Hakeem Oluseyi is CEO of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and author of the award-winning memoir A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Streets to the Stars. He is a multidisciplinary astrophysicist, multi-patented inventor, science journalist, and internationally recognized STEM educator, as well as a sought-after TV presenter, podcast host, voice actor, and speaker.

Oluseyi earned his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Tougaloo College and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford. He’s published over 100 scientific papers, holds 11 patents, and has developed technologies now standard in astrophysics and semiconductor manufacturing.

Nathalie joined the SETI Institute (SI) in 1998 as a Senior Astrobiologist. She was named Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SI in August 2015. In addition to leading the scientific vision at the SI, she leads projects in astrobiology, develops science exploration strategies for Mars, Titan, and the Outer Solar System icy moons, and designs robotic field experiments. She explores high-altitude lakes in the Andes, where environmental conditions are analogous to early Mars. With her team, she documents life's adaptation to extreme environments, the effects of rapid climate change on lake ecosystems and habitats, their geobiological signatures, and their relevance to planetary exploration. Nathalie holds the women's world record for free and scuba diving at altitude (Licancabur Summit Lake, 5,940 m).

David Grinspoon, Senior Scientist for Astrobiology Strategy at NASA, is an astrobiologist and award-winning author. He studies climate change on Earthlike planets, conditions for life elsewhere, and human impacts on Earth. His research is published in Nature, Science, and many other journals. He’s written for Scientific American, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. His newest book is Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto. Earth in Human Hands was named Best Book of 2016 by NPR’s Science Friday. Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life won a PEN award. He appears often on television, radio and podcasts, including as a frequent guest and host of StarTalk. As a musician he leads GROOVADELICS. Awarded the Carl Sagan Medal for Public Communication, he’s an elected lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Asteroid 22410 Grinspoon is named after him.

Ethan received his PhD in theoretical cosmology (physics) from the University of Florida in 2006, followed by a postdoc at Steward Observatory and stints as a Professor of Physics at the University of Portland and Lewis & Clark College. In 2015, he left his position to pursue science communication full-time, founding Starts With A Bang. He has contributed to Forbes, Big Think, Medium, Scienceblogs, Scientific American, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. He is the author of five books, with his sixth, The Grand Cosmic Story from National Geographic, due out later this year.

Kate Storey-Fisher is a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University. She completed her PhD in Physics at New York University, where she was a NASA FINESST fellow. Her research focuses on the large-scale structure of the universe—how we can use maps of galaxies and other astronomical observations to understand fundamental cosmological properties, such as dark matter and dark energy. More broadly, she is interested in developing data science and machine learning tools for cosmology. Kate is also passionate about pedagogy, writing, labor organizing, and open source accessible science.

Andrew Fraknoi retired as Chair of the Astronomy Department for Foothill College in 2017, and now teaches courses for retired adults at the Fromm Institute at the U. of San Francisco. He served as the ASP’s Executive Director from 1978-1992 and helped set up many of its educational programs. He is the lead author of OpenStax Astronomy, a free online book which is now the leading intro astronomy text in the U.S., and founded and co-edited the journal Astronomy Education Review with Sidney Wolff. He has served on the Board of the SETI Institute for more than 40 years. In his spare time, he is writing short astronomical science fiction, with 11 stories published so far.

Sukanta Bose is a professor of Physics and Astronomy at the Washington State University (WSU), Pullman, since 2001, and served as its chair (interim) from 2010 to 2012. He has taught various courses in Physics and Astronomy across all levels. He conducts research in gravitation, cosmology and, especially, gravitational wave (GW) astronomy. He and his group members worked with the LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations to make the first direct observations of gravitational waves from a remote collision of two black holes in 2015. He also worked as the Project Coordinator of LIGO-India from 2019 - 2022 – a USA-India project that is building a LIGO detector in India to complement the two detectors in the USA. Bose is an NSF CAREER awardee and a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences.

After completing her undergraduate studies in Physics at Queen’s University in Ontario, Dr. Clare Higgs pursued a Masters and PhD in Astronomy at the University of Victoria, located in British Columbia, Canada. She studied the resolved stars in nearby, isolated dwarf galaxies to better understand how environment affects the structure of galaxies. She is now an astronomer on the Education & Public Outreach team at NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The EPO team works to bring Rubin Observatory and its data to the public, as it embarks on a decade of exciting science and discovery.

Clare has a passion for astronomy, particular observational astronomy in the optical wavelengths and is looking forward to continuing to study dwarf galaxies in the era of Rubin.

Dr. Stephanie LaMassa is a Scientist and Deputy Head of the Instruments Division. Steph studies the growth and evolution of supermassive black holes and the interplay between AGN activity and star formation from a multi-wavelength perspective. Steph is also interested in understanding how highly variable AGN provide insight into black hole fueling and AGN lifetimes.

Dr. Rob Zellem is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His research focuses on the characterization of the atmospheres of exoplanets using both the transit and direct imaging methods. Rob is a Deputy Project Scientist for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. He is also a member of the Roman Coronagraph Project Science team where he led the development of the science calibration plan. He is the Project Scientist and Lead for Exoplanet Watch, a citizen science project to observe transiting exoplanets to update their ephemerides to ensure the efficiency use of large telescope time. He is the Ground-Based Sub-working Group co-lead for Pandora, whereby he is coordinating ground-based observations to support both the operations and scientific interpretation of Pandora data. He is also a co-lead for NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) and a science team member for the NASA’s CASE contribution to ESA’s Ariel mission.

