A lively, engaging and informative fireside chat between Professor Andrew Maynard  from the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and Tekedra Mawakana , chief engagement officer at Waymo, that covers the promise, challenges and opportunities of developing self-driving car technologies, and touches on technology drivers, Waymo’s history and vision, Waymo initiatives in and around Chandler and Tempe, social and policy-related challenges, and what the future looks like.

Following their talk, there will be a panel discussion and chance for questions from the audience. 

Be sure to stop by the Waymo Pacifica, parked outside INTSB 4 to check out Waymo’s immersive 360° Experience and discover all the technology that powers their fully self-driving cars. Through the VR experience, the video will then take you on your first ride to feel what it’s like to be driven by Waymo. A member of Waymo’s ops team will be onsite to answer any questions you might have!

Tekedra N. Mawakana is the Chief External Officer (CXO) at Waymo — formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project. In this role, Tekedra leads Waymo’s external engagement organization, overseeing the teams responsible for public policy and government relations, public affairs, communications, marketing, and social initiatives/CSR. She is responsible for setting the strategic vision for optimal alignment and impact with critical external stakeholders as Waymo advances its efforts to commercialize its autonomous vehicle technology. She joined Waymo in 2017 as Global Head of Policy, bringing over two decades of experience leading global policy, legal and regulatory teams, and managing strategic outreach and communications at technology companies facing complex, high-profile issues, including eBay, Yahoo, AOL and Startec. She started her career at the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

Tekedra has earned a reputation as a trusted and reliable industry leader. She currently serves on the Consumer Technology Association's Board of Industry Leaders. In August 2016, she was recognized as a Visionary Leader by ALM and InsideCounsel. In May 2015, she was recognized by the Washingtonian magazine as a Tech Titan — top 100 tech influencer.

Tekedra received her JD from Columbia Law School and her BA from Trinity College. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and son. 

Andrew Maynard is the author of "Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies," a professor in the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society and leading expert on the socially responsible development of emerging and converging technologies.

For over 20 years, he has worked closely with experts from around the world on the challenges and opportunities presented by technologies ranging from nanotechnology and genetic engineering, to artificial intelligence and self-driving cars.

He blogs on technology and society at 2020Science.org, produces the YouTube channel Risk Bites and is active on Twitter as @2020science.

Panel Participants

Marc Ashton, CEO, Foundation for Blind Children 

Foundation for Blind Children was founded in 1952 as a start-up non-profit to give blind children the opportunity to attend their local school. It started with 4 preschool students and 1 teacher.

Today, Foundation for Blind Children is one of the largest private organizations of its kind in the country, serving over 2,000 Arizonans from newborns to our current oldest client, who is 103 years old. Nationwide, 70% of blind adults are unemployed and living off disability. 70% unemployment. Not here, not in Arizona, not our graduates. The unemployment rate for FBC graduates has dropped below 15%. Our kids grow up. They go to college. They go to work. And we did it with one simple belief: Vision loss is a diagnosis, not a disability.

A successful entrepreneur and businessman, Marc’s life changed when his son Max diagnosed with vision loss and began receiving services from the Foundation for Blind Children in 1996. In 2007, after serving on the Foundation for Blind Children Board of Trustees, Marc sold his companies and became the CEO of Foundation for Blind Children. Marc knew he had to give every blind child in Arizona the same opportunities his son had. And he did.

Marc guided Foundation for Blind Children through the great recession and very tough financial times. He put his business acumen to work and paid off all FBC’s debt and increased student programming. Foundation for Blind Children grew rapidly under Marc’s leadership and in 2015, Marc raised $10,000,000 and built a new school, doubling the size of Foundation for Blind Children.

Today, FBC is nationally recognized as the leader in blind children education. FBC students have stood at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, swam Alcatraz, hiked the Grand Canyon, paddled down the mighty Colorado and sailed the Spanish Virgin Islands. Families from across the country and all over the world move to Phoenix to get FBC services. Marc Ashton is now looking to the future with innovative social ventures in braille production and partnering with ASU to build the first undergraduate teacher of the visually impaired program west of the Mississippi.

