Todd Aagaard joined the Villanova Law School faculty in 2008. He served as Vice Dean of the Law School from 2015 to 2019. His scholarship focuses on environmental law, energy law, and administrative law. His publications include “Energy-Environment Policy Alignments,” 90 Wash. L. Rev. 1517 (2015); “Environmental Law Outside the Canon,” 89 Ind. L.J. 1239 (2014); “Environmental Harms, Use Conflicts, and Neutral Baselines in Environmental Law,” 60 Duke L.J. 1505 (2011); “Environmental Law as a Legal Field: An Inquiry in Legal Taxonomy,” 95 Cornell L. Rev. 221 (2010); and “Factual Premises of Statutory Interpretation in Agency Review Cases,” 77 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. (2009). In addition, he is a coauthor of Practicing Environmental Law, a practice-based environmental law casebook published in 2017 by Foundation Press. Aagaard received his BA with honors from Pomona College, his MS from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and his JD magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. While at Michigan, he was the editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review and an executive editor of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law. Following completion of his JD and MS degrees, he clerked for Second Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi before joining the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the US Department of Justice as an attorney in the Appellate Section. At the Justice Department, he briefed and argued civil and criminal cases in federal courts of appeals in the areas of environmental law, natural resources law, Indian law, and administrative law.

Wa’ed Alshoubaki is an associate professor of public policy at Prairie View A&M University, Texas, and is also affiliated with the University of Jordan, Amman. Her expertise lies in public policy and governance, with ongoing research on immigration and refugee resettlement in the Middle East, Europe, and the US. Dr. Alshoubaki has extensively published on forced migration, governance, climate change, social policy, crisis management, and public procurement. Her peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and notable monograph on the resettlement of forced migrants in the US significantly contribute to the field. Her research has been expanded to address urgent issues, including climate change policy innovation, loss and damage assessment in Jordan, climate-induced displacement, and sustainable livelihoods. She has received numerous awards and research grants, such as the Fulbright Scholar Research Award, an outreach lecture fund, and the King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence grant. As the principal investigator, she leads the Jordan team on a Swiss Network of International Studies grant focusing on urban forced migrants, collaborating with Swiss and Moldovan scholars on this multidisciplinary project. Her professional experience includes consulting for the UNDP on governance and local development, curriculum development, and advising the Jordanian government on decentralization and public sector reforms.

Greg Bloom is Senior Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Inform USA. He founded and leads the Open Referral Initiative, which promotes open access to information about the health, human, and social services available to people in need. He is also a strategic advisor on community resources and engagement for the Gravity Project and a visiting scholar at Indiana University’s Ostrom Workshop on the Commons. Previously, Greg managed communications for Bread for the City in Washington, DC. He is a cooperative developer and community organizer. He has published in The Cambridge Handbook of Commons Research Innovations (2021), In These Times, Civic Quarterly, and Code for America’s Beyond Transparency.

Laetitia Cesari is a consultant at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). Her research interests focus on space law and policy, focusing on security and safety aspects, space traffic management, and space situational awareness, as well as the nexus between space and cybersecurity. Prior to joining UNIDIR, she worked in the space industry, specifically telecommunications. Before that, she had the opportunity to support the work of national governments on defense and space. Laetitia holds a doctorate in law focused on the legal aspects of cybersecurity of space systems from the University of Luxembourg and has been a visiting scholar at the International Institute of Air and Space Law at Leiden University and at the University of New South Wales, UNSW Canberra – Space. She also holds a certificate from the Hague Academy of International Law, a master’s degree in space law and telecommunications from the University of Luxembourg, a master’s degree in aeronautics law from the University Toulouse 1 Capitole and a master’s degree in business law from the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Laetitia speaks French, English, and Italian.

