Center, where he worked on the Indian Ocean and maritime security. Pandya holds degrees from Oxford, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves as Chair and Managing Trustee of an Indian Charitable Trust, working on medical services to the poor, women’s issues,  police reform and the rule of law.

Dr. Steven Wills is a Navalist with the Center for Maritime Strategy at the Navy League of the United States and an expert in U.S. Navy strategy, policy, and surface warfare. A retired U.S. Navy officer, he served for 20 years in a variety of operational and staff assignments, including as executive officer of a mine countermeasures ship and in positions with the Defense Intelligence Agency and NATO commands in Naples, Italy. Following his retirement, Dr. Wills earned a Ph.D. in Military History from Ohio University. He is the author of Strategy Shelved: The Collapse of Cold War Naval Strategic Planning. His work has appeared in numerous military and defense publications, including Naval War College Review, War on the Rocks, and National Review. He holds master’s degrees from Ohio University and the U.S. Naval War College, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Miami University.

Dr. Joe Petrucelli (Moderator) is an adjunct professor at GMU’s Schar School, a Navy Reserve Captain and a Group Leader at Systems Planning and Analysis.  He has multiple deployed tours as a submariner and command of US Navy Reserve augment units, lectures on Maritime Security, and leads a team of analysts providing program analysis and capability assessment to Navy undersea clients – he is here in his personal capacity and not representing any clients, his company or the USG.

Matthew Reisener is the Senior National Security Advisor for the Center for Maritime Strategy. He is the editor of a report entitled Pier Review: Leveraging the Allied Maritime Industrial Base for U.S. Shipbuilding​ and is a co-editor of the forthcoming book Makers of Maritime Strategy. He previously served as the National Democratic Institute’s Senior Program Manager for the Middle East and North Africa. Before that, he worked at the Center for the National Interest, where he served as the organization’s chief of staff and co-edited a report entitled Seapower in Stormy Seas: The Future of American Naval Power in the 21st Century. He holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Rhetoric & Political Communication from William Jewell College.

Dr. Karen E. Young is a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, where she leads the Economics and Energy Initiative. Her research focuses on Gulf geopolitics, energy security, and geoeconomics, and she regularly advises corporate and investment audiences on these issues. Dr. Young is the author of The Economic Statecraft of the Gulf Arab States and has written extensively on the political economy of energy and finance in the Middle East. A frequent commentator in international media, she has testified before Congress and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Scott A. Snyder is President and Chief Executive Officer at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI). Previously, he was a Senior Fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2011 to March 2024. Mr. Snyder is the author of The United States-South Korea Alliance: Why It May Fail and Why It Must Not (December 2023) and South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers (January 2018). Mr. Snyder received a BA from Rice University and an MA from the regional studies East Asia program at Harvard University.

David M. Hart is a senior fellow for climate and energy at the Council on Foreign Relations and principal of Hart Policy Advisors. His work focuses on policies that accelerate clean energy and climate technology innovation. He is the author of several books on innovation and public policy, including Unlocking Energy Innovation, and has written extensively on energy security, technology, and economic competitiveness. Professor Emeritus at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, Hart previously served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and holds a Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Mark J. Rozell is the author or co-author of thirteen books and editor of twenty books on various topics in U.S. government and politics including the presidency, religion and politics, media and politics, southern politics, and interest groups in elections. He has testified before Congress on several occasions on executive privilege issues and has lectured extensively in the U.S. and abroad. In recent years he has lectured in Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Macau, Malta, Poland, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and Vietnam. Dean Rozell writes frequent op-ed columns in such publications as the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Washington Post . He is often asked to comment about his areas of expertise for print, online, and broadcast media.

Dr. Rian Bahran is the Chief Nuclear Officer at Antares, where he leads nuclear operations, licensing, government affairs, and policy, and drives expansion into new markets. Rian previously served as the DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors, with prior roles at the White House, Pentagon, and Los Alamos. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear science and engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where his doctoral research was funded by U.S. Naval Reactors in support of the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Advanced Reactor Program, and a dual B.S. in nuclear engineering and engineering physics from RPI.

