Ali Abbas
Dr. Abbas is an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He received a PhD in management science and a PhD (minor) in electrical engineering from Stanford University. From 1991 to 1997, he worked with Schlumberger Oilfield Services, where he held several international positions in oilfield exploration and international training. He also worked on several consulting projects and co-taught executive seminars on decision analysis at Strategic Decisions Group. Dr. Abbas has also taught several DEF decision skills workshops to teens in several locations in the United States. His research interests include decision making with incomplete information and preferences, dynamic programming, and information theory. Dr. Abbas is a member of the decision analysis council of INFORMS and a senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

Nazir Ahmad
Mr. Ahmad is president of GivingWorks Inc., a start-up organization devoted to helping leading public benefit agencies, philanthropic foundations, and socially responsible corporations accelerate the achievement of their missions. A seasoned business strategist, Mr. Ahmad has for years "time-shared" his extensive corporate consulting career with engagement in corporate social responsibility and volunteerism. He founded and led the Overseas Development Network for 13 years and has served on the boards of Pact, the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, Vision Youthz, International Development Conference, and Human Strategies for Human Rights. Mr. Ahmad is currently assisting the World Bank in devising steps to dramatically scale up its response to global health, education, and social protection needs. He is also involved in the planning for the Asian University for Women, which was founded to train, connect, and mobilize a new generation of women leaders in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Ahmad is a graduate of Deerfield Academy, Amherst College, and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Michael Fisher
Mr. Fisher currently serves as school director at the Academy for Art and Academics (A3) in Springfield, Oregon, and has been the project coordinator since the school’s inception in 2004. Before working at A3, he was the theatre director at Thurston High School in Springfield for 15 years. His credits include dozens of shows at Thurston High School as well as West Side Story for Lane Summer Musical Theatre in 2002, Sideman at the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company, Take Down, Break Down at the Very Little Theatre, and numerous others. Mr. Fisher and the Thurston Theatre Department collaborated with well-known playwright William Mastrosimone on three new plays for high schools, Bang Bang You’re Dead, Take Down, Break Down, and, most recently, Sleepwalk (which toured to Scotland, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona). He is a leadership coach for the Educational Theatre Association and works with theatre directors in Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. Mr. Fisher received The Rex Rabold Memorial Award for excellence in theatre education, the Rae Mona Reynolds Humanitarian Award for promoting excellence in theatre arts, and the Melba Day Sparks Memorial Award, Oregon’s Educational Theatre Association Hall of Fame. He has been listed in Who’s Who among American Teachers five times.

Baruch Fischhoff
Dr. Fischhoff is Howard Heinz University Professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, where he heads the Decision Sciences major. A graduate of the Detroit Public Schools, he holds a BS in mathematics and psychology from Wayne State University and an MA and PhD in psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Fischhoff is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and has served on many NAS/NRC/IOM committees. He is a past president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and of the Society for Risk Analysis, and he was a recipient of its Distinguished Achievement Award. Dr. Fischhoff is a fellow of the American Psychological Society and of the American Psychological Association and recipient of the latter’s Early Career Awards for Distinguished Scientific Contribution to Psychology and for Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. He is a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee; the Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Advisory Board, where he chairs the Homeland Security Advisory Committee; the World Federation of Scientists Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism; and the National Intelligence Council Global Expertise Reserve Program. Dr. Fischhoff was a founding member of the Eugene Commission on the Rights of Women. His research includes risk communication, analysis, and management; adolescent decision making; informed consent; security; and environmental protection. He has co-authored or edited four books: Acceptable Risk (1981), A Two-State Solution in the Middle East: Prospects and Possibilities (1993), Preference Elicitation (1999), and Risk Communication: The Mental Models Approach (2001).

Nancy Golden
Dr. Golden is superintendent of the Springfield, Oregon, School District. She recently earned the University of Oregon's Leading for Leadership award, given to an individual who demonstrates a positive, sustained influence on the lives and learning achievement of children. Before joining Springfield Public Schools, she was director of the administrative licensure program at the University of Oregon. Dr. Golden’s areas of specialization were collaborative leadership, creativity, instructional strategies, facilitation, and personnel evaluation. She has also served as deputy superintendent in Albany School District and staff development and special education director in Eugene School District. Dr. Golden has loved all of her jobs, but the one she loved the most and feels is most important was as a teacher in Springfield Public Schools almost 25 years ago. She has presented internationally and published on numerous topics including Creative Decisionmaking: A Curriculum Materials Guide for Secondary-School Educators; Teaching and Reaching At-risk Youth; Toolkit for High Performance Teams; and Educational Leadership Improvement Tool. Dr. Golden received her PhD and masters degree from the University of Oregon. Her PhD was in curriculum and instruction, and her masters was in special education.

