Skip to main content

Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions

annual-meeting-year-logo.png

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.

View photos from the 2025 meeting

Meeting information

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

Panel 2: Manufacturing Supply Chain Challenges
Moderator: Morris Hassler, Owner, M&M Technical Services LLC
Panelists:

  • Ryan Wicker, Additive Manufacturing Consultant
  • 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

View 2024 meeting photo gallery

Key Takeaways and Opportunities (.PDF, 1.7 MB)

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

Keynote Presentation
Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher, Science Journals, AAAS

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.

Listen to the podcast   Transcript for Episode 170

The state of research at ORAU, and a look ahead to our 2025 annual meeting

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.

Read the blog post

What is ORAU’s annual council meeting? How does it advance STEM?

Contact us

To learn more about the ORAU Annual Meeting, contact the University Partnerships office:

Casey Thomas
P.O. Box 117, MS 29
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0117