Dr. Michael Torrence is the seventh seated President of Motlow State Community College. Since being named President in 2018, Motlow State has scaled its presence into international arenas connecting its rich history and location that directly ties the institution to the world-famous Jack Daniel Distillery, George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey, and more recently Nearest Green Distillery, leading to the development and coming addition of a Distilling Program in the College’s academic inventory. Under Dr. Torrence’s leadership, Motlow State has transformed itself into a cutting-edge, award-winning institution on multiple fronts. A passionate career educator, Dr. Torrence has worked in higher education for more than 25 years as faculty, mid-level and senior administrator, and ultimately CEO. His diverse areas of expertise include Research, Adult Education, Student Success, Academic Affairs, Staff Development, Distance Learning, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Additional interests are Applied Learning within Open Education Resources (OER), Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Automation, Robotics, Mechatronics, and Gamification as platforms for education, learning, and training business and industry to increase efficiency and scalability. Dr. Torrence is also an entrepreneurial business development professional, workforce practitioner, and technology strategist. To model lifelong learning, he recently earned a welding certificate through Motlow’s Automation and Robotics Training Center.

Among the multiple leadership programs of which he is a graduate, Dr. Torrence is a Tennessee Board of Regents Maxine Smith Fellow and is only one of two Fellows who has been appointed as a community college president within the TBR System. His leadership and commitment to student success has garnered him many recognitions and awards to include American Association of Community Colleges, Phi Theta Kappa International Society, GlobalMindEd, Complete Tennessee Leadership Institute, among others. Dr. Torrence is a much sought-after lecturer, panelist, and contributor in areas of higher education, e-Sports, technology, and social equity. Dr. Torrence leads and serves on local, state, national, and international boards that influence and shape the future of higher education. He has a Ph.D. in Exceptional Learning (Literacy) from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-torrence-ph-d-63011b150/

Laura Kusumoto is a proven executive leader, skilled in the  disciplines of technology innovation. Her expertise is seeing beyond  hype and harnessing the business value that emerging and disruptive  technologies can bring to work. Applying experiences from working for  Meta, Deloitte, Disney, Kaiser Permanente, LEGO and more, her passion is  helping organizations identify the best problems to target with  innovative solutions, and driving towards their successful piloting and  implementation. Her work has paved the way for first-mover products such  as AI chatbots in health care, immersive avatar-based training, VR for  employee well-being, and beyond.

In 2023, Laura formed  IterationZero LLC as a boutique consultancy offering innovation services  that enable emerging technologies for the benefit of business and  everyday work within the enterprise. Laura serves on the Board Executive  Committee for the Virtual Worlds Society, and on the Advisory Board for  XR Women.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurakusumoto/

https://iterationzero.io

Dr. Joe Morgan

Waya Health

Convergent Health: How Personalized Data and XR will Transform Healthcare

Dr. Morgan is a board-certified anesthesiologist, and the founder and President at Waya® Health. Dr. Morgan’s interest in extended reality started shortly after completing his residency in 2015. Seeing the vast potential for extended reality in healthcare, he and his team began building systems that pioneer extended reality technologies for patient-centered applications. Waya® is a healthcare technology company composed of practicing physicians and software developers focused on creating assessments, diagnostics and therapeutic solutions to help patients. Dr. Morgan conceived and contributed to the development of the Waya® Health platform – an immersive system designed for the safe and effective implementation of patient-centric virtual and augmented reality applications. Waya® Health has become a company with national reach, used by healthcare institutions across the United States.

Dr. Morgan completed medical school at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY and completed his residency in anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. While at the Cleveland Clinic, he designed, developed, and patented a system for the collection and the environmentally friendly destruction of controlled substance waste. He is currently the perioperative medical director at Watauga Medical Center in Boone North Carolina. He has created educational programs to guide healthcare providers through the process of starting their own immersive care programs and has also advanced educational efforts for residents focused on the use of extended reality.

Please visit: https://earthday.org

About Kathleen Rogers

Kathleen Rogers is the President of Earth Day Network. Under her leadership, EARTHDAY.ORG has grown into a global year-round policy and activist organization with an international professional staff.

Kathleen  has been at the vanguard of developing campaigns and programs focused  on diversifying the environmental movement. In 2002, she spearheaded the  creation of Campaign for Communities (C4C). C4C is a coalition of  African American and Latino partner organizations focused on voter  registration and voter mobilization, which also works year-round on  environmental issues in low income communities. Kathleen also helped  create innovative financial mechanisms to “green” low income schools and  communities. She created the National Civic Education campaign, which  works with K-12 schools on projects that solve local environmental  issues while teaching civic skills.

Kathleen  also founded Earth Day Network’s groundbreaking Billion Acts of Green  program, which has now recorded close to 3 billion individual actions to  improve the environment. She is a frequent commentator on environmental  issues in the media and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and NPR, as well  as in Time Magazine, The Washington Post, the New York Times, and The  Los Angeles Times and many other international and national newspapers  and journals.

Prior  to her work at Earth Day Network, Kathleen held senior positions with  the National Audubon Society, the Environmental Law Institute, and two  U.S. Olympic Organizing Committees. As Chief Wildlife Counsel for the  National Audubon Society, she oversaw international trade, migratory  species, and biodiversity programs, and was responsible for bringing the  first citizen complaint before the Commission for Environmental  Cooperation, the tri-national agency created to oversee North American  environmental issues. She also worked for the BBC and other television  networks. She once owned a bakery with a friend who was on the U.S. luge  team.

Kathleen  serves on various boards and as Regional Focal point for North America  Region of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Network of the Global  Environment Facility (GEF), now known as the GEF-CSO Network to serve a  four-year term from June 30, 2018, to June 29, 2022. She is an advisor  and judge for a number of global prizes, including the annual Hult Prize  which awards $1 million to college teams who create companies that  solve pressing social issues.

She  is a graduate of the University of California at Davis School of Law,  where she served as editor-in-chief of the law review and clerked in the  United States District Court for the District of Columbia.