Facilitators

Before and during Complexity Weekend, Facilitators will lead interactive sessions, mentor teams, provide Complexity Science knowledge/experience, create impactful connections, introduce problem-solving frameworks, tooling, relevant data sets, and more. The Facilitator's mission is to guide the "how" of the Weekend, by enabling teams to embrace diverse perspectives, interface with system stakeholders to gather feedback, draw inspiration from the Complexity literature, and ultimately to help teams accomplish their goals together (whether it be a research proposal, a business plan, or another outcome). Many teams that form at a Complexity Weekend event go on to do great things together and stay connected to our Applied Complexity community of practice through our monthly online events.

RJ Cordes

Deployment Strategist at COGSEC; Research Fellow at Atlantic Council

Knowledge Management • Gray Zone Warfare • Team Facilitation • Crowdsourcing 

R.J. Cordes is a researcher focused on Gray Zone Warfare, Knowledge Management Systems, and Sensemaking. He contributes research to a variety of working groups and committees across DoD, IEEE, and the Private Sector, working on topics such as social and behavioral engineering, systems engineering, data standards, intelligence analysis, and decentralized learning systems.

Kai Costantini

Human Capital Strategist AND Talent Advocate; Advisor AT the Natural Systems Engineering group at INCOSE; Advisory Board MEMBER AT the Alberta Biomimicry Chapter; Ambassador AT the Circular Economy Institute; INDEPENDENT BIOMIMETIC PRACTITIONER 

Circular Economy • Biomimetic Transformation • Regeneration •  Networked Capability Building •  Anthro Complexity

Kai Costantini is a former Executive Search professional now operating as a Talent Agent specializing in bioeconomy. Kai functioned as a consultant on innovation, strategy, and talent capability building in startups and small- to mid-sized enterprises. She held positions as IT Systems Manager and IT Project Coordinator for a multi-country enterprise resource planning migration. Kai operates at nodes which leverage systemic change, in an open distributed manner, fostering networked capabilities. Kai studied in the UK and France, and specialized in Circular Economy, Biomimicry, and Human Capital in North America. She develops material reasoning artifacts and acts as a Biomimicry Steam educator.

Scott David, LLM

Director of Information Risk and Synthetic Intelligence Research Initiative (IRSIRI) at University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory

Risk • Law • Narrative • Policy • Situated Cognition 

Scott works at the crossroads of Cognitive Science and Law. He spent his career putting intangible assets (aka "collective hallucinations") in virtual containers so that they can be traded. Scott now works to help cultivate intentional minds for social resilience and sustainability. For Active Inference enthusiasts, Scott is an attorney who views contracts as synthetic Markov Blankets.

Jacob Davidson, PhD

Researcher at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

Collective Behavior • Simulation • Decision-Making 

Jacob is a theoretical biologist, with a background in physics and engineering. He takes a quantitative approach to study the behavior of animal groups such as fish, birds, ants, and honeybees. He is interested in how groups process information, adapt to their environment, and coordinate to function together.

Denise Easton

Co-founder AT Awareful Systems Group; President AT Plexus Institute

Complexity Frameworks Ecosystem • Entrepreneurial & Business Ecosystems 

Denise Easton is a consultant, an entrepreneur, and an author, who is inspired by the “complex and emerging intersections” of strategy, ecosystems, and innovation. As a co-founder of the Awareful Systems Group, she is building an ecosystem of consultants, creators, and researchers who recognize that Complexity Thinking is how we can better design and create resilient and sustainable organizations and communities. In addition to her consulting practice, she is the president of the Plexus Institute. She co-authored the book "Complexity Works! Influencing Pattern-Based Change in Teams & Organizations", an application/model for human systems analysis, process innovation, organization design, and change management.

Michaela Emch, MBA

FOUNDER, ADMINISTRATOR, AND DIRECTOR AT ECLOSIONS

Communication • Marketing • Biomimicry • Interculturality • Interdisciplinarity

Michaela is a communication and marketing specialist, translator, cultural mediator, biomimicry practitioner, safari guide, keen naturalist, and biology enthusiast. She is looking for links where people have not yet connected the dots. Her Masters in International Relations, and the capacity for abstraction gained from her MBA in Aviation Management, help her handle the multicultural and interdisciplinary impact of communication across diverse fields of application.

Daniel Ari Friedman, PhD

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER AT UC DAVIS; CO-FOUNDER AT REMOTOR CONSULTING GROUP; CO-FOUNDER AT COMPLEXITY WEEKEND

Ants • Evolution • Geometry • Participation • Active Inference

Daniel is a postdoctoral researcher with primary focus on the distributed physiology and evolutionary genomics in the eusocial insects. He is also interested in topics related to remote teams, cognitive security, and open science. Daniel has been involved in Complexity through located events and online communities of practice such as Complexity Weekend and previously, the Stanford Complexity Group.