Dr. Negus completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2023 and is currently the Outreach Coordinator for Colorado State University's Inertial Fusion Energy hub. Passionate about science communication, he has authored two books with Enslow Publishing—Mysteries of Space: Black Holes Explained and Mysteries of Space: Supernovas Explained.

He serves on the Board of Directors for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Dark Sky Colorado and the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains. In his spare time, he enjoys stargazing with his 8” Dobsonian telescope in the Rockies and engaging in astronomy outreach.

Dr. Dara Norman is serving as the 50th president of the American Astronomical Society, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary. She an Observatory Scientist at the NSF’s NOIRLab, where she is currently on sabbatical from her position as the Deputy Director of the Community Science and Data Center. Her primary research interests include AGN, their environments and their influence on galactic evolution.

Dr. Norman is interested in the culture of the field of astronomy and passionate about redefining the ways in which we assess scientific merit to include both the science that we do and how that science is done. She is co-editor of the book, '‘Astronomical Inclusion Revolution’. Dr. Norman holds Ph.D. from the University of Washington and a B.S. the Mass. Inst. of Technology.

Meredith Rawls is a PhD astronomer at the University of Washington. She works on data pipelines and validation for the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will soon begin producing a high resolution movie of the night sky. Her research studies the increasing population of satellites to better understand their impact on science and our skies. She co-leads SatHub at the International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS). Meredith lives in Seattle with her family and enjoys getting around via cargo e-bike.

Dakotah Tyler is an astrophysicist and science communicator whose research centers on how close-in exoplanets lose their atmospheres over time. He earned his PhD in astronomy and astrophysics from UCLA, where he conducted observational studies of atmospheric escape, radial velocity measurements, and the processes that shape planetary systems. A former Division I college football player turned scientist, Dakotah combines technical expertise with an approachable, motivating style of science communication. His work focuses on making astrophysics accessible and inspiring for broad audiences.

Ann Zabludoff's research ranges widely over astronomy and astrophysics. She has studied the formation and evolution of galaxies and large-scale structure, the impacts of "compound" gravitational lens systems, connections between astrophysical transients and their host galaxies, the disruptive effects of supermassive black holes on stars, new methods for directly imaging exoplanets, and the nature of dark matter. Her work includes analyses of large observational datasets and theoretical cosmological simulations, as well as the adaptation of astronomical instruments for new science. She co-founded Rubin Observatory's Catalyst Postdoctoral Fellowship program and is U.S. Participating Scientist on the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT) science team. She currently serves on the Steering Committee for Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI of the University of Arizona (UA) College of Science and co-leads the Computation and Data Initiative of the UA Theoretical Astrophysics Program. She heads an interdisciplinary team of academic and industry partners exploring astrophysical problems with AI, with a particular focus on improving literature search, synthesis, and visualization as a means for new hypothesis generation.

Dr. Kat Gardner-Vandy (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma tribal member) is an Associate Professor of Aviation and Space at Oklahoma State University. She is a Geologist (BS 2005, University of Oklahoma), Planetary Scientist (PhD 2012, University of Arizona), and private pilot (2005). Prior to OSU, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in the Division of Meteorites, a STEM Lab Instructor at Tulsa Community College, and an adjunct professor. Dr. GV is the Principal Investigator of Native Earth | Native Sky, a collaborative STEM education effort between three Native American Nations in Oklahoma and OSU. In 2022, she was named a Native American 40 Under 40 by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. Dr. GV is a proud daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, scientist, educator, and leader, and she is forever grateful for her ancestors and mentors.

Jarita Holbrook is studying the LSST-Rubin collaboration documenting shifts in practice over the last ten years. They earned degrees in physics, astronomy and astrophysics from some of the finest universities in California: Caltech, SDSU and UC Santa Cruz. Post-PhD, Holbrook retooled to become a Cultural Astronomer. African Indigenous Astronomy, Astrophysicists in Africa, Contemporary Navigation by the Stars as well as the dark sides of Astrophysics culture are their areas of expertise. They have held leadership roles in the International Society for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture (ISAAC), the European Cultural Astronomy Society (SEAC), and the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society (HAD-AAS). Holbrook is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and has captured their love of travel in their web series The Science Tourist(s).

Currently the Senior Director for Rural Engagement with Arizona Science Center, Kal's career has been anything but a straight line. Over the last four decades he has been an entrepreneur, K12 educator and administrator, higher ed lecturer, researcher, program evaluator, and, this year, one of the 2025 DoD STEM Ambassadors. He currently oversees multiple projects including heat monitoring and data analysis, the use of STEM topics for indigenous language preservation, regional science fairs, rural STEM Learning Ecosystems, Participatory Science with libraries, STEM assets for rural economic development, and is the Director of the National Rural STEM Summit. An avid outdoors enthusiast, Kal sits on the boards of the White Mountain (AZ) Nature Center, and Friends of the Verde River.

Dr. Moiya McTier is an astrophysicist, folklorist, and science communicator. Over the last decade, Moiya has given hundreds of talks around the world, helped design museum exhibits, and consulted with Disney on multiple projects (did you see Wish?). Moiya shares her passion for science and facts through podcasts (Exolore and Pale Blue Pod), shows (Fate & Fabled on PBS), and books (The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy). Her next book exploring the history of creativity is expected Fall 2026.