Clint Korver
Dr. Korver is the CEO and founder of myDecide, a start-up that provides a web-based application to help adults make smart, well-informed decisions about major lifestyle issues such as health, wealth, career, and family. A serial entrepreneur, he also founded and venture-funded Outcome Software, which built enterprise software to support deal management and pricing in negotiated transactions. Dr. Korver also founded and led two consulting firms, Decision Quality International and The Decision Company, where he trained and consulted with executives on decision making at Wells Fargo, Fidelity, Bank of America, Fleet Bank, MetLife, Eli Lilly, Lloyds TSB, General Motors, and others. He earned a PhD and an MS from Stanford University’s Engineering-Economic Systems program. He serves on the Board of Trustees at Grinnell College, where he earned a BA with honors in mathematics.

Robert Loew
Mr. Loew is a mathematics teacher at Foothill High School in Pleasanton, California. Before becoming a teacher, Mr. Loew alternated assignments at SDG with executive positions at several Silicon Valley electronics firms. While at SDG, he led strategy development projects, executive workshops, and seminars. In Silicon Valley, Mr. Loew served as director of special projects at Atari, Inc., director of planning for a division of Ricoh Corporation, and treasurer for Adaptec, Inc., with responsibilities in new business development, mergers, acquisitions, corporate planning, cash management, and financial reporting. Mr. Loew received a BA in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, an MBA from Stanford University, and a Teaching Credential from Cal State Hayward. He is fluent in Spanish and has lived, worked, and traveled in 25 countries. Mr. Loew's transition into teaching is the current extension of a life-long interest in education, beginning with service in the Peace Corps and continuing through various forms of volunteer work with youth groups.

Barbara Mellers
Dr. Mellers is the Milton W. Terrill Professor of Business Administration at the University of California at Berkeley. She was trained in psychology and has long been interested in how and why people make judgments and decisions. She believes that we can help people make better decisions if we know what we are dealing with—namely, how people make unaided decisions without training or guidance. Dr. Mellers has written over 75 scientific papers on topics in judgment and decision making and has been receiving funding from the National Science Foundation for over 20 years. She was awarded a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and served as president of the Judgment and Decision Making Society. Dr. Mellers received her BA in psychology from UC Berkeley and her MA and PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois.

Dave Reiter
Mr. Reiter, formerly DEF's executive director, now teaches high school mathematics at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. He also is a life decision coach, guiding individuals through life-shaping decisions. He has been an educator in a variety of organizations. Before his work with DEF and Punahou School, Mr. Reiter taught decision analysis to graduate students at Stanford University, physics to high school students at Iolani School in Honolulu, and math to gifted teenagers through Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth and Stanford’s Education Program for Gifted Youth. He also has worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company. Mr. Reiter has repeatedly witnessed the transformative power of decision education, and he is dedicated to bringing these concepts to as wide an audience as possible. Mr. Reiter received a BA in physics from Harvard and an MS in engineering-economic systems from Stanford. He also has done extensive graduate work in decision analysis at Stanford University.

Gary Riekes
Mr. Riekes founded the Riekes Center for Human Enhancement in 1996. (The Riekes Center actually started in 1972 when he first began personally training professional athletes and giving private music lessons on campus at Stanford.) Mr. Riekes has been a professional musician since the age of 9. He was a member of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and numerous contemporary performance groups. He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he played football and ran track. He has coached professional football, developed an educational activity music company, and has lectured across the country on a wide variety of topics. The Riekes Center was established to honor his mother and father, which is why Riekes is in the name. It is about the spirit of all parents and teachers who want their children/students to have the best possible opportunity for enhancement regardless of the outcome. The Riekes Center is a place where students can explore an interest or pursue a passion in the creative arts, athletics, and/or nature studies with mutual respect and without judgment.

Gilbert Villagrán
Mr. Villagrán, MSW, worked as a social worker, trainer, program developer, and manager for the Social Services Agency of Santa Clara County for 32 years. His work there focused on child welfare with families, parent education, youth services, and the development of resources for families and youth in crisis. He designed and directed the highly successful and replicated Youth Leadership Program for youth gang and violence prevention while serving as a founding member of the San Jose Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force. Mr. Villagrán is a lecturer at the San Jose State University School of Social Work, teaching courses with an emphasis on human rights, global citizenship, and civil society. He is currently serving on the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury.