Speaker Biographies

WELCOME REMARKS

Michael Ibba, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Chapman University

Michael Ibba is Chapman University's Executive Vice President, Provost and Chief Academic Officer. He previously led Chapman's Schmid College of Science and Technology as dean, arriving after 19 years at The Ohio State University, where he served as department chair. A microbiologist, Dr. Ibba studies the mechanisms that ensure the accurate translation of the genetic code and how cells respond to stress. He has published more than 200 research articles and is an elected fellow of both the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He earned his Ph.D. in microbial biochemistry from the University of Manchester.

OPENING REMARKS

Congressman Lou Correa

U.S. Representative, California's 46th District

Congressman Lou Correa has represented California's 46th Congressional District, in the heart of Orange County, since 2016. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Homeland Security, and is a Senior Whip of the House Democratic Caucus. Before Congress, he served in the California State Assembly, on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and in the California State Senate. Raised in Anaheim, he earned a B.A. in economics from California State University, Fullerton, and a J.D. and M.B.A. from UCLA. He lives in Santa Ana with his wife, Esther, and their four children.

KEYNOTE

Daniele Struppa

Professor; President Emeritus of Chapman University; Parker Kennedy Chair in Mathematics

Daniele Struppa served as Chapman University's 13th president from 2016 to 2025, guiding the university's rise to internationally recognized research status. He joined Chapman as provost in 2006 and became the university's first chancellor in 2007. Now President Emeritus, he holds the Parker Kennedy Chair in Mathematics in the Schmid College of Science and Technology. A native of Milan, Italy, he earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on Fourier analysis and its applications to differential equations, signal processing, and pattern recognition, and he has authored more than 200 refereed publications. His honors include the 2017 Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences.

MODERATOR, PANEL 1

Joel Kotkin

Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures, Chapman University; Executive Director, Center for Demographics and Policy

Joel Kotkin is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, where he serves as Executive Director of the Center for Demographics and Policy, and a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes a regular column for the National Post and Spiked, and contributes regularly to UnHerd, the Los Angeles Times, The Spectator, National Review, The Telegraph, and City Journal. His most recent book is The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class.

MODERATOR, PANEL 2

Marshall Toplansky

Research Fellow, Center for Demographics and Policy; Associate Professor of Management Science, Chapman University

Marshall Toplansky teaches management science at Chapman University's Argyros College of Business and Economics and serves as a Research Fellow with the Center for Demographics and Policy. Before joining Chapman, he co-founded Wise Window, a pioneering sentiment analysis firm, and went on to co-found KPMG's Center of Excellence for Data and Analytics, where he served as managing director. With Joel Kotkin he co-authored the reports California Feudalism: The Squeeze on the Middle Class and Beyond Feudalism: A Strategy to Restore California's Middle Class, and he co-hosts the Feudal Future podcast. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Anthony Lemus

Professor and Director of Industry Relations, Fowler School of Engineering, Chapman University

Anthony Lemus is a Professor of Practice at Chapman University's Fowler School of Engineering, where he serves as Director of Industry Relations. He brings more than 25 years of experience in medical device design and development, including service as an R&D executive at Johnson & Johnson, and is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt with expertise in energy delivery and biometric system design. He is founder and CTO of Innerself Technologies, and his published writing explores the relationship between religion and science. He holds a B.S. from Santa Clara University and an M.S. from the University of California, Irvine.

Ashwin Rangan

Independent Director; former senior executive and company officer with ICANN, Walmart, and Rockwell International

Ashwin Rangan is a nationally recognized technology executive and board director. He served as Senior Vice President of Engineering and Chief Information Officer at ICANN, the global organization that coordinates the internet's domain name system. His earlier career includes technology leadership roles with Rockwell International, Walmart.com, Conexant Systems, and Edwards Lifesciences. His board service includes DoubleCheck Solutions, GrandPad, and Smart Energy Water, and he served for roughly a decade as non-executive chair of the American Red Cross in Orange County. He is a frequent author and keynote speaker on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.

