Georgia Smart Fall Workshop

James Hudgens is the director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and senior vice president of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Hudgens leads over 2,400 employees conducting $642 million in research at GTRI across a broad range of technological fields that focus on solving critical challenges for government, state, and industry sponsors. Dr. Hudgens oversees research that spans a variety of disciplines, including autonomous systems, cybersecurity, electromagnetics, electronic warfare, modeling and simulation, sensors, systems engineering, test and evaluation, and threat systems.

Before joining Georgia Tech, Dr. Hudgens was the director of the Threat Intelligence Center (TIC) at Sandia National Laboratories. Prior to his promotion to director of TIC, Hudgens directed the Information Systems Analysis Center (ISAC), where he managed cyber research and development (R&D) for the Department of Defense and intelligence community.

Before joining Sandia, Dr. Hudgens held engineering and management roles at Raytheon Electronic Systems, Mahi Networks, and Texas Instruments, overseeing the research and development of infrared imaging, optical technology, and optical networking systems.

Dr. Hudgens has led national security research for over 23 years, holds a Ph.D. in Ceramic Engineering and a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Iowa State University, and has numerous publications and presentations to his credit.

Lisa Smith is Vice President for the Southwest Region for Georgia Power. In this role, Lisa has direct responsibility for the company’s external activities for 360,000 customers across a 57-county area that includes Columbus, Macon, and Valdosta. In addition, Lisa provides leadership and support for power delivery, customer service, sales, community and economic development.

Lisa began her career at Mississippi Power as an engineer in 1993. She relocated to Georgia Power in 1997, where she has held positions of increasing responsibility in distribution, sales, region operations and as an area manager in Waynesboro and Newnan. Lisa also served as assistant to the senior vice president of the Metro Atlanta Region, where she was responsible for providing support for the company’s operations, sales, customer service, economic and community development, and external affairs activities for 1.2 million customers. Prior to her current role, Lisa served as a Regional Director in Metro South and Columbus Regions.

A native of Meridian, Mississippi, Lisa earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University and an MBA from Kennesaw State University. She has served as a member of the board of directors for various organizations, including the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce, Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, the Aerotropolis Alliance, and the Regional Business Coalition. Currently, Lisa is a member of the Rotary Club of Columbus, the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley, and Goodwill Industries of the Southern Rivers. She has been recognized as one of the Women Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Journal and The Atlanta Business League’s Top 100 Black Women of Influence.

Michael Alexander is the Director for the Center for Livable Communities at the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). He serves on the Executive Leadership team of the ARC focusing on innovation driven strategic leadership, systems planning, and policy implementation. As the Center Director he leads the efforts of six groups within the regional planning agency: Community Development, Natural Resources, Research & Analytics, Transportation Accessibility & Mobility, and Mobility Services. The center is focused on policy implementation in the fields of transportation planning, environmental planning, community development, economics, and demographic forecasting.

Mike is a senior executive leader with over 20 years of successful leadership in the public sector, including community and economic development, as well as strategic public policy development and implementation. Mike has a demonstrated history of management, grants administration, policy analysis, long-range forecasting, transportation, land use and environmental planning, and local government relations.

Debra Lam is the Managing Director of Smart Cities and Inclusive innovation for Georgia Tech, a newly created role to drive smart cities and urban innovation work across the university and beyond. Prior to this, she served as Pittsburgh's first ever Chief of Innovation & Performance where she oversaw all technology, sustainability, performance and innovation functions of city government. She crafted the city's first strategic plan for innovation, Inclusive Innovation Roadmap. She has been a receipt of various awards, including one of the top 50 Women in Technology nationally. She has worked and lived in New York, the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and University of California, Berkeley.

