Donald M. Gooch is an Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government at Stephen F. Austin State University. He is also a Fellow at the National Institute for Deterrence Studies. He received his M.A. in political science from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in 2002 and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2009. He was appointed to the SFA faculty in August of 2012 and received his M.S. in Statistics in December, 2022 from SFA.

Dr. Gooch is a statistical and research consultant. He has worked on varied projects, including with Gooch Consulting on weather performance reliability for PepCo and with LTI on performance assessment for the USAF.

Dr. James C. Petrosky is the President of the National Institute for Deterrence Studies (NIDS). He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Engineering Physics where he developed experimental techniques for the prediction of damage to electronic devices and materials. He has substantial technical expertise in pulsed radiation effects and nuclear weapon survivability, with an emphasis on radiation effects on electronics and electromagnetic pulse.

Previously, Dr. Petrosky served at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) where he achieved the academic rank of Professor of Nuclear Engineering. At AFIT he sustained an ABET accredited Nuclear Engineering program serving the unique military and civilian advanced education requirements for the DoD.

Dr. Petrosky has published in 96 public and government classified peer-reviewed journals. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2004 as a Lieutenant Colonel, after serving as an Engineer Officer and Nuclear Research Officer.

Dr. Rob Smith is Amentum’s Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In this role, he is responsible for leading the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion vision and strategy by developing and implementing programs and initiatives that advances Amentum’s business objectives and reinforces the organization’s culture.

Previously, Dr. Smith served as BAE Systems’ Intelligence and Security Sector Director of Talent Acquisition and Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). He also served in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) for 28 years, retiring at the rank of Captain/O-6. In his final assignment he served as Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Recruiting Command in Washington, DC.

Peter Huessy is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, where he focuses on nuclear deterrence and modernization, arms control, and defense policy. Mr. Huessy has spent the past four decades laying out the requirements for nuclear deterrence and modernization, arms control, and defense policy, as well as the companion efforts on missile defense, space, non- and counterproliferation, particularly using public diplomacy to further US policy. His work has also focused on the threats from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

John Laudun is on the faculty at the University of Louisiana, where his research focuses on computational models of discourse, especially narratives, and how they cascade through socio-cultural networks both online and off. His work has appeared in a variety of academic journals and edited volumes, and he has been cited or interviewed in newspapers and documentaries. He has been a Jacob K. Javits Fellow, a MacArthur Scholar, and a senior researcher at UCLA’s Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics.

US Air Force Brigadier General (ret) Rob Spalding is the former White House National Security Council senior director for strategic planning and served in senior positions of strategy and diplomacy within the Defense and State Departments

for more than 26 years. Rob is the founder and CEO of SEMPRE, the only technology company created to protect and secure our most critical resource: data.

Zachary is a Policy Fellow at the Schar School of Policy and Government, a Fellow at the National Institute for Deterrence Studies, a Research Affiliate with the Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), an officially proclaimed U.S. Army "Mad Scientist," and Senior Consultant at ABS Group.

He has published over 50 articles on autonomous weapons, weapons of mass destruction, and apocalyptic terrorism in a wide range of peer-reviewed, wonky, and popular outlets, including the Brookings Institution, Foreign Policy, Slate, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Parameters. Journalists have written about and shared that research in the New York Times, NPR, Forbes, the New Scientist, WIRED, and the BBC, among dozens of others in dozens of languages.

Mark Peters is the Executive Vice President for National Laboratory Management and Operations at Battelle Memorial Institute with responsibilities for governance and oversight of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security national laboratories for which Battelle has a significant lab management role. Previously, he was the director of Idaho National Laboratory and president of Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC.

Rebekah Koffler is a Russian-born, former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer and specialist in Putin and Russian Doctrine & Strategy. She is also a communism survivor. Working with the DIA and CIA’s National Clandestine Service, Rebekah has led “red” teams during wargames and briefed the Pentagon, the White House, and NATO on Russian Doctrine & Strategy. U.S. military commanders have called her a “national asset,” and she received the National Intelligence Professional Award. As a top intelligence officer on the Russia target, Ms. Koffler has delivered classified briefings to top U.S. military commanders, NATO ministers, the directors of the CIA and DIA, the National Security Council, and senior congressional staff. Rebekah’s new book, Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America, describes Moscow’s strategic ambitions, including the Kremlin’s master plan to reconstitute a USSR-like alliance and also to transform the United States, through ideological subversion, from a free capitalist society into a totalitarian socialist state.

Since leaving Congress after 26 years, which included service as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Mac continues to work at the intersection of technology and national security with various companies and organizations.

Mac led in creating the National Nuclear Security Administration to improve management of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex; establishing the Department of Homeland Security (introducing a bill to do so six months before the attacks of 9/11); preparing the military to defend the nation in new domains of warfare such as space and cyber; and improving DOD’s innovation and acquisition efforts.

In addition to serving on the House Armed Services Committee throughout his time in Congress, Mac also served on the House Intelligence Committee for 14 years. He has written widely on defense matters and appeared on all major television channels providing insight on national security-related issues.