Michael Garfield

HOST AT FUTURE FOSSILS PODCAST; SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST AND PODCAST PRODUCER AT SANTA FE INSTITUTE 

Science Communication • Evolutionary Biology • Paleontology • Philosophy of Science

Paleontologist-Futurist Michael Garfield is devoted to helping navigate our age of accelerating weirdness and to cultivating the curiosity and play we'll need to thrive in it. As host and producer of the Future Fossils Podcast and the Santa Fe Institute's "Complexity" Podcast, Michael acts as an interlocutor for a worldwide community of artists, scientists, and philosophers — a practice that feeds his synthetic and transdisciplinary "mind-jazz" essays, music, and fine art.

Avel Guénin-Carlut

Founder at Kairos Research; Research coordinator at Active Inference Lab

Physics of Life • Cultural Evolution • Epistemology • Active Inference • Consciousness 

Serval is a physicist and philosopher who studies the physical grounding of life, intelligence and consciousness. His focus is on applying this field of research to understanding human societies and building social organisation that will withstand the test of the Anthropocene.

Jenn Huff, PhD

Lecturer at University of Washington; Curatorial Associate at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

Archaeology • Anthropology • Human Evolution • Technology Change • Human-Environment Interaction 

Jenn Huff is a quantitative anthropologist and archaeologist who works on deep time questions about human evolution, human migrations into new landscapes, exchange networks, risk & uncertainty, technology change, and human-environment interactions. She is currently working on a book that looks at human evolution and recent cultural perspectives to explore how humans cooperate; and what that means for us in the past, present, and future.

Qing Ze Hum

Product Manager at Tribe

Systems • Incentives • Metrics • Social Benefit • Sustainability 

Qing Ze is currently obsessed with learning about Web3, hoping to never miss a quest by rabbithole and documenting along the way. He gave in and created a Twitter account (@f_shbiscuit) and has been overwhelmed by the pace of change and knowledge generation in Web3. He currently works in Singapore on Tribe Academy’s educational offerings, but conducted research on blockchain security prior to joining Tribe.

Tyler Jaynes

Graduate Student at Albany Medical College (ALDEN MARCH BIOETHICS INSTITUTE)

Artificial Intelligence • Bioethics • Emerging Technologies • Nanotechnology • Nervous System-Machine Interactions 

As the author of several published works, Tyler has presented on potential directions for medical technology and other emerging technologies internationally. Although his writings primarily focus on the potential rights owed to sufficiently-qualified artificial intelligence(s), his works also probe into the nature of "human" and "cyborg" statuses, and the nature of IoT-hosted spaces -- ranging from how virtual property can be legally attributed and accounted for, to full-dive virtual reality attainment.

Justin Kline

Co-Founder AT Influencer Marketing Company, Markerly

Marketing • Influence • Advertising • Social Responsibility • Content Creation 

During Justin’s 9-year tenure at Markerly, he has led the company’s growth, guided its strategic direction, directed its product development, and established its platform and media practice. While Markerly established itself as a pioneer in influencer marketing, Justin spear-headed award-winning campaigns for Fortune 500 brands, Non-Profits, and Government organizations. Along the way, he has come up with a unique methodology that allows for influencer marketing to be holistically integrated within broader media plans to maximize impact, and has developed technology to streamline this process.

V. Bleu Knight, PhD

INDEPENDENT Data ScienCE CONSULTANT

Python • Agent-Based Modeling • Neuroscience • Bioinformatics • Optimization • Data Analytics

Bleu is interested in solving complex problems using data sources that are large and diverse. Her PhD research leveraged informatics to understand the biological identity of neural cell subtypes. More recently, she has been using augmented intelligence and agent based modeling to solve problems at industry scale. She has also been exploring how the exploitation of environmental resources establish networks of information transmission.

Jason Larkin, PhD

Researcher at NEX

Quantum Computing • Quantum Information Science • Research Mentorship

Jason works at the SEI Emerging Technology Center at CMU as a Research Scientist in advanced computing (currently focusing on quantum computing). He has experience working in High Performance Computing, and has worked on the commercialization of automated code generation. He builds entirely cloud-based software development frameworks focusing on lifecycle, Agile methodologies, Continuous Integration, and the Internet of Things. Jason earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, using high performance computing (commodity supercomputing) to perform quantum chemistry-based materials science modeling/simulation. Jason also works with Research Mentors, and is available to guide new researchers as they learn to publish in peer-reviewed research journals.

Alexandra (Sasha) Mikhailova

PHD CANDIDATE AT UC DAVIS (NEUROSCIENCE PROGRAM)

Neuroscience • Microscopy • Communication • Education • Collaborative Drawing 

Alexandra has a background in translational neuroscience studying brain injury in early development. She is now pursuing a PhD examining how immune molecules regulate the proper establishment of connections in the brain. Her research is inherently interdisciplinary, and she hopes to bridge even more fields through Free Energy thinking and collaborative drawing.

