A team drawn from the
institutions it now serves.

Gabby Carney is a Washington, DC–based national security consultant who advises private-sector leaders on economic security policy. She spent 11 years at the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), most recently as a Senior Policy Advisor, where she led interagency efforts to develop and align U.S. technology and export control policies on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies. She advised senior leadership on foreign adversarial influence in global supply chains, coordinated multilateral engagements to strengthen international regulatory cooperation, and produced analyses that shaped high-level trade and technology security decisions.

In earlier leadership roles at the BIS, Ms. Carney managed teams assessing risks posed by foreign technology end-users, developed regulatory frameworks for dual-use goods, and built compliance cooperation with allies. She began her career working on export enforcement initiatives to strengthen U.S. technology safeguards and improve industry compliance with trade regulations.

Ms. Carney holds an MBA in International Business and an MA in Security Policy Studies from The George Washington University, and a BA in Political Science and Anthropology from the State University of New York at Albany.

Dr. Aaron Mannes is a lecturer and research associate at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and has been a consultant to multiple U.S. government agencies including the Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. In these roles, Dr. Mannes has shaped federal technology policy, supported cutting-edge computational research, and helped develop cybersecurity legislation for international partners.

From 2004 to 2015, Dr. Mannes was a researcher at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), where he served as the subject-matter expert on terrorism and international affairs, collaborating with an interdisciplinary team to build computational tools to support decision-makers facing 21st-century security and development challenges. At UMIACS, Dr. Mannes co-authored the first terrorism ontology, the first big data models of terrorist group behavior, and the first book-length big data study of a terrorist group’s behavior.

Dr. Mannes is one of the world’s leading experts on the American vice presidency. His Ph.D. dissertation, completed in 2014, explored the evolving national security role of the vice president. He has written numerous articles and papers on the vice presidency and is the author of the leading website on the topic.

Dr. Mannes has appeared in print and electronic media worldwide and is the author or co-author of three books on terrorism. He has written scores of articles, papers, and book chapters on a wide array of topics including U.S. foreign policy, the presidency and vice presidency, Middle East affairs, terrorism, technology policy, and other international security issues for popular and scholarly publications including The Washington Post, AI Magazine, Foreign Policy, Politico, USA Today, Policy Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Journal of International Security Affairs, The National Interest, and The Guardian.

Dr. McGrady writes, speaks, and teaches on the design of professional games. He is an adjunct senior fellow in gaming at CNAS for the Game Lab, teaches and manages game design courses for MORS/Virginia Tech, and runs a business devoted to using games and game techniques to bring innovative experiences in new areas.

At the Connections 2023 Conference, he received the Perla Award, the highest honor in professional gaming. His book, “Roll to Save: Gaming Disease Response,” describes designing games in support of public health professionals. Dr. McGrady has written, taught, and presented on games and their use in organizational and individual learning. He has designed and run games for many different clients ranging from the White House to the Department of Agriculture to the automotive industry. Recently, he has been designing and running policy games for a variety of sponsors, including games for radio, film, and television.

Dr. McGrady built and directed a team of 10 to 20 analysts at CNA (Center for Naval Analyses) devoted to the design and execution of professional games. In the past, Dr. McGrady built a team at CNA devoted to chemical and biological response operations, including domestic response operations. Dr. McGrady has deployed as an analyst with U.S. forces in Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy, onboard USS Nimitz for Desert Storm, and with operational E-2C squadrons.

Dr. McGrady holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has published extensively in the Chemical Engineering, physics, and national security literature and is widely cited for his work on the mathematics of aggregation and fragmentation.

JC Herz has worked at the intersection of AI/autonomy and critical missions for more than 20 years, from the technical challenges of testing adaptive swarming drones to the business and legal challenges of procuring and operating autonomous systems. At OSD, DARPA and elsewhere, she has leveraged prior career experience in the computer game industry to revise assumptions about coordination and cognitive load in human-computer teaming, and how and where to resolve decision-making and authorities in systems where data or software are not entirely trustworthy. Outside of defense, she has worked for startups pioneering causal predictive AI in healthcare and advanced capabilities for software supply chain assurance. Ms. Herz is currently a Senior Commercial Advisor in DARPA’s EEI program, where she’s focused on automation of software exploit generation/remediation and post-quantum cryptography. She is the author of three books.