Jorge L. Contreras is the James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and the Director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. He has previously served as a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Tilburg University in the Netherlands and a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota School of Law. Professor Contreras’s research focuses on intellectual property, antitrust law, technical standardization and science policy. Prior to entering academia, Professor Contreras was a partner at an international law firm where he practiced transactional law in Boston, Washington, DC, and London. He has published more than 150 academic articles and chapters and has written or edited fourteen books, including The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA (2021), which was recognized by the New York Times as one of the top nonfiction books of the season and has received praise from news outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Nature. Professor Contreras’s scholarship has received numerous awards and recognition, including the Patent & Trademark Office Society’s 2021 Rossman Memorial Award and the University of Utah’s 2020 Distinguished Research Award, and he is a three-time winner of the IPKat blog’s award for Best Patent Law Book of the Year. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the former cochair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists. He has testified before committees of the US Senate and House of Representatives, the Federal Trade Commission, and the European Commission, and has served as an expert witness in complex intellectual property cases in the US, Canada, Germany, the UK, India, Taiwan, and Brazil. He received his JD from Harvard Law School, earned his BSEE and BA in English at Rice University, and clerked for Chief Justice Thomas R. Philips of the Texas Supreme Court.

Patrick J. Doran joined The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2005 and currently serves as the Director of Strategy, Measures and Science for TNC’s five-state Midwest Division in the US. In this role, Patrick leads a team that demonstrates excellence in the areas of strategic planning, measures, evaluation and learning, and evidence-based science, and promotes a consistent approach to implementing the tenets of TNC’s Conservation by Design approach. Patrick earned his PhD in ecology from Dartmouth College, where he studied forest bird populations at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Patrick also holds degrees from Indiana University (MS/MA) and Villanova University (BA). He has published over fifty peer-reviewed papers on a wide variety of conservation topics.

Chris Draper is a technologist whose career has focused on reducing human errors using novel technologies in safety critical environments. He has held roles from computational modeler in the aerospace industry to C-suite positions in the renewable fuels industry and supported entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial efforts at companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in industries including real estate to automotive to education. In the legaltech space, he has been a longtime contributor and leader to problems of data security, confidentiality, and equitable information use for applications ranging from dispute resolution to access to justice. He is a visiting scholar at the Indiana University Ostrom Workshop focusing on blockchain governance and intangible valuation and a fellow of the National Center for Technology in Dispute Resolution.

Brett M. Frischmann is the Charles Widger Endowed University Professor in Law, Business and Economics at Villanova, an affiliated scholar of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, an affiliated faculty member of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, and a trustee for the Nexa Center for Internet & Society, Polytechnic University of Turin. Frischmann also served as the Microsoft Visiting Professor of Information and Technology Policy at Princeton University’s Center for Information and Technology Policy. Frischmann is an expert on intellectual property, privacy, cyber/internet, and other areas of technology law as well as the intersection of these areas of law with other disciplines, including economics, computer science, political science, science and technology studies, and engineering. His research spans these disciplines, often involving collaborations with experts outside of law and often leading to publications in disciplinary (nonlegal) peer review journals. His ongoing interdisciplinary research on the relationships between infrastructural resources, governance, commons, and spillovers includes a series of foundational books and articles. His book Re-Engineering Humanity (coauthored with philosopher Evan Selinger, 2018) thoroughly examines various mechanisms for techno-social engineering of humans, including algorithmic amplification, as well as the normative conflict between a commitment to pluralism and engineered optimality. Recent interdisciplinary work explores and advocates for different forms of friction-in-design as a means for counteracting dominant efficiency logics and consequently safeguarding human capabilities and values. Representative examples include better digital contracts, demonstrably informed consent, and age gating.

Christian Glupker is a senior clinical professor of economics at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business. His research centers on applied regional economics, emphasizing the measurement and modeling of economic impacts associated with universities, cultural institutions, and community events. He has coauthored numerous studies quantifying the fiscal and employment contributions of nonprofit and public organizations. Glupker holds a master’s from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Grand Valley State University, following a decade of professional experience in corporate banking and small-business consulting.

Sam Haapaniemi is a project manager at The Nature Conservancy, where he helps teams in the Midwest US track progress, measure impact, and apply adaptive management practices to their conservation strategies. Previously, he worked in the Healthy Cities program, where he participated in a variety of activities in service of building the case for green stormwater infrastructure and supporting nature in Detroit, Michigan. Sam holds an MPA from the University of Washington and a BA in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy from Michigan State University.

