Innov8rs Connect on Culture, Talent & Teams

Members of MITRE's Innovation Toolkit team will share the story of how they built, grew, and are sustaining an intrapreneurial team committed to a mission of "helping people understand what innovation is and how to do it."

Dan Ward is a military technologist and former officer in the US Air Force who specializes in rapid innovation. He is the author of three books. Allison Khaw is a systems engineer with expertise in model-based engineering and operations research. She is also a writer with a deep interest in worldbuilding in fiction. Jennifer Strickland is an HCD engineer with a non-traditional background, dedicated to inclusion and equity as culture, not a feature to be backlogged. They are also an award-winning artist and musician. Karim Thompson is trained in geography to analyze locations to uncover hidden patterns and improve predictive modeling. He helps teams work together to deliver novel solutions to difficult problems. Tracey Amos is an Enterprise Engineer and Public Health Program Manager with extensive experience in translating broad strategic vision into practical/executable steps. Lynne Cuppernull is focused on leadership development and organizational transformation. She works with health professionals to find innovative solutions to some of health care’s toughest problems. Kerrianne Marino is a Human Factors Engineer focused on improving the user experience for Department of Defense (DoD) based systems. Jessica Yu is a human centered engineer and strategist with a passion for making the world a better place one project at a time through curious, thoughtful design, community building, and connecting disparate dots. Elisa Miller is a human-centered engineer and strategist who loves to help organizations figure out what problems need to be solved by understanding the people and the context—before thinking about solutions. Josh LeFevre is human-centered design engineer and strategic design futures practitioner. He helps bridge data-driven and human-driven approaches by exploring alternate futures to empower more thoughtful and inclusive innovations.