Dr. Joseph “Joe” Mait retired from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in 2018, where he worked for 30 years. For his last five years, he served as ARL’s Chief Scientist and was responsible for the laboratory’s technical forecasting and strategic vision. While at ARL, he conducted research on surface optical elements, such as diffractive and metamaterial-based elements, graded-index optics, and computational imaging, a field he helped define in the 1990s.

He has held visiting and adjunct positions at the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, the National Defense University in Washington, DC, the Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technologies in Jena, Germany, the University of Rochester, the University of Maryland, and the University of Delaware. He is a Fellow of SPIE and Optica, and a senior life member of IEEE. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of Applied Optics and chaired Optica’s Board of Editors for an unprecedented five years.

Since his retirement, Dr. Mait volunteers at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC, and the Jewish Museum Franconia in Fürth, Germany.

John Scott is a technology executive and entrepreneur with more than 25 years at the intersection of defense innovation, commercial technology, and software supply chain security. He has founded and exited three dual-use companies, most notably Ion Channel, a software supply chain security firm acquired by Exiger. A former DARPA principal investigator and current DARPA Senior Commercialization Advisor (SCA) and Embedded Entrepreneur (EEI), Mr. Scott is a recognized subject-matter expert in cyber and software and has advised Congress, ODNI, DoD, and IC agencies on software supply chain security and open-source software and hardware policy.

Mr. Scott advises JHW on corporate strategy and go-to-market execution, drawing on a background in technology design and deployment and deep operating experience across the defense and commercial technology sectors. His domain expertise spans ITAR/AECA/USML regulatory frameworks, federal procurement, defense acquisitions, FMS, and the commercialization of dual-use technology, with SME-level fluency in cybersecurity and software engineering.

Dr. Rand Waltzman brings nearly four decades of experience leading and performing research in artificial intelligence, with deep expertise in social media, cognitive security, and the information environment. He was formerly Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Senior Information Scientist at the RAND Corporation, and previously served as acting Chief Technology Officer of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute.

Dr. Waltzman completed two tours as a Program Manager at DARPA, where he created and managed the Social Media in Strategic Communications (SMISC) program and the Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales (ADAMS) insider-threat program. Earlier roles include Chief Scientist at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories and an associate professorship in computer science at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Dr. Waltzman began his career in 1983 at Teknowledge Corporation, the world’s first commercial AI company.

Dr. Whitehead is an internationally recognized expert in systems analysis, manufacturing, and space technology. He provides consulting and education services through Whitehead and Company. As a RAND Senior Engineer and Professor of Policy Analysis, he led projects and served as subject matter expert on space, digital engineering, supply chain analysis, geopolitical vulnerabilities, artificial intelligence, critical thinking, systems engineering, and other topics for a litany of defense and civilian sponsors.

At MITRE, Dr. Whitehead led a transdisciplinary research program that leveraged AI at the edge in healthcare. He previously served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation and in the White House. His other work experience includes Program Manager on two military space programs at Lockheed Martin Corporation, Foreign Service Officer serving in 60 countries including working with ESA in the early stages of Galileo, Director of Research and Development at ViaSystems (Lucent Bell Labs spin-off), Consultant to the Army (G2), and Director of Mission Sensor Testing for an Air Force satellite at Westinghouse (Northrop Grumman).

Dr. Whitehead was co-founder and Vice Chair of the IEEE-USA Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems Policy and is an IEEE Life Senior Member. He served as the Editor of International Abstracts in Operations Research (2011–2018), (IFORS), and is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE Systems Journal and of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

Dr. Whitehead earned an M.E. in electrical engineering, an M.E. in systems engineering, and a Doctor of Philosophy in systems engineering from the University of Virginia. He earned a BS in physics and mathematics and a BA in French from Washington and Lee University, both with honors. He is a member of Omega Rho, the Operations Research Academic Honor Society.