Alex Gilbert, PhD, is Principal and Field Director at Rocinante Fieldworks, where he advises on space nuclear systems, spaceport infrastructure, and strategic resources. Previously, he worked at Zeno Power on the deployment of radioisotope power systems. He earned his PhD from the Colorado School of Mines, focusing on space mining and resource governance, and has conducted research with the Payne Institute for Public Policy on space resources, nuclear energy, and space-based solar power.

Jacob Matthews is the Founder and CEO of Potomac Database Systems (Potomac), a lunar intelligence company building the data layer for the emerging lunar economy to make the Moon more accessible and investable. The company is developing low-cost lunar surface systems to collect proprietary intelligence while building the infrastructure to distribute lunar data for government, commercial, scientific, and financial users. Before founding Potomac, Jake co-founded Zeno Power, where he served as Chief Technology Officer and helped commercialize radioisotope power systems for space and other extreme environments. Before entering the space industry, Jake served as a U.S. Army Cavalry officer, including a deployment to Afghanistan. Jake holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Courtney Stadd is Founder/President, Capitol Alliance Solutions, LLC, a Washington, DC-based management consulting firm whose clients include a wide range of pioneering commercial space actors. For nearly 40 years, Stadd’s career path has been a mix of senior government leadership and corporate executive jobs. Courtney has held multiple senior positions at the US Department of Commerce, the US Department of Transportation, the White House, and worked directly for three NASA Administrators, including as Chief of Staff/White House Liaison. As Senior Director of the White House National Space Council, he helped draft numerous Presidential directives encouraging a competitive commercial space industry, including commercial space guidelines which have governed executive agency use of commercial space products and services for over 30 years.

Dr. Hina Kazmi (Moderator) has more than 30 years of experience in the commercial and civil space sectors. Her career spans engineering, program management, and leadership roles with NASA, the FAA, and industry, leading large-scale programs, and congressionally directed institutional policy initiatives. Dr. Kazmi earned her Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, receiving the Joseph A. Fischer Award for best doctoral dissertation. She is currently an adjunct and affiliate faculty member at the Schar School.  She also holds Masters in Public Policy and Business Administration, and B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Jeffrey Eppink has more than 40 years of experience in the energy sector, with expertise spanning oil and gas, carbon capture, geothermal, biomass, wind, solar, and emerging energy technologies. He is recognized for providing strategic analysis and policy guidance to both public and private sector clients and has worked on energy projects in more than 35 countries. Eppink has held positions with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Chevron Overseas Petroleum, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science before founding Enegis, LLC. He holds degrees in geology, applied geophysics, and business administration from California Polytechnic State University, the University of Southern California, and Virginia Tech.

Julianne Szyper has served as the Deputy Director of the Virginia Department of Energy, where she established state financing programs that allocated key funding to pioneer next-generation energy technologies and strengthen domestic energy supply chains. Her leadership was instrumental in the deployment of world-class energy infrastructure. She previously served as a trusted Chief of Staff and advisor to senior elected state and federal officials, and as a respected collaborator with global industry and civic leaders. Julianne is the president of Navigator Consulting, LLC, and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative, where she has spoken and written on a variety of policy topics, including energy demand, nuclear energy, and the nexus between data centers and nuclear energy. Julianne holds an M.A. in Government/Law & Public Policy and a B.A. in Government/Pre-Law.

Mike McKechnie is the Founder and President of Mountain View Solar (mtvSolar), bringing over 30 years of expertise in energy efficiency contracting and renewable infrastructure to the forefront in Northern Virginia’s evolving energy landscape. As the visionary driving strategic goals for mtvSolar’s Advanced Energy Storage team, he holds a deep, specialized understanding of how solar arrays and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) integrate seamlessly into commercial and utility-scale networks. His practical industry experience offers an immediate, scalable approach to behind-the-meter generation, grid security, and the deployment of next-generation power solutions across the region.

Dr. Anna Broughel (Moderator) is an energy economist focused on connecting utilities, policymakers, and academia to accelerate the transition toward a reliable and affordable energy system. She is faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she focuses on energy policy, economics, and digitalization. She is a member of the Supervisory Board of Eesti Energia, Estonia’s state-owned integrated utility, and president-elect of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics. Her research focuses on the social acceptance of energy technologies and the behavioral and policy factors shaping their adoption. Previously, she held thought leadership roles at Tetra Tech, the Clean Energy Leadership Institute, and the U.S. Department of Energy. She is a Forbes contributor and a Fulbright Scholar.