Greg McCormick is the Director of the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge, a smart communities grant challenge for the state of Georgia, championed by the Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Tech and sponsored and supported by a team of community organizations and industries in partnership with Georgia Tech. Mr. McCormick is a Senior Research Engineer at GTRI and holds an MBA, Master's, and Bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech

Steven Carter is a US Air Force veteran with more than 25 years of experience in the fields of information technology, corporate leadership, and developing high performing teams. He is an innovative thinker with strategic vision and is proving the value of Information Technology within the City of Albany, Georgia. In his capacity as CIO, he sets priorities and direction in the areas of project management, cybersecurity, network operations, telecommunications fiber infrastructure management, internal service delivery, applications acquisition and management, telephony and communications management, and business continuity as part of disaster recovery. This includes policy development, technical analysis, assessments, strategic direction, standards development, and supporting the business initiatives within each business unit. Prior to coming to Albany, Steven was at the San Diego County Office of Education in San Diego, CA as the Executive Director of Technology where he was responsible for the security, operations, applications, and communications networks that supported 43 school districts and more than 500,000 students. He has a diverse background building and leading both private and public-sector technology teams. He has an Master of Business Administration as well as a bachelor's degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Computer Information Systems with a minor in Business from Liberty University. He is also a Certified Government Chief Information Officer (CGCIO) through the Georgia Municipal Association and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. He currently facilitates several courses for local and state politicians, city and county managers, and technology leaders in the areas of cyber security and emerging technologies in governments.

Andrew Turner is Director and CTO of Esri Research and Development center in Washington, D.C. His team are developing new technologies for government and citizen collaboration to build communities. This includes the global ArcGIS Open Data network for open access to authoritative data, as well as open-source and interactive tools and applications to build and share insights and solutions. Andrew's work focuses on cross-domain collaboration and democratizing the map making process creating open tools for cartography and analysis. In 2006 he published the popular and widely regarded book "Introduction to Neogeography" which led an industry shift of the GIS market. He is a world renowned speaker, author, advocate and engineer for crowd-sourced geospatial technology and a successful entrepreneur that has grown and exited two companies through acquisition.

Andrew is an active member in many organizations developing and supporting open standards such as the OpenStreetMap, Open Geospatial Consortium, Open Web Foundation, OSGeo, and World Wide Web Consortium. He is also the co-founder of CrisisCommons, a global community of volunteers leveraging technology to assist in building solutions for disaster response, recovery and rebuilding.

Omar Isaac Asensio is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy. His research focuses on big data and public policy. He conducts field experiments and uses evidence from big data to make causal inferences about incentives and behavior in areas such as energy, transportation and urban sustainability. Dr. Asensio's research has been published in general interest journals such as Nature Energy and PNAS. He is winner of the 2015 ONE-NBS Research Impact on Practice Award by the Academy of Management ONE Division. At Georgia Tech, he is also affiliated with the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS), the Strategic Energy Institute, and the Climate and Energy Policy Laboratory (CEPL).

Christopher Le Dantec is an Associate Professor in the Digital Media Program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research is focused on the area of digital civics emerging from the intersection of participatory design, digital democracy, and smart cities. He is specifically interested in developing community-based design practices that support new forms of collective action through the production and use of civic data. After earning his Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing in 2011 from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he advanced theoretical and practice-based approaches to bridge the digital divide experienced by homeless families in the U.S., he has worked closely with the City of Atlanta and a range of community-based partners to explore new forms of civic participation through community-centered design inquiry. His research has direct impact on how policy makers and citizens work together to address issues of community engagement, social justice, urban transportation and development. In addition to publishing in a range of ACM conferences, he is the Community+Culture forum editor for interactions magazine and the author of Designing Publics (2016, MIT Press).

Larry Williams is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). Williams is a recognized leader in economic development and brings more than 20 years of experience in global branding, international trade and finance, public and industrial policy, and administration and management to one of the largest state technology trade associations in North America.

Previously, Williams helped shape the vision for Atlanta’s technology industry as Vice President of Technology Development at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. He provided leadership and direction to the Chamber’s Mobility Task Force, the effort to position Atlanta as a global hub of mobile technology, and the Technology Leadership Council. Prior to joining TAG in 2016, Williams served as President/CEO of The Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County’s official economic development partnership.

Williams is a graduate of North Carolina State University, and the Darlington School. Williams also studied in Costa Rica and Spain and is fluent in Spanish.

