Alex Pravat
Photographer
Alex Pravat is a Seattle based portrait, wedding, and adventure photographer. Storytelling and intimacy are the cornerstones of his style, which when brought together, create powerful images capturing the beauty of places and people. He has worked with hundreds of clients to create memories that will last a lifetime. Working with local companies such as Reveal Shop, Pro Sports Club, MiSHΔ, and Skyline Socks, Alex has broadened his horizons and pushed himself to explore new styles of photography, slowly transforming his hobby into a career.
Erin Jones
Educator
Erin Jones has been working in and around schools for the past 25 years. She has taught in a variety of environments, from predominantly African American to predominantly Caucasian to some of the most diverse communities in the nation. Erin received an award as the Most Innovative Foreign Language Teacher in 2007, while teaching French Immersion at Stewart Middle School in Tacoma, and was the Washington State Milken Educator of the Year in 2008, while teaching at Rogers High School in Spokane. She served under two state superintendents - half a year year as a Director for Dr. Terry Bergeson and 3 years as Assistant Superintendent on the executive leadership team for Superintendent Randy Dorn. She received recognition at the White House in March of 2013 as a "Champion of Change." In 2015, Erin earned recognition as PTA Educator of the Year for her testimony in the McCleary case.
Manoj Samanta
Bioinformatics Researcher
Ever since his first foray into bioinformatics as a NASA scientist, Dr Manoj Samanta found it intriguing to use his mathematical and computational skills to understand the vast and complex world of biology. For the last sixteen years, he has been a bioinformatics researcher and has collaborated with research scientists working on a diversity of biological topics. He is a founder of Coding4medicine, an organization helping young scientists acquire necessary computationalskills needed for the new world of data-driven biology. Dr. Samanta graduated from Indian Institute of Technology receiving institute silver medal as the top of his class, obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, and worked for Hewlett Packard and NASA Ames Research Center. He was a member of Indian team in the International Maths Olympiad held in Germany in 1989.
William Moody
Neurobiologist
Bill Moody received his BS degree in Molecular Biophysics from Yale University and his PhD in Neurobiology from Stanford. After completing his PhD work, he worked in the Department of Physiology at the University of Bristol in England and at UCLA. He is currently Professor of Biology at the University of Washington and Director of the Undergraduate Neurobiology Program there. His laboratory studies the roles that electrical activity play in the development of the brain.