Dr. Sara Harmouch is the CEO of H9 Defense, a research and advisory consultancy specializing in counterterrorism, national security, geopolitical risk, threat assessments, and open-source intelligence (OSINT). A counterterrorism expert and national security researcher, she focuses on political violence, terrorism, militancy, armed groups, Islamist militant organizations, irregular warfare, non-state actor behavior, alliance dynamics, and the conditions under which militant groups shift from domestic to international violence. Her work also examines the intersection of terrorism, emerging technologies, unconventional capabilities, and weapons of mass destruction, with attention to how militant organizations adapt, endure, expand operationally, and interact with states, insurgent actors, and rival organizations.

Raised in Lebanon and a native speaker of Arabic and French, Dr. Harmouch draws on fieldwork and primary-source research across the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and Europe, including interviews and direct engagement with members of extremist groups. She regularly briefs and advises U.S. and international security agencies on terrorism trends and emerging security issues. Her work has appeared in The Washington Quarterly, Lawfare, The Long War Journal, NatSec Matters, Defense One, War on the Rocks, NPR, and VOA, among others, and has been cited in congressional testimony.

Dr. Harmouch holds a Ph.D. in Justice, Law, and Criminology from American University and a master’s degree in International Relations, Science, and Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Todd C. Helmus is the founder of Meridian Influence Group, an independent advisory practice focused on understanding, countering, and projecting influence in the AI era. He brings more than two decades of applied research and senior advisory experience at the RAND Corporation, where he led federally funded programs on influence operations, counterterrorism, and behavioral science in national security contexts. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, was designated under personal sanctions by the Russian Federation in 2022 for his work countering Russian influence operations, and has helped procure more than $12 million in government-funded research. His current work sits at the intersection of adversarial AI use, influence operations, and the structural challenge of translating frontier AI capability into national security doctrine and practice.

Dr. Helmus holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Wayne State University.

Dennis Murphy is an incoming predoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center and a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on U.S.-China technology competition and the national security implications of advanced AI.

Mr. Murphy received several fellowships and engaged in collaborative research across multiple institutions, including RAND, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and UC Berkeley.

Jim Olson served for 34 years as an analyst and analytic manager with the CIA, focusing primarily on military issues. His last position before retiring was as Director for Strategic Competition on the National Intelligence Council. He also has held positions as a Critical Thinking Instructor with CIA University, as a coordinator for military modeling efforts in the Directorate of Analysis, and at the NIC as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Middle East.

Mr. Olson is a Marine Corps veteran and holds master’s degrees from Georgetown University and the Marine Corps War College.

Alex Rubin is an accomplished analyst focusing on China and technology issues. Mr. Rubin worked as an analyst at the CIA’s China Mission Center for 10 years, leading the Agency’s analysis of PRC technology topics. He was responsible for covering China’s efforts to develop a range of sectors, including electronics and energy technology, as well as its use of industrial policy to promote its vision of a technologically oriented economy. Mr. Rubin has supported numerous policy processes targeting this topic, including on trade policy, research security, and investment scrutiny.

Mr. Rubin led the CIA China Mission Center’s engagement with various U.S. government agencies on these topics. He brings deep expertise in key policy areas, including export controls and semiconductors.

Nicholas “Nick” Wissel is a former U.S. Navy destroyer captain and current entrepreneur focusing on niche engineering services. His experience in operations analysis makes him uniquely qualified to quantify military advantage, having served as the Navy’s analytic warfighting assessment and valuation lead.

A former Military Analyst at the Office of the Secretary of Defense Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (OSD CAPE), negotiating programmatic decisions and policy positions across Services and Combatant Commands. CAPT Wissel was key analytic arbiter and assessments lead for warfighting investment decisions as part of the Navy Warfighting Council.

Mr. Wissel served as a Cyber Battle Captain for the Joint Operations Center at USCYBERCOM, coordinating full-spectrum offensive and defensive cyber missions, and more recently spent time as a Strategist at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems focusing on business development as part of strategic growth and advanced solutions.

Mr. Wissel is currently researching and is deeply interested in building frameworks to evaluate algorithmic models against specific mission outcomes.