Andréa Naccache, MBA

RESEARCHER, CONSULTANT, and FOUNDER AT THEGREATUNLOCK.COM

Philosophy of Law • Ethics and Political Philosophy • Responsibility • Algorithms

Andréa has pioneered the application of psychoanalysis to innovate in contemporary arts and businesses. Her book, Brazilian Creativity, was a finalist for the Jabuti Award (2013). Now she is launching a line of research on innovation, justice, and algorithmic randomness, presenting her thesis at Stanford for consecutive years. With an MBA and a Ph.D. summa cum laude, she founded NdC, serving innovation conditions to multinational brands since 2007.

Krzysztof (Kris) Paruch

RESEARCHER AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS, VIENNA (RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR CRYPTOECONOMICS)

Mathematical Modeling • Crypto Economics • Distributed Systems • Incentive Design • Mechanism Design

Kris researches Crypto Economics and Complex Systems Engineering. With a formal education in technical-economic Mathematics at the University of Technology in Vienna and five years working experience in banking and software integration, he understands the financial and regulatory background at the intersection of real-world and cryptoeconomics. His focus at the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at WU Vienna involves the development of token engineering research streams, the creation of network design and incentive mechanism structures, and the valuation and modeling of crypto assets. His specializations are agent-based economic modeling, game theory and optimization methods, as well as monetary and environmental policy economics.

Jenny Patton

HEAD OF INSIGHT AND STRATEGY AT LEVEL DESIGN STUDIO

Immersion • Investigation • Insightful Questions • Strategy

Jenny’s career spans some of the world’s top branding agencies including Landor and Bulletproof, where she provided several global brands with powerful and innovative solutions. Jenny is a strategist who believes good design is all about problem solving and should always be based on insight. Her skills are invaluable in unravelling clients’ complex challenges, providing unique and provocative perspectives and identifying the essence from which a brand can amplify and evolve.

Lucia Petroni

Counselor

Building Relationships • Architecture and Alchemy of Conflicts

A passionate researcher in relationship entanglements, Lucia guides individuals into a transformational journey where conflicts, as an alchemy process, become a new golden resource for the good of life. She supports her clients with a systemic comprehension of their invisible patterns, mending separation stuck in conflicts and traumas.

Siddhant Shrivastava

RESEARCHER AT SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN (ITRUST CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN CYBER SECURITY)

Cyber-physical Systems Security • Extended Reality • Distributed Teams • Workforce Training • Telerobotics

Siddhant applies (emerging) technology to connect anything that computes, controls, and networks across scales. More specifically, he works to ensure the security/safety/service of cyber-physical systems. These systems span everything from country-scale critical infrastructures to cybernetic implants inside our body, and affect all of us. He has worked in space, finance, design, robotics, and learning/training.

Barb Siegel

Co-Founder AT Awareful Systems Group; Visual Practitioner AT Look2Listen.com; Artist

Sensing • Language • Somatic • Visual Practitioner

Barb is a co-founder at the Awareful Systems Group, an artist, and a registered architect. She helps organizations see and learn the language of their ecosystem, so that an understanding of what is can be used to create a vision of what could be. Her long career includes work with Children’s National Hospital Brainy Camps, The Gifted and Talented/Learning Disabled Network, and architectural work on both large institutional and small house additions.

Stephen Sillett

CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY; CO-FOUNDER AT AIDING DRAMATIC CHANGE IN DEVELOPMENT; CREATOR OF INFUSION SPACE

Transdisciplinary • Living Systems • Multi-scale • Participatory • Community Development

Stephen is a multi-scale community development practitioner, who uses contextual drama and participatory arts. His work is underpinned by multi-level system approaches and enactive embodied sensemaking. More recently he has been using Active Inference and non-linear dynamical systems approaches to unify the range of practices he is working with.

Palma Strand, JD

PROFESSOR OF LAW at CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY (DEPARTMENT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES); CO-FOUNDER AND RESEARCH DIRECTOR at CIVITY

Civity • Social • Relational • One-on-One • Culture

Palma is a Professor of Law in Creighton University’s Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program. She is also co-founder and Research Director of Civity, a national non-profit that works with people to build relational infrastructure necessary for communities of belonging. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Omaha Council for Racial Justice and Reconciliation and a lead facilitator of Conversations About Race and Belonging.

