Keynote:
Mr. Mark Laity
Director, Communications Division
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)
Speakers & NATO SPS Grant Organizational Committee **
Distinguished Professor / Dr. Nitin Agarwal
Endowed Chair
Director, Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS)
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
** Vice-Dean / Professor / Dr. Jasmin Ahić
Vice Dean and Professor of Security Studies
Department of Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Security Studies
University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina ** Organizational Committee member of this NATO SPS G5631 grant
Dr. Uku Arold
Deputy Chief, Strategic Communication Department
Estonian Defence Forces Headquarters
Colonel Ivan Atanasoski
Head, Department for Communications, Analytics, and Operational Support
NATO P-TEC Public Affairs Regional Council (PARC)
Ministry of Defence, North Macedonia
Dr. Michael L. Bernard
Principal Scientist for DYMATICA
Principal Scientist and Lead, Behavioral Influence Assessment (BIA) Program
Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Military Systems Analytics Group
Sandia National Laboratories – a Science and Engineering laboratory for the U.S. government
Professor / Dr. Kathleen Carley
Professor of Computer Science, Institute for Software Research
Director, Center for Informed Democracy and Social-cybersecurity (IDeaS)
Director, Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems
Carnegie Mellon University
Professor Michelangelo Conoscenti
Chair, English Linguistics and Political and Military Discourse Analysis
Department of Culture, Politics, and Society
University of Turin, Italy
Dr. / Lieutenant Colonel Olga Derkach
Head, Monitoring and Change Management Unit
Strategic Planning and European Integration Department
Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
** Professor / Dr. / Colonel Metodija Dojchinovski
Head, Department for Security, Crisis Management, and Protection and Rescue
Military Academy “General Mihailo Apostolski”– Skopje,
Associate Member of University of Goce Delcev – Stip, North Macedonia
** NATO-invitee co-director of this NATO SPS G5631 grant
Mr. Michael Gaul
Head of Finance, Headquarters, and Personnel
Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to NATO
Chairman of the Emerging Security Challenges Working Group,
Partnership for Peace Consortium
Government of the Republic of North Macedonia
High-level speakers to be determined
Dr. Nancy Houston
Board Director, University of Advancing Technology
CEO, Houston Educational Services
Formerly: Cognitive Science Coordinator for the C4I Division of NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk, VA focusing on optimizing processes and information systems to maximize human effectiveness and efficiency.
Brigadier General (retired) Russell D. Howard
Senior Fellow, U.S. Joint Special Operations University
Member, Antiquities Coalition Advisory Council
Formerly: Founder, Counter Terrorism Center and Dean of Social Sciences at the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point
Professor / Dr. Peter Johnson
Professor and Founder, Computer Science Department
University of Bath, United Kingdom
Vice-Chairman, Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC)
United Kingdom Ministry of Defense
Formerly: Joint founder and Vice-President, British Computer Society Human Computer Interaction Group
Associate Professor / Dr. Max Kilger
Department of Information Systems & Cyber Security
Director, Master’s in Data Analytics Program
University of Texas at San Antonio, United States
** Lieutenant Colonel Nikola Klentnikov, MS
Head of Section for Masters and Ph.D. Studeis
Military Academy “General Mihailo Apostolski”– Skopje,
Associate Member of University of Goce Delcev – Stip, North Macedonia
** Organizational Committee member of this NATO SPS G5631 grant
** Dean / Professor / Dr. Nežad Korajlić
Department of Criminalistics, Criminology, and Security Studies
University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
** NATO-Partnership for Peace (PfP) country co-director of this NATO SPS G5631 grant
Lieutenant Colonel Lars Koreman
Bundeswehr Fellow
George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies /
Bundeswehr University, Munich
** Professor / Dr. Itamara Lochard
Director, Cyber Policy Studies
Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE)
George Mason University
** NATO-country director of this NATO SPS G5631 grant
Associate Professor / Dr. Dongwon Lee
College of Information Sciences and Technology (iSchool)
Penn State University, United States
Dr. Stefano Mele, S.J.D.
President, Cyber Security Working Group, American Chamber of Commerce in Italy
Partner of Carnelutti Law Firm – Italy
Ms. Oana Popescu-Zamfir, MS – TBC
Director and Founder
GlobalFocus, Romania
** Dean / Professor / Dr. / Colonel Orce Popovski
Professor, Chemistry and Military Technology
Dean, Military Academy “General Mihailo Apostolski”– Skopje,
Associate Member of University of Goce Delcev – Stip, North Macedonia
** Organizational Committee member of this NATO SPS G5631 grant
Dean / Professor / Dr. Violeta Raškovic-Talović
Department of International Policy and Security
Union-Nikola Tesla University, Serbia
** Professor / Dr. Dejan Rančić
Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Niš, Serbia
** Organizational Committee member of this NATO SPS G5631 grant
Professor / Dr. Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP
Research Professor, Environmental Security and Global Medicine
San Diego State University
Core Faculty, Global Grand Challenges and Exponential Medicine
Singularity University
CEO, Infinitum Humanitarian Systems
Formerly: Special Advisor, Humanitarian Informatics, U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense
Professor / Dr. Matthew Rhodes
Professor of National Security Studies
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
Ms. Sanda Svetoka
Senior Expert
Project Director, StratCom COE Studies
NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, Latvia
Mr. Dmitri Teperik
Chief Executive, International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS)
Director, “Resilient Ukraine”- a development co-operation program
Dr. Urim Vejseli
Head, International Cooperation Department
Crisis Management Center of North Macedonia
Co-director, NATO SPS ARCECP / NICS G4968
U.S. Embassy in North Macedonia – TBC
Speaker and/or participant to be determined
Professor / Dr. Linton Wells II
Executive Advisor, Community Resilience Laboratory and C4I & Cyber Center
George Mason University
Distinguished Research Fellow and Professor, Institute of National Security Studies
U.S. National Defense University
Formerly: U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration (ASD/NII) / Chief Information Officer for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)- an appointed position that provided management and oversight of all DoD information technology, including national security systems.