Previous Speakers
Founded by Professor Jacob Groshek, the instructional team will include experts that work at the intersection of the media industry and academia. You will have hands on one-to-one interactions with an award-winning group of scholar / practitioners that have decades of experience in designing systems and developing solutions that are applied to topics that include but are not limited to politics, health, science, sports, business, and — of course — media.
Dr. Marc Smith
Dr. Marc Smith is a sociologist specializing in the social organization of online communities and computer mediated interaction. Smith leads the Connected Action consulting group and lives and works in Silicon Valley. Smith co-founded and directs the Social Media Research Foundation, a non-profit devoted to open tools and data related to social media research. Dr. Smith received a B.S. from Drexel, an M.Phil. from Cambridge, and a Ph.D. from UCLA. He is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.
Cecily Faenza
Cecily Faenza is in her third season as the Social Media Manager for the New England Patriots, after four seasons as Media Relations Coordinator for the team. Cecily manages posting, social strategy, social monetization, partner fulfillment and platform relationships for all @Patriots accounts, oversees other Patriots-related social handles and works closely with the creative and content teams. She is an alum of South Carolina and the University of Connecticut.
Dr. David Lazer
David Lazer is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, and Co-Director, NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks. His research focuses on network science, computational social science, and collaborative intelligence, receiving extensive coverage in the media, including the New York Times, NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and CBS Evening News. He is also the founder of Volunteer Science, and holds many other leadership and editorial positions.
Dr. Stu Shulman
Dr. Stuart W. Shulman is the founder and CEO of Texifter. Stu was formerly a UMass Amherst political science professor and the Vice President for Text Analytics at Vision Critical. Dr. Shulman is the sole inventor of the Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT), an open source, Web-based text analysis software project, as well a text analytic network known as DiscoverText (discovertext.com). His latest invention is Sifter, a tool for researchers who need self-serve access to the complete undeleted history of Twitter (sifter.texifter.com).
Netta Ness
Netta Ness is an entrepreneur, speaker, and expert in Chance Management™ for leaders, startups, and corporations. Netta developed the Chance Management process for capitalizing on chance following her work as Vice President for a hedge firm. She is also a columnist for Epoch Times Magazine and holds a B.S. in political science, public communications and journalism from Bar Ilan University and a Master’s degree in Global Marketing, Communications and Advertising from Emerson College.
Wasim Ahmed
Wasim Ahmed is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Sheffield. He has delivered over 30 social media talks to agencies such as the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), the UK government, and universities across the world. Wasim has experience on many social media projects with organisations such as Manchester United. He is also a member of the Social Media Research Foundation and regularly authors high-impact articles for the LSE Impact blog and mainstream media. He earned an MSc in Information System and a BA in Philosophy.
Amit Phansalkar
Amit is the CDO of Apptopia and is also the co-founder of Netra System, a machine vision start up creating smarter retail intelligence. Prior to this Amit was the Chief Data Officer for Massmutual, a fortune 100 financial services firm where he was responsible for the vision and data strategy for all consumer data. Amit has more than 15 years of experience building products and systems using big data holds over 6 data science patents. He earned an M.S. from the University of New Mexico where he focused on National Security Science.
Brittany Andersen
Brittany Andersen is a Ph.D. student in the Emerging Media Studies (EMS) Program. Her research focuses on how users perceive, evaluate, and respond to different types of media and technology. Brittany received her M.A. from the EMS program in 2015 and spent the past year working on analyst relations and market research teams at Porter Novelli, a global public relations firm. Prior to enrolling at BU, she graduated from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and French.
Dr. Joe Panepinto
Dr. Joe Panepinto is the Senior Vice President of Strategy at Genuine, a full-service digital agency acquired by Jack Morton Worldwide in 2014. Joe’s team works with the UX, design, copy, and digital marketing teams on all aspects of business, creative, and marketing strategy. Dr. Panepinto has more than 20 years of communication industry experience. He earned his Doctorate in Communication from UMass Amherst, a Master’s degree from COM at BU, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Hamilton College.