Moderator: Sasha-Ann Simons

Sasha-Ann Simons (she/her) is an award-winning journalist and the host of WBEZ’s Reset, a daily midday talk show from Chicago’s NPR station. She comes to the Windy City from Washington’s NPR station WAMU where she was a program host, regularly behind the mic on newscasts and talk shows. Sasha-Ann was also a national reporter, focused on issues of race, identity, and economic mobility. Her accolades include a regional Edward R. Murrow award, a Radio Feature award from the National Association of Black Journalists, and multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Sasha-Ann has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ryerson University and obtained a master’s degree in producing for film and television from American University.

Ian Foster, PhD

Ian Foster, PhD, is the Director of Argonne’s Data Science and Learning Division, Argonne Senior Scientist and Distinguished Fellow and the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago.  He was the Director of Argonne’s Computation Institute from 2006 to 2016.

Foster’s research contributions span high-performance computing, distributed systems, and data-driven discovery.  He has published hundreds of scientific papers and eight books on these and other topics.  Methods and software developed under his leadership underpin many large national and international cyberinfrastructures.

Foster received a BSc (Hons I) degree from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a PhD from Imperial College, United Kingdom, both in computer science.  His awards include the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Next Generation award, the British Computer Society’s Lovelace Medal, R&D Magazine’s Innovator of the Year, the IEEE Tsutomu Kanai award, and honorary doctorates from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and CINVESTAV, Mexico.

He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery, and British Computer Society.

Nick Lucius, JD

Nick Lucius serves as the City of Chicago’s Chief Technology Officer in the Office of Mayor Brandon Johnson. Previously, Lucius worked in the Office of Mayor Lori Lightfoot as the Chief Data Officer. Lucius oversees data strategy and policy citywide. Recently, Lucius worked as a data scientist at the former Department of Innovation and Technology. Prior to working in data, Nick was an attorney and worked in a variety of public interest settings, including environmental code enforcement, health and human services, and transportation safety.

His specialty is determining how technology, data, and design can help and has served four Chicago mayors, two governors, and a state legislature. He has worked in transportation and mobility, public safety, health and human services, and legal. He has authored multiple scientific journal articles that apply data analytics methods to problems in biology and public health, and contributed to a book about privacy and the legal implications of new technologies. In addition to a law degree, he holds a master’s in computer science and a bachelor’s in psychology and political science.

Elena Maris, PhD

Elena Maris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research is concerned with media, technology, and society. She is particularly interested in the ways tech industries and users try to understand and influence one another. She also studies how people experience and leverage their identities through popular culture and the internet. She has expertise in user/industry relations, privacy, the politics of platforms and AI, audience measurement and social media metrics, digital fandom and online communities, and marginalized users. She is an Affiliate at the Data & Society Research Institute. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research.

Her work has been published in academic journals like New Media & Society, the International Journal of Communication, the European Journal of Cultural Studies, and Feminist Media Studies. Her research has been featured in outlets like The New York Times, Wired, Marketplace, and Forbes. She has advised and shared her insights with organizations and companies like The Sundance Institute, The National Endowment for the Arts, Tumblr, and Xbox. Maris received her Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kristine Young

Kristine Young is a partner in the Intellectual Property, Brand Management and Technology & IP Transactions practice of Mayer Brown’s Chicago office. Kristine is an accomplished intellectual property lawyer renowned for her expertise in trademark prosecution and enforcement, brand management, global anti-counterfeiting initiatives, false advertising enforcement, defense and advisory work, and corporate transactions. She has a broad range of experience encompassing transactional work, litigation in federal and state court, and matters before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), and the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. She has represented a diverse range of clients, from multinational corporations to entrepreneurs and individuals, spanning various sectors such as technology, retail, banking, entertainment, and hospitality.

With a deep understanding of the legal complexities surrounding AI technologies, Kristine provides guidance to companies seeking to protect and leverage their intellectual property assets. Her expertise extends to drafting comprehensive corporate policies that address the unique challenges posed by AI, and ensuring that clients are equipped with the necessary legal framework to navigate the intricate landscape of AI-related intellectual property issues, including safeguarding trade secrets and confidential information and staying up to date and complying with evolving legislation.

Kristine is recognized as one of “The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals” by World Trademark Review (WTR) 1000 (2022-2023) and was recognized in Legal 500 US 2023 Rankings For Trademark Litigation.