Edgar Valdés

Co-Founder at Hadox Human Networks

Networks • Sustainability • Policymaking • Information Systems • Data Science 

Edgar is a physicist and developer working to generate high impact city science solutions with a comprehensive set of skills spawning from the social and exact sciences to a solid technological background accumulated over 20 years. As an Innovation Leader at world-class consulting firms and a co-founder at Hadox Human Networks, he has generated ideas, developed programs and integrated communities for 75+ top companies. Edgar has also developed 10+ artificial intelligence programs that helped raise productivity by 25% in their respective fields. His expertise as an urban scientist and machine learning researcher has enabled him to train future generations of professionals and to lead scientific projects in the areas of Artificial Intelligence and Complex Systems. He has mentored young developers in various universities such as MIT, and has served as a speaker in 20+ conferences.

Jesse Woo

CS masters student at Columbia University

 Law • Policy • Privacy • Robotics • Design 

Jesse is an attorney and tech policy expert who focuses on privacy, AI, and international data flows. He is currently pursuing a masters degree in computer science at Columbia University.

Shaun Applegate-Swanson

PRINCIPAL DATA SCIENTIST AT MICROSOFT; CO-FOUNDER AT RESEARCH MENTORS; CO-FOUNDER AT COMPLEXITY WEEKEND

Community Organizing • Full Stack Data Science • Data Center Security • Physics • Complex Thermostatistics

Shaun co-founded Complexity Weekend to help empower teams to learn Complexity by doing while working to solve the world's toughest problems together. At Microsoft, Shaun leads a team of full-stack (Python/Scala) data scientists and engineers, which has developed access management scoring and anomaly detection systems to enforce the Principle of Least Privilege throughout data centers worldwide. His personal research interests involve combining Complexity Science with Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics axioms to peek at fundamental properties of emergent phenomena.

Park Bach

researcher at figment.io; librarian at gitcoin

Coordination Problems • Initial Conditions • Emergent Intent • Group Priority

Park Bach is a researcher currently paying attention to the very forefront of the online human interaction economy, hoping to catalogue and discern the direction of non-localised intent that exists within it. With Figment providing staking infrastructure for 40+ Web3 protocols, she lends a hand in making sure that they are up to date with the changes happening with protocols, all while writing articles outlining essential information on staking for potential customers.

Alex Barnes

Business Systems Analyst

Dare • To Be • Stupid 

Alex is basically an idiot. He worked for Nortel and they went bankrupt. He worked in Tier 1 Automotive for a company that, you guessed it, went bankrupt. In the late 90s he invested in promising companies such as Nortel, JD Uniphase, Ariba and Commerce One. We all know how that ended. At least nothing has gone wrong since Alex started working in Healthcare Supply Chain. During the Weekend, Alex will challenge you to be Natural instead of Artificial, Specific instead of General, and use Stupidity instead of Intelligence.

Sam Barton

Philosophy Student; Host AT Talk of Today Podcast; Staff at Ideamarket

Philosophy • Pragmatism • Wonder • Excitement • Curiosity 

Sam is a philosophy student exploring what complexity science can contribute to questions in moral and political philosophy. He's the host of the Talk of Today podcast, and works for the truth-seeking crypto platform Ideamarket. He grew up in Asia connected to the internet, which solidified his identity as a global citizen. Sam now seeks to discover models that work for the whole planet and all who call it home.

Shirley Bekins, MPA

Independent writer and researcher

Systems Feedbacks • Path Dependence • Poverty • Homelessness 

Shirley explores how Systems Thinking and Complexity Science raise different kinds of questions and bring new insight to socioeconomics. She researches homelessness, segregation, and poverty through a complexity science lens, including how path dependence, nonlinearity, non-ergodicity, hysteresis, randomness, and preferential attachment may affect these systemic challenges. Shirley has 20 years of experience developing affordable housing with social service and healthcare facilities, and has a Master's in Public Administration with an Urban Policy specialization from Columbia University.

Jessica Brumley, PhD

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT EAST CENTRAL UNIVERSITY (BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES)

Systems Modeling • Environmental Sciences • Ecosystem Thermodynamics • Ecosystem Services 

Jessica is an Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences in Ada, Oklahoma. She is interested in modeling complex environmental interactions, especially water and soil quality issues, and how they relate to ecosystem conservation and management. Jessica enjoys introducing Complexity Science in the classroom to engage creative solutions and critical thinking. In her spare time, she manages her family farm, reads, and embarrasses her kids with her super-nerd powers.

Anthony Bucci, PhD

Technical Director AT Electric Infrastructure Security Council; independent researcher

Evolutionary Computation • Coevolutionary Algorithms • Agent-based Modeling • Simulation

Anthony Bucci received a B.S. in Mathematics from CWRU and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brandeis University. Since then he has applied insights from Complexity Science in a variety of domains including more recently large scale infrastructure simulation, NLP and ML, structured knowledge extraction, cybersecurity, and computer science education research. A long-running theme of this work is the complexity that arises in interactive domains.