Keeping Higher Education Engaging, Relevant, and Impactful

Dr. Angelina Rinehart is the Executive Director at the Virtual World Society and an Aspen Institute Tech Policy Fellow. She was recently named one of the Top 100 Women of the Future. She is a virtual reality researcher, user experience designer, speaker, consultant and trainer. Her specialty is design and deployment of XR and AI technologies into complex organizations for the purpose of large-scale deployment and mass adoption. Her expertise in human computer interaction is based on an anthropological assessment of how best to integrate emerging technology into highly structured, low-resourced environments. She has worked with over 50,000 first time virtual reality users to create an XR and AI-skilled workforce.

Dr. Rinehart's research focuses on creating an efficient and productive XR and AI-skilled workforce through understanding the environments in which people thrive. Some of her current passion projects involve XR and AI development and training in rural areas within indigenous communities.

Dr. Kara Quinn Casimiro serves as Superintendent of Danbury Public Schools in Connecticut, bringing nearly 30 years of experience in the field of education. She began her career in 1996 as a teacher in Danbury’s Alternative Middle School Project Rebound Program and later taught history and social studies at Broadview Middle School. Transitioning to district administration in 2012, she held roles as Humanities Curriculum Leader, Director of Instruction and Assessment, and Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning before assuming her current position in 2024.

Dr. Casimiro earned her Doctorate in Education from Northeastern University and completed the Executive Leadership Superintendent program at Central Connecticut State University. She also holds a Master’s, a Sixth Year Certificate, and Connecticut State Certifications from the University of Bridgeport. As an alumna of Western Connecticut State University, she teaches in its Doctoral Program, mentoring future educational leaders.

A key advocate for innovation, Dr. Casimiro has led initiatives such as the establishment of the first wall-to-wall academy model in New England, offering students college-bound, career-focused pathways in fields like medical technology and engineering, clean energy and green design, business, and entrepreneurship. Her work emphasizes fostering partnerships among families, educators, industry leaders, and students to enhance learning outcomes.

Under her leadership, Danbury Public Schools focuses on preparing students for college and career readiness, addressing the diverse and growing needs of its population. Dedicated to transforming education, Dr. Casimiro strives to position Danbury Public Schools as a leading urban district in the Northeast.

Dr. Lance Eaton is the Senior Associate Director of AI in Teaching and Learning at Northeastern University. His work engages with the possibility of digital tools for expanding teaching and learning communities while considering the profound issues and questions that educational technologies open up for students, faculty, and higher ed as a whole. In the last few years, he has written about, spoken with, and consulted with scores of higher education institutions about navigating the complexities and possibilities that generative AI represents for us in this moment. His musings, reflections, and ramblings on AI and Education can be found on his blog: https://aiedusimplified.substack.com/

Jonathan P. Costa, Sr. has served as the Executive Director of EdAdvance in Litchfield, Connecticut since July of 2024, following eight years as Assistant Executive Director.  In addition to his organizational responsibilities, over his 41 years in the fields of education and business, Jonathan’s consulting work has taken him to over 150 school districts, non-profits, and businesses in the tri-state area, including the facilitation of strategic plans and several statewide level projects on behalf of the Connecticut State Board of Education.  He is the author of the Corwin Press book, Digital Learning for All, Now, numerous journal articles, is a former Vice Chair of the Litchfield Board of Educationand a member of the NEASC Commission for International Education. Additionally, Jonathan serves on the Connecticut Advisory Panel for the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University, as well as the Impact Advisory Board for the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at Arizona State University.

Raúl Martín Martín, originally from Salamanca, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the Complutense University of Madrid (2002) and a PhD in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Castilla–La Mancha (UCLM, 2006). He is currently an Associate Professor in the area of Statistics and Operations Research at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Biochemistry, Toledo campus (UCLM), where he teaches courses in the Physics and Environmental Sciences undergraduate programs. Since 2015, he has been head of the “Optimal Experimental Design” research group. He has participated in 21 European, national, and regional research projects and has managed around ten technology transfer contracts.

He has completed international stays at the universities of Glasgow, Vienna, and Alberta. In university administration, he has served as department secretary and Academic Director of Internationalization, and as a member of the Regional Statistics Council of Castilla-La Mancha. He is currently a member of the Executive Council of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, the Mathematical Reviews Committee of the American Mathematical Society, and the evaluator panel of the Spanish State Research Agency. Since 2016, he has been a trustee of the Castilla-La Mancha Guardianship Foundation and a volunteer at the “Hogar Zoe” therapeutic community in Toledo.

As Vice-Rector of UCLM, he coordinates two international alliances: the COLOURS Alliance and the RCCHU – Real Colegio Complutense Harvard University. The COLOURS Alliance, launched in 2024 under the Erasmus+ program, aims to transform European higher education through impact-driven research and teaching, promoting innovation, mobility, joint degrees, and microcredentials. The RCCHU, a􀆯iliated with Harvard since 1990, fosters academic and scientific cooperation between Harvard and Spain. UCLM joined this alliance in 2025.

Waded Cruzado is president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, a research, policy, and advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening and advancing the work of public universities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The association's membership consists of more than 250 public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems, and affiliated organizations.

From 2010 to 2025, Cruzado served as President of Montana State University, where she led transformative growth and set records in enrollment, retention, academic excellence, research, and fundraising. Cruzado is well known for her passion in bringing greater public understanding to the importance of the Morrill Acts of 1862, 1890, and 1994 – which collectively created the public, land-grant university system for the benefit of all Americans.

She is a passionate champion of the land-grant university’s tripartite mission of education, research, and outreach to communities, as well as the crucial role higher education plays in the development of individuals, the prosperity of the nation, and the vitality of democracy. Prior to Montana State University, Cruzado served in senior leadership roles at New Mexico State University and began her career at University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

A Puerto Rico native, Cruzado received her bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, her master’s degree in Spanish from The University of Texas at Arlington, and her Ph.D. in Humanities also from The University of Texas at Arlington.