Panel: How the DoD Can Adopt Pioneering Technology Like AI?

Emily Harding is deputy director and senior fellow with the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She joined CSIS from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), where she was deputy staff director. In her nearly 20 years of government service, she has served in a series of high-profile national security positions at critical moments, including with CIA, ODNI, and NSC. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.

Stephanie Halcrow, co-author of The Power of Many: Leveraging Consortia to Promote Innovation, Expand the Defense Industrial Base, and Accelerate Acquisition, is a Senior Fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Government Contracting and President of The Halcrow Group. She most recently served as a Professional Staff Member on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) where she led the efforts to develop, position, and implement the HASC Ranking Member’s acquisition reform strategies into tangible legislative solutions, garnering bipartisan and bicameral support as well as soliciting industry and federal government input. Stephanie is deep-rooted in the academic and public policy community and currently serves as a Senior Fellow for Defense Industrial Base Health and Resiliency with the National Defense Industrial Association and as an external advisor to the Department of Defense’s Acquisition Innovation Research Center.

Paul Lekas is an experienced advocate, lawyer, and expert in technology policy, government affairs, regulatory design, privacy, and national security. He has advised senior leaders in business and government for two decades. Paul currently serves as SVP for Global Public Policy with the Software & Information Industry Association, the principal trade association for companies in the business of information. Paul is responsible for developing SIIA’s public policy and government affairs strategy, thought leadership, and directing engagement at the U.S. federal and state levels and internationally on behalf of over 450 companies. Previously, Paul previously served in the U.S. government as Deputy General Counsel (Legal Counsel) at the Department of Defense and in senior strategic and management positions with the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service. In addition, as part of the Biden-Harris transition team, Paul provided counsel on national security and foreign policy matters. Paul’s government service followed over a decade in private law practice with a focus on sensitive litigation, investigations, and strategic counseling. Paul received his A.B. and J.D. degrees from Harvard.

John Dulin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Intelligence, which builds breakthrough low-data defense AI products. Previously, John worked at Freenome, Numerai, and studied Physics at Case Western Reserve University. He is from Ohio.

Lee Hudson covers defense technology and influence for POLITICO. Her reporting on the military and the aerospace and defense industries has taken her to military installations around the globe, aboard warships, and in a jump seat of a V-22.

Prior to joining POLITICO, she covered the Pentagon and Capitol Hill for Aviation Week. There she traveled on multiple assignments to Europe, and accompanied service secretaries, military service chiefs, and the acting secretary of defense on trips in the U.S.