Future of Aviation Speaker

Toks Omishakin

Secretary
California State Transportation Agency

Toks Omishakin was appointed the Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) by Governor Gavin Newsom and sworn in February 2022. He previously served as Director of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) since 2019, where he managed a $15 billion budget and nearly 22,000 employees who oversee 50,000 lane miles of highway, maintain approximately 20,000 bridges, provide permitting of more than 400 publicuse airports, fund three of Amtrak’s busiest intercity rail services and provide transit support to more than 200 local and regional transit...

Curtis Ostrodka

Director of Smart Communities
VHB

As Director of Smart Communities at VHB, Curt is a future-focused leader managing collaborative teams that address complex community and mobility planning issues, including future-ready smart cities, advanced air mobility, community redevelopment, and healthy community design. With nearly 20 years of urban and environmental planning experience, he focuses on using technology and innovation to make our communities more sustainable, resilient, and equitable. He earned a Master of Urban and Environmental Planning degree from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Natural...

Robert Pearce

Associate Administrator
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mr. Robert A. Pearce is the associate administrator for NASA ARMD. Pearce manages the agency’s aeronautics research portfolio and guides its strategic direction, including research in quiet supersonic flight over land, urban air mobility, autonomy, highly efficient advanced air vehicle concepts, electrified aircraft propulsion, advanced materials, airspace operations and safety, integration and flight demonstrations of aviation systems, and the nurturing and development of transformative concepts for aviation.

Pearce served as acting associate administrator from...

Lori Pepper

Deputy Secretary for Innovative Mobility Solutions
California State Transportation Agency

Lori Pepper was appointed the Deputy Secretary for Innovative Mobility Solutions by Governor Newsom in August 2019. Her mission is to apply technology and best practices to the transportation ecosystem to ease the mobility of people, goods, and services throughout the state.

Prior to her appointment, Lori worked in Washington, DC as the Senior Federal Policy Specialist for Honda North America, Inc. where she focused on technology and innovation including connected and automated vehicles, robotics, artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and spectrum issues.

Lori
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Lisa Peterson

Vice President of Business Development
Airspace Link

Lisa Peterson is VP of Business Development for Airspace Link. Lisa is responsible for cultivating relationships with State and Local government agencies, as well as industry solution partners to enable the safe, scalable integration of UAS and AAM into the National Airspace (NAS), as well as into communities.
Throughout her career, Lisa has been at the forefront in helping both public sector and enterprise organizations harness new technologies to drive greater efficiencies, environmental sustainability, and economic opportunities. Lisa has significant experience in the areas of
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Todd Petersen

Chief Technology Officer
Lacuna

Todd is a serial entrepreneur with a background in the technology, aviation, and automotive industries. He is passionate about the momentous technological changes occurring in transportation in cities, and advocates for open source technologies that both empowers cities and creates opportunities for the private sector. He identifies potential solutions to administering and managing public spaces including streets, sidewalks, and curbs, and challenges with operating drones and air-taxis within urban airspace. As a current public sector consultant, leader of a technology company, helicopter...

Karen Philbrick

Executive Director
Mineta Transportation Institute, San Jose State University

Karen Philbrick is the executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University. MTI leads two competitively selected multi-university consortia: the California State University Transportation Consortium (CSUTC) which unifies the surface transportation research and workforce development efforts of the 23-campus California State University system and the Mineta Consortium for Transportation Mobility (MCTM).

Prior to joining MTI, Dr. Philbrick shaped the field of transportation in a variety of roles, including as assistant director of the
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Clinton Purtell

Assistant Professor
University of North Texas

Dr. Clinton Purtell, a professor of logistics and operations management, serves as Associate Director of the Jim McNatt Institute for Logistics Research at the University of North Texas and is a member of UNT’s Center for Integrated Intelligent Mobility Systems (CIIMS). His career and industry experience span more than two decades in executive leadership roles in a number of Fortune 500 and Euro 50 firms leading global supply chains, strategic sourcing, and corporate development in industries such as airline transportation, consumer goods, medical devices, restaurants and manufacturing. Dr...

Axel Radermacher

Co-Founder and Head of Product
Odys Aviation

Axel is a Co-founder and Head of Product at Odys Aviation and has spent his career advancing transportation by bringing together technology, design, and business. At Odys Aviation, his core mission is assuring the product and the company exceed the needs of the customer and the market. Prior to COdys Aviation, Axel held a number of roles transforming vehicles. As Karma's Chief Vehicle Engineer for EV Platforms, he found the perfect balance between technology and beauty, developing the most versatile, low investment platform in the industry. In his previous roles, Axel has electrified...

Jasenka Rakas

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of California, Berkeley

Jasenka Rakas has the following research interests: Availability and reliability of communications, navigation and surveillance systems, airport systems planning and design, airport and airspace capacity and delay analysis, systems modeling and performance analysis, National Airspace System (NAS) infrastructure performance and investment analysis, NAS maintainability, air traffic flow management, cost/benefit analysis, simulation modeling and analysis, human factors and cognitive psychology