Karen Bianchini, SVP of Communications and Community Impact, AAA NCNU

Karen Bianchini joined the American Automobile Association in 2006 and currently serves as Senior Vice President, Communications & Community Impact, serving 6 million members across Alaska, Arizona, Northern California, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. She previously worked within the organization’s marketing division, including serving as its leader, helping to create AAA members for life.

Prior to AAA, Karen served as Vice President, Marketing for Charles Schwab, where she was a marketing director in various divisions and led the development of new banking and advice services.

Karen received her M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in political science from Stanford University. Karen and her family reside in Northern California, and are avid baseball fans and world travelers 

Kevin Biesty, Deputy Director of Policy & Comms, Arizona Department of Transportation

Kevin Biesty currently serves as deputy director for policy and leads the proactive and effective process through which ADOT communicates with and serves Congress, the legislature and the people of Arizona

Kevin joined ADOT's Motor Vehicle Division in February 2000 as a legislative liaison. Previously, he served as legislative liaison for the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Prior to that position, he served on staff at the Arizona state Senate.

Kevin earned his bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Phoenix. He is also a recent graduate of the Executive Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; the AASHTO National Transportation Leadership Institute at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs; and the Wharton Transportation Executive Program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Diana Bowman, ASU, Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society; Associate Dean Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Diana M. Bowman is a full professor in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, where she serves as the associate dean for international engagement, and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. She is also a PluS Alliance Fellow (2016-2019) and team member of PlanetWorks in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.

Her research analyzes and informs the development of smarter governance and regulation of innovation in order to simultaneously enhance creativity, improve public health, and stimulate deliberation of the ethical, legal, and societal dimensions of emerging technologies.

Diana is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow (Class of 2018).

Glenn Hamer, President and CEO, Arizona Chamber of Commerce

Glenn Hamer has been president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry since 2006. He has overseen the organization’s development into one of the most respected pro-business public policy entities in the state, notching significant wins in tax policy, education, regulatory reform, healthcare and tort reform that have greatly enhanced Arizona’s economic competitiveness.Glenn is a sought after advisor in public policy. He represents the Arizona Chamber on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Public Affairs Committee and its Committee of 100, and he is a member of the board of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Mexico Commission, and serves as the vice chairman of the Arizona Charter Schools Association.

He also serves on the National Association of Manufacturers’ advisory committee on the modernization of NAFTA, and is one of Arizona’s most vocal advocates for international trade and Arizona’s competitive standing in the global marketplace.

Recognitions Glenn has earned include being named a Most Admired Leader by the Phoenix Business Journal and the state’s best powerbroker by the Arizona Capitol Times. The Capitol Times also named the Chamber as the state’s best trade association.

Glenn’s previous career stops include serving as chief of staff to Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon; executive director of the Arizona Republican Party during a winning U.S. Senate race; and as a legislative assistant to Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, where he worked on issues ranging from identity theft, to violent crime to intellectual property reforms. Glenn also served as the executive director of the Solar Energy Industries Association, and as director of business development and government relations for First Solar.

Glenn is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Arizona State University’s College of Law. He lives in Scottsdale with his wife and three daughters.

Lina Karam, ASU, School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering

Lina Karamis a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University. She received a bachelor's computer and communications engineering from the American University of Beirut in 1989, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992 and 1995, respectively. She is the Computer Engineering Director for Industry Engagement at Arizona State University (ASU). Her industrial experience includes image and video compression development at AT&T Bell Labs, multidimensional data processing and visualization at Schlumberger, and collaboration on signal processing, computer vision, machine learning, image/video processing, compression, and transmission projects with industries including Intel, Google, Qualcomm, NTT, Motorola, General Dynamics, and NASA. She has more than 230 technical publications and she is a co-inventor on a number of patents.

Karam was awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a NASA Technical Innovation Award, the 2012 Intel Outstanding Researcher Award, the 2012 IEEE Phoenix Section Outstanding Faculty Award, and the 2014 IEEE SPS Best Paper Award. She has served on several journal editorial boards, including IEEE SPS journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, the IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Signal Processing, and the IEEE Signal Processing Letters. She has also served as the lead guest editor of the Proceedings of IEEE, Special Issue on Perceptual-Based Media Processing, and as the Lead Guest Editor of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, Special Issue on Visual Quality Assessment.