2024 Ohio PKAL Regional Network Meeting

Dr. Lynne Parker is Associate Vice Chancellor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) and Director of the AI Tennessee Initiative, which aims to position Tennessee as a national and global leader in the data-intensive knowledge economy. Previously, she served as Founding Director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States. She previously served for two years at the National Science Foundation as Division Director for Information and Intelligent Systems. In these roles across three Administrations, she led the development of numerous landmark national AI policies bolstering research, governance, education and workforce training, international engagement, and the Federal use of AI.

Dr. Parker joined the UT faculty in 2002 and is an expert on distributed and intelligent robot systems, human-robot interaction, and AI. She has held numerous other leadership positions besides those noted above, including at UT (Interim Dean of the Tickle College of Engineering) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Distinguished R&D Staff Member and Group Leader). She is a Fellow of AAAI, AAAS, and IEEE, and a Distinguished Member of ACM. She received her PhD in computer science from MIT.

Dr. Kelly Mack is the Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). In this capacity, Dr. Mack provides leadership for the organization’s mission-level commitments to equity and quality through the delivery of world-class STEM faculty professional development. Prior to joining AAC&U, Dr. Mack was the Senior Program Director for the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program while on loan from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore where, as a Professor of Biology, she taught courses in Physiology and Endocrinology for 17 years. Recognized as a national thought leader in higher education, Dr. Mack’s work has been highlighted in Diverse Magazine and U.S. News and World Report. Currently, she serves on the external advisory boards for several institutional transformation initiatives at NSF-funded ADVANCE and HBCU Undergraduate Program institutions, as Co-Editor of the ADVANCE Journal, and as a member of the National Academies Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education and the Howard University School of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors. Dr. Mack is also co-founder and Chair of the Board of the Society of STEM Women of Color, Inc., the nation’s leading organization that supports women of color in the academic STEM disciplines.