Fr. Gregory Bishay

Coptic Orthodox priest; Ph.D. in Computer Engineering

Father Gregory Bishay was born in Cairo on May 24, 1966, and served in St. George Church in Heliopolis, Egypt. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, in 1988, followed by a two-year employment with Schlumberger. In 1991 he began studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, earning his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering in 1997; during this period, he served in the nascent church of St. Mina in Nashville. From 1997 until 2001, he worked on the first-generation digital cameras at Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, which became Conexant Systems in Newport Beach, California, producing eight key patents in the emerging field of CMOS cameras. He was named Engineer of the Year for 1999 and architected the first generation of a camera on a phone within Conexant Systems in 2000. During this four-year period, he served St. Marina Church in Lake Forest, California. On May 27, 2001, he was ordained a priest by His Eminence Metropolitan Serapion to maintain current and initiate new youth ministries in the Diocese of Los Angeles under the leadership of His Eminence, who established the Coptic Orthodox Christian Center in Orange, with the parish of St. Verena and the Three Holy Youth Church for such ministry. He was elevated to the rank of Hegumen in 2017. Currently, he is pursuing a Th.M. degree from St. Athanasius and St. Cyril Theological School (ACTS), with service interests in Theology and Liturgy, integrated with logic, deductive reasoning, and engineering tools.

Ponthea Zahraii

Software Engineer specializing in robotics, machine learning, and 3D perception systems

Ponthea Zahraii is a software engineer specializing in machine learning and intelligent systems. She earned her B.S. in Computer Science and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Chapman University, where she served as a graduate research assistant in the Fowler School of Engineering. Her graduate research applied deep neural networks to photonic inverse design, using machine learning to model the optical responses of nanophotonic structures.

Arnold Shugarman

Retired Chemist; Chemistry Instructor and Grant Manager

Arnold Shugarman is a retired chemist (Unocal), chemistry instructor (Santa Ana College and Chapman University), and grant manager (Chapman University). He has been a volunteer and board member for several professional organizations and science education nonprofits for over 40 years.

Chad Pratt

Retired Trial Attorney; Business Consultant

Chad Pratt is a retired trial attorney with 33 years of self-employed trial practice. Educated in Catholic Jesuit schools, he attended Loyola High School, earned his B.A. in History from Santa Clara University, and received his J.D. from Loyola Law School. Now semi-retired, he is starting businesses in the weight loss and advertising areas along with general business consulting. A lifetime practicing Catholic, he ushers at the 11 a.m. Mass at St. Bede parish and is active in the Knights of Columbus. In his spare time he enjoys long distance running and following politics and LA sports, and he is honored to be part of this seminar.

Fadel Lawandy

Director, Burra School of Accounting and Finance; Leatherby Chair in Entrepreneurship, Chapman University

Fadel Lawandy is Director of the Burra School of Accounting and Finance and holds the Leatherby Chair in Entrepreneurship at Chapman University's Argyros College of Business and Economics, where he serves on the clinical faculty. He has also directed the C. Larry Hoag Center for Real Estate and Finance and the Janes Financial Center. He brings more than three decades of financial industry experience spanning banking, investments, commercial real estate, and private equity. He holds a B.S. from Chapman University and an M.B.A. from Norwich University, and is a longtime board member and past president of CFA Society Orange County.

Natalie Bishay

Software Engineer specializing in machine learning

Natalie Bishay is a software engineer specializing in machine learning. She earned her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where she served as a course assistant in matrix methods and convex optimization. She has built machine learning systems at the conversational AI company Gridspace and continues that work today as an engineer at Guava.

Rithika Muthukali

Chapman University Alumna; AI Professional

Rithika Muthukali is a Chapman University alumna and AI professional whose work spans artificial intelligence, private equity, and business strategy. She currently advises buy-side investment teams by combining AI-driven research with market intelligence to support acquisition decisions. With a background in Data Analytics and Philosophy, Rithika is fascinated by the intersection of science, technology, and religion, and how advances in AI are reshaping conversations about intelligence, consciousness, ethics, and the human condition.