Lee Davenport is the Director of Community Development for US Ignite. For almost 20 years, he has worked with non-profit organizations, corporations, and government agencies to create and deliver technology-informed economic empowerment strategies to communities nationwide. He has expertise in program design, multi-partner program development, communications, implementation, and evaluation strategies. Before joining US Ignite, Lee founded a successful consultancy delivering strategy and operational leadership for nonprofits and private sector agencies delivering consumer technology to low-income communities. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Programs at One Economy Corporation leading a national effort for digital literacy and broadband adoption.

Lee is active on the Board of Directors at Capital Area Asset Builders, a regional financial empowerment nonprofit organization, where he has served as President of the Board for four years. Lee has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Science in Urban Policy/Nonprofit Management from the New School for Public Engagement in New York City.

Heather Rocker is Executive Director of the Drupal Association, a global ecosystem of Drupal - the open source digital experience framework behind millions of websites and applications. She is an award-winning business leader with 15+ years of corporate and nonprofit experience with expertise in operations management, process improvement, sales leadership, communications/marketing, program leadership, corporate/volunteer training, and community/volunteer engagement strategy.

Heather is a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2019. She is a recipient of the Turknett Leadership Character Award, was selected for Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Top 40 Under 40, named an Outstanding Young Alumna by Georgia Tech, and is an inductee of the Georgia Tech College of Engineering’s Council of Outstanding Young Engineers.

Her dedication to the community has led to board service with Georgia FIRST Robotics, TAG Diversity & Inclusion, TAG Education Collaborative, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Atlanta Women’s Alliance, Georgia Tech Women's Alumni Network, and Junior League. Heather speaks to corporate and nonprofit groups around the country about utilizing Strategic Volunteering as a professional development strategy and is a published author on the subject. She is a two‐time presenter at the National Conference on Volunteering & Service and was selected to become a member of the Leadership Faculty for the Points of Light Corporate Institute.

Todd Greene is the Executive Director for the Atlanta University Center Consortium Inc., the world’s oldest and largest contiguous association of historically black colleges and universities in the world. With nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience in higher education, and community, economic and workplace development, Greene has a strong track-record of leading strategic transformations, including his previous roles at the Federal Reserve, and his prior position at Georgia Tech where he led various centers and programs focused on applied economic development.

Greene joined AUCC after 10 years with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta as vice president of Community and Economic Development. In his position with the Consortium, he is responsible for transforming and reorganizing AUCC, focusing on four key areas: health and wellness; environment and sustainability; technology innovation; and education.

Founded in 1929, and comprised of its four member institutions — Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Spelman College — the AUC Consortium is a nonprofit organization that operates on behalf of its members to advance each institution’s mission and strategic goals, and seeks to foster collaboration that leverages shared resources of the community and member institutions to maximize opportunities for our students and the community.

Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy is Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech. She is an internationally recognized authority on infrastructure and sustainable development and studies systems problems on the integrated built, natural and social environment to understand how we can make better decisions on built systems to promote sustainable development. Her research has found and continues to find applications in infrastructure planning, evaluation, renewal, and reporting.

Dr. Kennedy was recently named a member of the National Academy of Construction, the nation’s most distinguished engineering and construction professional’s society. She was also elected a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2018 and is co-founder of Georgia Tech’s global engineering leadership minor.

Dr. Kennedy has authored extensively, developed undergraduate and graduate courses, and provided technical support for multiple international, national, state and local initiatives in this interdisciplinary area. She enjoys time spent with family, playing the piano and painting.

Parag Agrawal is currently serving as the Community Development Director of the City of Milton, Georgia and has more than 15 years of leadership experience in development and implementation of planning projects that promote sustainable growth practices, foster economic development, and encourage smart transportation choices. Located 24 miles from downtown Atlanta, Milton is recognized nationally for its high quality of life. In his current position, Parag is working with various stakeholders to facilitate the development of the city’s new downtown with over $600 million in combined investments, administering the development of the city’s Uniform Development Code, and drafting of the city’s new Trail Master Plan.
Before moving to Atlanta, Parag held community leadership positions in New England. He served as the Associate Director of the Rhode Island State Department of Administration, and as the Planning Director of the City of Bridgeport, CT. In Rhode Island, Parag served as the state’s Planning Director responsible for managing the State Guide Plan, State Water Resources Board, and administering the state’s single, statewide, federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Under Parag’s direction, Rhode Island drafted State’s Long-Range Transportation Plan, first statewide Trail Master Plan, and developed FFY 2017-2025 State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) that programed over $5.2 billion dollars in federal transportation funds. In Bridgeport, Parag managed the development of Barnum Station TOD Master Plan, worked with CTDOT on design of Barnum Train Station, and drafted the city’s waterfront revitalization master plan.

