Escape Velocity 2017

Jeffrey Rutenbeck is the Dean of the School of Communication (SOC) at American University in Washington, DC. Since 2012, Dr. Rutenbeck has worked to build McKinley Hall, the new home for the School of Communication (SOC) and expanding the Dean’s Internships with organizations... Read More →

Brigid Maher is the Director of the Film and Media Arts Division and a tenured, associate professor in the School of Communication. She is the Director of the Community Voice Project and Senior Fellow at the Center for Media and Social Impact.Her latest documentary, The Mama Sherpas... Read More →

Montré Aza Missouri is an Associate Professor in Film at Howard University, author of the black feminist film and culture studies book "Black Magic Woman and Narrative Film: Race, Sex and Afro-Religiosity" published by Palgrave Macmillan and founder of the independent film organization... Read More →

Bryan Monroe is the Verizon Chair and Professor at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication. Before joining Temple, he was most recently the Washington Editor, Opinion & Commentary at CNN and the editor of CNNPolitics.com. His work at the network included editorial planning and content strategy across all online platforms for CNN in its Washington, D.C. bureau. He also served as the assistant vice president of news at Knight Ridder Newspapers, where he helped lead journalists at the Biloxi Sun Herald... Read More →

Latoya Peterson is a writer, producer, and futurist based in DC. She spends a lot of time looking at emerging technology and counterprogramming for social justice. She is currently the Deputy Editor over Digital Innovation for ESPN's The Undefeated.

Stacy Bruss, MS, MSIS, is a reference librarian at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). At NIST, she supports all Physical Measurement Laboratory researchers and manages the Innovation Hub, a center with 3-D printers, technology bar, data visualization tools... Read More →