Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions
ORAU's Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions is held to explore relevant topics in higher education. The meeting not only provides presentations by nationally recognized experts, but also gives our university consortium members the opportunity to partake in valuable discussions with council representatives and ORAU staff in conjunction with the meeting's yearly theme.
ORAU’s 2026 Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions will be held March 9-10, 2026 and the theme will be focused on building a collaborative framework for disaster resilience and a culture of preparedness.
Registration for the 2026 meeting will open in late 2025.
The agenda for the 2026 meeting will be announced in late 2025.
Speakers for the 2026 meeting will be announced in late 2025.
Past meeting archive
Monday, March 3, 2025
Opening Remarks and Special Welcome Address
Ken Tobin, Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
Deborah Crawford, Vice Chair, ORAU Board of Directors; and Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Tennessee
Keynote Address Michael Molnar, Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office and Office of Advanced Manufacturing, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Panel 1: Clean Energy Manufacturing Moderator: Alan Icenhour, Chair, ORAU Board Research Committee Panelists:
Howard Grimes, Chief Executive Officer, Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), Associate Vice Provost and Vice President for Institutional Initiative, University of Texas at San Antonio
William Peter, Director, Advanced Manufacturing Program Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Ira Moskowitz, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM)
Day 1 Wrap Up Ken Tobin, Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Opening Remarks and Charge to the Consortium
Rebekah Hersch, Chair, Council of Sponsoring Institutions
Quincy Quick, Vice Chair, Council of Sponsoring Institutions
Keynote Address Omar Perea, Chief Innovation and Protoyping (OL El Paso), Space Systems Command
Alexander “Sasha” Stolyarov, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA)
Panel 3: Redefining Manufacturing Jobs Moderator: Michelle Goodson, Director, Workforce Solutions, ORAU Government Services Panelists:
John Balchunas, Workforce Director, National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), Securing American Biomanufacturing Research and Education Center, University of Delaware
Mark Buckner, iSchool Founder, Robotics Innovation Design and Manufacturing Teacher, Oak Ridge High School
Scott Halliday, Director, Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Navajo Technical University
Panel 4: Transitioning Manufacturing Innovation to Market Moderator: John Dolynchuk, Capture Manager, Business Development, ORAU Panelists:
Susan Ipri-Brown, Strategic Initiatives Manager, Office of Advanced Manufacturing, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Sandra DeVincent Wolf, Executive Director, Manufacturing Futures Institute and NextManufacturing Center, Carnegie Mellon University
Closing Remarks
Andy Page, President and CEO, ORAU
Ken Tobin, Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
Key takeaways from the keynote addresses and panel discussions, along with engagement opportunities for members of the ORAU University Consortium, are outlined in the document.
Monday, March 4, 2024
Opening Remarks and Special Welcome Address Ken Tobin, Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU Ken Rueter, Chair, ORAU Board of Directors
Panel 1: Building a Future-Resilient Workforce Moderator: Tiffani Conner, ORAU Speakers:
James Brown, Executive Director, STEM Education Coalition
Gabriela Cruz Thompson, Senior Director, University Research and Collaboration, Intel Labs
Joyce Malyn-Smith, Co-PI, STEM Learning and Research Center, Education Development Center, Inc.
Carol O’Donnell, Senior Executive and Director, Smithsonian Science Education Center
Alex Swartsel, Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work, JFFLabs, Jobs for the Future
Day 1 Wrap Up Ken Tobin, Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Opening Remarks and Charge to the Consortium Rebekah Hersch, Chair, Council of Sponsoring Institutions
Keynote Presentation Elizabeth Albro, Commissioner of Education Research, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Panel 2: Equitable Access for an Innovation Economy Moderator: Tracy DiGioia, MITRE Speakers:
Lizanne DeStefano, Executive Director, Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing, Georgia Tech
Diana Gehlhaus, Director for Economy at the Special Competitive Studies Project
Gregory Goins, Associate Dean for Research, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, North Carolina A&T State University
Todd Mann, Executive Director, National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools
Panel 3: ORAU STEM Accelerator Moderator: Lt. Gen. (Ret.) John Regni, ORAU Board of Directors Speakers:
Olivia Blackmon, Director, ORAU STEM Accelerator, Research and University Partnerships Office, ORAU
John Dyer, Associate Vice President, Workforce and Economic Development, American Association of Community Colleges
J. Wesley Hines, Nuclear Engineering Department Head, Chancellor’s Professor; and Co-Chair, Education/Workforce Committee Chair, Tennessee Nuclear Energy Advisory Council, University of Tennessee
Nakeisha Ricks-Pettyjohn, Senior Fellow, Workforce Development, National Skills Coalition
Panel 4: Strategic Alliances to Advance the K-16 Education Ecosystem Moderator: Sam Visner, ORAU Board of Directors Speakers:
Courtney Brafford, Director, UofM Global, University of Memphis
Dennis Foutz, Lead, University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics, Joint Hypersonics Transition Office, U.S. Department of Defense
Ashley Greeley, NCAE-C K-12 Mission Lead, Center for Education, Innovation and Outreach, National Cryptologic University, National Security Agency
Scott Lucas, President, National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers
Keynote Address Hassan Khan, Senior Advisor for Economic Security, CHIPS for America, U.S. Department of Commerce
Closing Remarks Andy Page, President and CEO, ORAU
Impact Areas
The state of research at ORAU, and a look ahead to our 2025 annual meeting
Ken Tobin, chief research officer, and Cathy Fore, senior director of university partnerships, sit down with hosts Michael Holtz and Abbey Becker to discuss the state of research at ORAU. This episode includes discussion of recent research successes and the matchmaking that Fore does to increase the value proposition for consortium members. We discuss ORAU's current research priorities and the topics of recently awarded ORAU-Directed Research and Development projects. We also do a quick wrap up of the 2024 annual meeting, which focused on STEM education and look ahead to the 2025 meeting and its focus on advanced manufacturing.
What is ORAU’s annual council meeting? How does it advance STEM?
ORAU’s annual meeting brings together consortium members with ORAU employees, as well as some invited non-members from industry/adjacent partners and Oak Ridge leaders. The meeting also features keynote speakers and panelists, so there are a lot of subject matter experts in the room.