Andrea J. Harrington currently serves as the Institute of Air and Space Law Co-Director and Associate Professor at the McGill Faculty of Law. She also teaches in the Space Resources Program for the Colorado School of Mines. Professor Harrington previously served as Dean of Space Education and Full Professor at Air University for the United States Space Force. She served as Associate Director of the University of Mississippi Air and Space Law programs and has taught for the International Space University’s Space Studies Program. She holds a DCL and LLM from McGill, a JD from the University of Connecticut, an MSc in European Politics and Governance from the London School of Economics, and a BA from Boston University. Her research is focused on public international space law. Among notable publications, her book Space Insurance and the Law (2021) was awarded the 2022 British Insurance Law Association Annual Book Prize.

Elaine Isely joined West Michigan Environmental Action Council to lead its Water Programs in 2012. She is a veteran of the West Michigan legal and environmental communities and has served as a research associate and assistant for the Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute at Grand Valley State University, as Project Manager for the West Michigan Strategic Alliance’s Green Infrastructure Initiative, and Sea Grant Fellow with the Great Lakes Commission. Elaine was also previously a litigation attorney working on behalf of social justice causes in West Michigan, serving as a staff attorney for Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance Project, Inc. (Migrant Legal Aid) and Legal Aid of West Michigan in Grand Rapids. Elaine holds a BS in finance from the University of Maryland, a JD from Wayne State University, and an MS in biology/natural resources management from Grand Valley State University. She is appointed to the City of Grand Rapids’ Stormwater Oversight Commission, the Wolverine Worldwide Tannery Community Advisory Group, and the Michigan State Waterways Commission. She has published several academic and technical papers on environmental and collaborative management topics, and currently serves as an advisor to Grand Valley State University Natural Resources Management Department and to the Michigan Water School led by Michigan State Extension and Michigan Sea Grant. She works on many initiatives to strengthen collaboration between community groups and other project partners.

Paul Isely is the Associate Dean and Professor of Economics for the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University, which he joined in 1995 after earning his PhD in economics from Purdue University. He also holds an MS in economics from Purdue University and a dual BS in physics and economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Isely’s research interests have led to many local articles and reports. These articles have explored West Michigan’s economy including forecasts of growth, the state of entrepreneurship, healthcare costs, environmental clean-up values, economic impacts of various activities, and the costs and benefits of wind power. He has been interviewed extensively by TV, radio, and newspapers on the West Michigan economy and its relationship to the national and state economies.

Yu Kojima has over twenty years of international experience in the area of gender, migration, and development through program management/gender research for public policy and planning and advocacy in Asia and the Pacific region. Yu offers expertise drawn from combination of experience in both academic and policy research, while she brings in development planning experience earned through working with several United Nations (UN) agencies, including the UN Development Programme, the UN Development Fund for Women, UNICEF-Innocenti Research Centre, and the UN University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility. In recent years, Yu has expanded her scope of expertise by engaging with environment and development policy, climate justice, and methodologies for monitoring, evaluation, and learning for climate adaptation in the capacity of Co-Director, The Climate Panel Pennsylvania USA – an initiative which aims to energize the international development mechanism by transforming data into actionable insights to enhance the resilience of the global food system. Yu is also a member of the Regional Gender Specialist Group hosted by UNICEF in Asia and a member of the Gender Specialist Roster, the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, based in Rome, Italy.

Mathew Kurian is an international expert with over twenty years of global experience in climate justice, adaptive monitoring, evaluation, and learning. He served as Co-Director of The Climate Panel in Pennsylvania and is a former fellow at the Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Texas A&M University.

As Consortium Lead for the Belmont Forum’s cyber-enabled disaster resilience initiative, Dr. Kurian facilitated the development of the Theory of Change Observatory at Penn State, supported by agencies including NSF, São Paulo Research Foundation, and UK Research and Innovation. His scholarly work, spanning institutions such as the Tata Energy Research Institute, the World Bank, UNESCO-IHE, and United Nations University, has significantly influenced policies and curricula related to governance, environmental monitoring, and climate justice.

He played a pivotal role in launching the Nexus Observatory, a cutting-edge big data analytics platform for environmental modeling, and founded the Africa Points of Excellence consortium focused on drought risk monitoring. His expertise has also informed monitoring and evaluation strategies for the Green Climate Fund and CGIAR. Dr. Kurian’s prolific publication record includes influential books and peer-reviewed articles on water governance, the Water–Energy–Food Nexus, urbanization, and sustainable development policy.