Michele McIntosh-Ross is a Principal Planner and Special Projects Division Manager in the City of Milton. She has 15 years’ experience in city planning with a demonstrated history of working in the public policy industry, skilled in Urban Planning, Government, Regional Planning, Sustainability, and Land Use Planning. Before joining the City of Milton, Michele was a Senior Planner in the City of Atlanta. She is a graduate of Georgia State University.

Kari Watkins, P.E., is the Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Watkins’ teaching and research interests revolve around multi-modal transportation planning and the use of technology in transportation, especially as related to transit planning and operations and improved traveler information. Dr. Watkins co-created the Cycle Atlanta smartphone app for recording bicycle trips by Atlanta cyclists (https://cycleatlanta.org) and while at the University of Washington, co-created the OneBusAway program (https://onebusaway.org) to provide real-time next bus countdown information and other transit information tools for transit riders in the greater Seattle-Tacoma.

Angshuman Guin is a Senior Research Engineer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is a transportation system engineer with 12 years’ experience in freeway operations, intelligent systems, transportation safety, and traffic simulation and data management. Dr. Guin’s current research is focused on SmartCity mobility, connected-and-autonomous-vehicles, freeway operations, ramp metering, and traffic simulations and is working projects for the National Science Foundation, Federal Highway Administration, GDOT, and GRTA.

Scott Evans is the GIS Coordinator for the Columbus Consolidated Government. He has worked in GIS and IT for 10 years and been with Columbus Consolidated Government for almost 4 years. Prior to being employed by the city, Scott worked as a GIS Analyst for the County of Dauphin in Pennsylvania. He holds a Master's of Science in Geoenvironmental Studies from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

John Taylor is the Frederick Law Olmsted Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Taylor studies the dynamics where human and engineered networks meet encouraging engineered infrastructure to be resiliant and serve society’s needs while creating more livable and healthy communities. Dr. Taylor developed a virtual reality system integrating spatial and temporal data collected from real and simulated sources into a system for planners and analysts to perform "what if" scenarios on realistically complex data sets.

Joe Nabhan is a noted professional in the GIS industry. His 16 year career has spanned public and private sector applications of GIS including government, utilities, cartography and even the ski industry. During this time, Joe has contributed to his profession by bringing a unique combination of technical proficiency, originality and innovation to the GIS community. Joe currently serves as the GIS Manager for Macon-Bibb County Government. His duties focus on managing its GIS operations and Smart City initiatives. Joe’s work to further community engagement and smart initiatives at Macon-Bibb County Government has received numerous awards, including the 2019 Georgia Government Management Information Systems (GMIS) Best Practices Award, The 2019 Spirit of GMIS Award, and the 2018 Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Excalibur Award.

Brett Lavender is a U.S. Air Force Veteran with 38 years of experience in the field of information technology. Prior to joining Macon-Bibb County Government, Brett served as Director of Information Technology for the Clayton County Board of Commissioners. He has extensive experience in building and leading public sector technology teams. Brett is a continuous improvement champion. Mr. Lavender holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Mercer University - Stetson School of Business and Economics. He is a Certified Public Manager® (CPM®), a Certified Government Chief Information Officer™ (CGCIO™) and has completed the Local Government Chief Information Officer (LGCIO) program through the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. He has both ITIL® v3 Foundation and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB) Certifications.

Arthi Rao is a research scientist at the Center for Quality Growth & Regional Development in the College of Design. Dr. Rao’s research interests focus on social/spatial analytics, equity and access. She uses methods including spatial clustering, data mining/classification techniques and hierarchical modeling in her research. She has integrated these methods to create decision-support tools for academic and industrial applications. Dr. Rao regularly collaborates with researchers at The Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia Tech and the American Planning Association as a subject matter expert on healthy communities’ research and geospatial methods. She has published in journals on the topics of Health Impact Assessment (HIA), sustainability, walkability analysis, regional planning, and therapeutic landscapes. She has an interdisciplinary doctorate in Urban Planning, Epidemiology, and Geographic Information Systems from Georgia Tech/Emory.

Katie O’Connor, AICP, is the Senior City Planner for the City of Woodstock, Georgia. She has recently overseen the 20-year update to the City’s Comprehensive Plan, also manages other long-range planning efforts, and frequently authors zoning code amendments. Katie serves as the City’s Sustainability Program Manager, including responsibility for the Bronze (2010), Silver (2011), and Gold (2015) certifications from the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Green Communities program for the City. Because of Katie’s efforts, Woodstock received certification as a PlanFirst Community (GA Dept. of Community Affairs), and she recently oversaw the production of a new mural in Downtown Woodstock as part of the Atlanta Regional Public Art Program. Katie has lived and worked in Woodstock since earning her Masters Degree in 2010. She serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Elm Street Cultural Arts Village, a non-profit arts organization local to Woodstock, and is a 2016 graduate of the ARC Regional Leadership Institute (RLI) and the Fall 2016 class of Georgia Forward’s Young Gamechangers program.

Ramachandra Sivakumar (Siva) is a Senior Research Engineer in the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization (CSPAV). He has more than 20 years of comprehensive experience in GIS and Information Technology. His expertise include web-based GIS application design and development, network management, database management, and system administration. At CSPAV, Siva is involved in a variety of projects apart from his primary role of system, network, and IT administration. Recent projects include design and development of a GIS database for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, developing a GIS framework for MEAG Power’s Location Georgia group, and developing an enterprise GIS plan for the City of Albany, Ga. He was a contributor in City of Atlanta’s initial Enterprise GIS implementation efforts and played a vital role in the development and operation of Georgia GIS Data Clearinghouse, a spatial data repository for the State of Georgia. Siva implemented the first National Spatial Data Infrastructure node in Georgia. He has provided GIS research support for various ongoing projects supported by National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, National Science Foundation, Mid America Earthquake Center, and other sponsors. In addition, Siva administers the ESRI GIS software program, the ESRI Education Development Center for Georgia Tech, and the ERDAS GAHEAK software for the University system of Georgia. He is a member of the Georgia chapter of Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, GIS Certification Institute oversight committee, and a volunteer with GISCorps.

Leigh Hopkins, AICP, is a Senior Project Manager with the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²). Leigh transfers her expertise in economic development research and analysis into practical solutions to complex community problems and helps create competitive climates for communities and businesses to grow and thrive. She has managed the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) initiative for the 15-county Northwest Georgia region for five years, and the development and implementation of the first Advanced Manufacturing Strategy in the state. Leigh also co-managed a project to gauge the feasibility of developing an “innovation district” near Atlanta’s Westside, intended to spur collisions between industry and academia to create the environment for technological innovation and new partnerships. Leigh is an active member of the American Planning Association (APA)/Georgia Planning Association (GPA) and has held an American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) certification since 2010. She participates in regular professional development courses through membership with IEDC and GPA, and is also an active member of the Georgia Economic Development Association (GEDA).

Yanni Loukissas is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech, where he directs the Local Data Design Lab. His research is focused on helping creative people think critically about the social implications of emerging technologies. His forthcoming book, All Data Are Local: Thinking Critically in a Data-Driven Society (MIT Press, 2019), is addressed to a growing audience of practitioners who want to work with unfamiliar sources both effectively and ethically. He is also the author of Co-Designers: Cultures of Computer Simulation in Architecture (Routledge, 2012) and a contributor to Simulation and its Discontents (MIT Press, 2009). Before coming to Georgia Tech, he was a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he co-coordinated the Program in Art, Design and the Public Domain. He was also a principal at metaLAB, a research project of the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Dr. Loukissas has taught at Cornell, MIT, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Originally trained as an architect at Cornell, he subsequently attended MIT, where he received a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Design and Computation. He also completed postdoctoral work at the MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society