Elizabeth Bacon (Moderator)
A former classroom teacher and school administrator, Elizabeth Bacon has designed computer science courses for students 5 to 18 years old and developed blended learning systems for adults preparing to study in the United States. As Director of Pedagogy at CoderZ, she supports teachers in bringing computing and robotics education to their classrooms. She is active in the computer science education community, volunteering in local schools, serving on advisory panels for computer science pathways, and presenting on various topics around teaching and learning computer science
Michelle Laskowski
Hello there! I’m Michelle Laskowski, a CTE STEM teacher at Fife High School where I teach STEM electives such as Video Game Development, Intro to Cybersecurity, Robotics, and Computer Science. I am passionate about expanding access to CS education and using my courses as an inclusive and safe place for students to fail productively, be creative, ask questions and push the limits of what they thought possible
Russ McRee
Russ McRee, Ph.D. is Director, GCP Cyber Defense Center, for Google Cloud.
He writes toolsmith via holisticinfosec.io, a column for information security practitioners, and has written extensively for additional publications as well. Russ speaks regularly at security conferences such as DEFCON, BlueHat, and other. He serves as a joint-forces cyber mission element operator and commander on behalf of the Washington Military Department.
Khaja Ahmed
Mr. Ahmed has recently retired from his role as Senior Vice President of Product and Application Security at SAP. Prior to that he has led security efforts in Google (GCP), Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft as an organization leader as well as individual contributor. In a career spanning three decades, Mr. Ahmed has worked on security for chips and firmware, operating systems and applications, as well as the largest and most advanced IaaS, PaaS and SaaS solutions. He has invented several innovative security solutions and is named as a lead or co-inventor on 18 patents. He is currently an advisor, consultant and investor in security startups, and a sought after mentor for security professionals from the engineer and architect level to CISOs and CEOs.
He is currently adjunct faculty at Bellevue College where he teaches Algorithms and Security. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking and rowing.
Kendrick (Ken) Hang
Kendrick (Ken) Hang is the Policy Associate for Baccalaureate Programs at the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), facilitating baccalaureate program development for the system’s 34 community and technical colleges. Previously, Ken was a faculty member at Green River College, teaching computer science and serving as the program director for the BAS Software Development program from 2014 to 2024, focused on creating equitable career-connected learning experiences for students.
LinkedIn: [https://linkedin.com/in/kendrickhang]
Praful Konduru
Hello, I’m Praful Konduru, a senior software engineer with over a decade of experience at companies like Meta, Amazon, and PayPal. I specialize in AI-driven automation, scalable distributed systems, and cloud-native architectures. I’ve led projects that optimize enterprise operations through cutting-edge AI, MLOps strategies, and my generalized software engineering expertise—transforming complex technical challenges into practical solutions that drive innovation and business impact.
Josh Michaels
Josh Michaels is a cybersecurity leader with over 18 years working in and building high-impact security teams at Caterpillar, F5 Networks, Microsoft, DocuSign, and JPMorgan Chase Bank. Josh holds a patent for his work addressing GDPR data de-identification at scale for Microsoft.
A dedicated advocate for the security community and education, Josh volunteered at DefCon for 14 years, most recently as the security lead. Locally, Josh founded and for the past 15 years has run the Bsides Seattle security conference to provide accessible learning opportunities and space for unheard voices to share knowledge. ( www.bsidesseattle.com)
In his free time, he volunteers with community groups providing conflict de-escalation/emergency medical response, and enjoys a good cup of tea.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/securitybuilder/
Venera Arnaoudova
Dr. Venera Arnaoudova is an Associate Professor and Interim Associate Director in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at Washington State University (WSU). In addition, Dr. Arnaoudova is the Chair of the Computer Science and Software Engineering Curriculum Committee in EECS.
She received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering in 2014 from Polytechnique Montréal (Canada), her master’s degree in Computer Science from Concordia University (Canada), and her bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Automation from Polytech’Lille (France).
Her expertise is in the domain of empirical software engineering, human factors, program comprehension, software maintenance and evolution, and poor and good software design and coding practices.
Dr. Arnaoudova is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2020 and the EECS Early Career Award in 2021. She has also received two Distinguished Paper Awards and seven Distinguished Reviewer Awards. She regularly serves the Software Engineering community in different roles, including being a program committee co-chair and member of several conferences.
For more information visit [http://www.veneraarnaoudova.com](http://www.veneraarnaoudova.com “http://www.veneraarnaoudova.com”)
Last Updated April 21, 2025