Michael J. Madison is Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Future Law Project at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pennsylvania. He is a senior scholar with the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security, Faculty Director of the Future Law Project, and a John E. Murray Faculty Scholar. He is a co-Principal Investigator of the Workshop on Governing Knowledge Commons global research collaborative, a series editor of the Cambridge University Press Studies in Governing Knowledge Commons series, and the co-editor of Governing Knowledge Commons (2014); Governing Medical Knowledge Commons (2017); and Governing Smart Cities as Knowledge Commons (2023).

Michael Mattioli joined the Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty in 2012. His research examines cooperative challenges concerning technology and public policy. Mattioli’s scholarship asks how information-sharing can make society healthier, safer, and more prosperous. Through this lens, Mattioli has examined the pooling of cancer research data, the costs and benefits of patent pools for digital media, and how public policy is shaping “Big Data” technologies that relate to health and public infrastructure. Mattioli shows that law and policy – from intellectual property, to antitrust, to privacy – can lead such endeavors to success or failure. Mattioli has coedited a book on Big Data (Big Data Is Not a Monolith, 2016), he has authored numerous academic articles and essays in leading law reviews, and he has written book chapters that examine patent pools and the promise and perils of data sharing. In 2018, Indiana University honored Mattioli with a Trustees Teaching Award. Mattioli is affiliated with Indiana Law’s Center for IP Research, the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Tufts University, Mattioli has held fellowship appointments at Berkeley Law and Michigan Law. Before attending law school, he worked as a microchip designer.

Erik Nordman is an environmental social scientist, climate resilience consultant, and adjunct professor of natural resources management at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, US. His work focuses on the social dimensions of natural resources, including energy, nature-based solutions, and commons. Nordman served as a Fulbright visiting professor at Kenyatta University in Nairobi and a visiting scholar at Indiana University-Bloomington’s Ostrom Workshop. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the State University of New York – College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

Anjanette Raymond is the Director of the Program on Data Management and Information Governance at the Ostrom Workshop, is a professor in the Department of Business Law and Ethics, at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, and an adjunct professor of law at Maurer Law School (Indiana). She completed her PhD at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, where she researched the creation of policy to assist in managing bias, partiality, and dependence in online justice environments. Angie has written widely in the areas of online dispute resolution, data governance, artificial intelligence governance, privacy, international finance, and commercial dispute resolution in such publications as the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Dispute Resolution, Wisconsin Law Review, Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, and the American Review of International Arbitration. Angie is currently one of the US National Consultants to the United Nations (UN) Commission on International Trade Law, reporting on electronic commerce related issues and has previously attended the UN Commission on International Trade Law Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Working Group. She is an identified expert in ODR at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, where she is one of the academic leads in the Collaborative Framework project on cross-border ODR.

V. Ratna Reddy is an economist by training with experience in the fields of environmental economics and natural resource management, environmental impact assessment, climate change, livelihoods, and institutions. He is an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at South Asian Institute, Germany, a visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK, the University of Leeds, UK, and the UN-University, Dresden, Germany. He has served as consultant to organizations such as the World Bank and Independent Evaluation Group, the World Bank, Washington and India, ADB, ADBI, UNDP, DFID, EC, WWF, IWMI, ICRISAT, UNU, OPM, and IFDC. He has also served as a working group member in the preparation of the Eleventh and Twelfth Plans for the Government of India. He has published fifteen books and more than two hundred research papers in international and national peer-reviewed journals.

Scott J. Shackelford is the Provost Professor of Business Law and Ethics at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He serves as the Executive Director of the Ostrom Workshop and the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. He is also an affiliated scholar at both the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society. Professor Shackelford has written more than 100 articles, book chapters, essays, and op-eds for diverse publications. Similarly, Professor Shackelford’s research has been covered by an array of outlets, including Politico, NPR, CNN, Forbes, Time, the Washington Post, and the LA Times. He is the author of Forks in the Digital Road: Key Decisions in the History of the Internet (2024), The Internet of Things: What Everyone Needs to Know (2020), Governing New Frontiers in the Information Age: Toward Cyber Peace (2020), and Managing Cyber Attacks in International Law, Business, and Relations: In Search of Cyber Peace (2014). He is also the lead editor of the first volume dedicated to cyber peace entitled Cyber Peace: Charting a Path Toward a Sustainable, Stable, and Secure Cyberspace (2022). Both Professor Shackelford’s academic work and teaching have been recognized with numerous awards, including a Harvard University Research Fellowship, a Stanford University Hoover Institution National Fellowship, a Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study Distinguished Fellowship, the 2014 Indiana University Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, the 2015 Elinor Ostrom Award, and the 2022 Poets & Quants Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors Award.

Jessica Steinberg is Associate Professor in the International Studies Department at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She is also Director of the Environment and Natural Resource Governance Program at the Ostrom Workshop. Her research focuses on the political economy of development, local politics of natural resource extraction, state capacity, and violent conflict. Her work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, Journal of Theoretical Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Political Geography. She employs a mixed-methods approach, including game theory, comparative case analysis, and statistical methods, and she has conducted fieldwork in Congo-Brazzaville, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Mozambique.

Valerie Strassberg serves as the Director of Urban Water Infrastructure for The Nature Conservancy’s Brightstorm program, where she leads public partnerships and advances projects at the intersection of public policy, design, community engagement, and integrated water resource management. She provides technical, policy, and regulatory support for stormwater management and climate-resilient freshwater protection initiatives across North America and globally. With twenty years of experience, Valerie has led transformative projects, including Detroit’s first Post-Construction Stormwater Ordinance and Ann Arbor’s pioneering Green Streets Policy, and supported the development of the State of Michigan’s Low Impact Development Manual and the City of Ann Arbor’s Climate Action Plan. As the past Director of Detroit’s Healthy Cities Program, she spearheaded the integration of nature-based green stormwater infrastructure into city policies, programs, and tools, benefiting public and private properties. A founding member of Engineers Without Borders USA and former Environmental Commissioner for Ann Arbor, she has also codirected nonprofit initiatives and served on multiple academic and advisory boards, including Wayne State University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and Detroit Future City. Valerie holds a BA in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, with a Professional Engineering license in Water Resources.

Simon Sun is an assistant professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University School of Law. He specializes in internet intermediary liability, privacy, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, blockchain governance, and space technology. His research also explores the application of Elinor Ostrom’s Commons theory and polycentric governance in digital society. Simon holds an SJD from Indiana University, an LLM from Duke Law School, and an LLB from National Chung Cheng University.

Sekela Twisa is a senior environmental officer currently employed at Water Resource Centre of Excellence (WRCoE) under the Ministry of Water, United Republic of Tanzania. She coordinates research projects on water resource-related issues and the effects of climate change, land use/cover changes, and emerging concerns about drought and flood disasters. Prior to joining WRCoE, she held various positions at the Water Institute, where she worked on creating curricula for innovation trainings, knowledge transfer, consultancy, and water resources research. Additionally, she serves as a research assistant for the Tanzania-based EU-Drought Early Warning and Forecasting to Strengthen Preparedness and Adaptation to Drought in Africa. She has over ten years of experience in hydrology, environmental science, water resources, drought and flood management, including risk reduction, Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System. Ms. Twisa’s current focus is on sustainable development, with a particular focus on the climate change related impacts on water resources ecosystem services, water supply, and sanitation. Her ultimate goal is to provide knowledge on water sector disaster risk reduction in evidence-based decision-making at various scales.

Shanyn Viars is an economist specializing in sustainable urban planning, currently working at American Rivers. Passionate about fostering an equitable clean water future, Shanyn explores the intersection of climate resiliency and development to encourage community-led investments in healthy watershed management. Shanyn collaborates with municipal leaders and community organizations to restore urban rivers, mitigate climate threats through natural infrastructure, and develop alternative funding mechanisms for sustainable water management. Shanyn holds both an MS and BS in economics from the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Currently in the Great Lakes region, Shanyn previously served as an adjunct professor in economics at Grand Valley State University and participates in various regional environmental committees as Great Lakes Senior Environmental Leadership Fellow.