Ryan Vogel, J.D., is an associate professor and the founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies and the National Security Studies academic program at Utah Valley University. Before coming to UVU, Professor Vogel served at the Pentagon as a senior policy advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He began his career at the Pentagon through the Presidential Management Fellowship program and was awarded the Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service in 2014. Professor Vogel has also served at the Public International Law & Policy Group, at the U.S. Senate, and at the State Department. He has taught law and national security courses at American University in Washington, D.C, BYU Law School, and the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Professor Vogel holds an LLM in public international law, with a certificate in national security law, from the Georgetown University Law Center. He earned a J.D. and an M.A. in international affairs from American University. Professor Vogel is an alum of Utah Valley University, where he graduated with a B.S. in Integrated Studies. Professor Vogel regularly publishes papers and makes presentations on national security matters. He is a member of the Maryland State Bar, and serves as an Honorary Colonel with the Utah National Guard.

Brandon Amacher is the director of the Emerging Tech Policy Lab for the I3SC and an adjunct professor at the UVU center for national security studies where he teaches Cybersecurity Policy and Cyberwarfare. Brandon comes from as a background in the private sector where he worked as a cyber an intelligence analyst and a strategic consultant for various leading cybersecurity organizations including FireEye and Mandiant. Brandon's areas of expertise include nation-state cyber operations, advanced persistent threats, intellectual property theft, the internet of things, and quantum information sciences.

Briana Bowen serves as Associate Director and Instructor for the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence at Utah State University, an interdisciplinary nexus focused on emergent security issues that she co-founded with colleagues Jeannie Johnson and Matt Berrett. Ms. Bowen holds a BA in Political Science with an emphasis in national security from USU and an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford. Her past work experience includes running the Oxford University Strategic Studies Group, Oxford's premier forum for military, intelligence, and diplomatic speakers; supporting research on three federally-funded grants dealing with weapons of mass destruction, assessing the impact of strategic culture in nuclear decision making; and interning for a US senator on Capitol Hill. Ms. Bowen is a Truman Scholar and recipient of several awards for academic excellence as an undergraduate and graduate student. Her research focuses include Russian new-generation warfare, nuclear nonproliferation, threat analysis and resilience modeling, sociocultural analysis of intelligence issues, and emergent disruptive technologies.

Matt Berrett joined Space Dynamics Lab in July 2017 as its Director of Analytics after retiring from the Central Intelligence Agency as an Assistant Director. His other senior positions at CIA included serving as Mission Manager for the Near East, South Asia, and Africa in the Directorate of Science and Technology and as the head of three offices in the Directorate of Analysis: Iraq; Near East and South Asia; and Middle East and North Africa. He also served as Director of the President’s Daily Brief, the premier, multiagency intelligence enterprise that informs US presidents and select Cabinet members of key global developments. Mr. Berrett’s work has taken him to nearly 30 countries including living in the Near East for two years; he lived another two in East Asia. Often asked to contribute beyond his formal duties, Mr. Berrett was the CIA presenter in the Agency’s 2015 TEDx event; has provided numerous guest lectures at various US universities and Oxford; and has helped teach courses at CIA University including one featuring the cultural analysis methodology he created with CAI Director Jeannie Johnson. In addition to his responsibilities at Space Dynamics Lab, one of the first University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) and a leading contributor to US national defense and science missions, Mr. Berrett co-founded the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence (CAI)––a university-wide enterprise bringing STEM and social science students together to research, understand, and prepare for the effects of emerging disruptive technologies across the geopolitical, private sector, and personal realms. The CAI also offers strategic training to public- and private-sector professionals. Mr. Berrett began his career with CIA as an economic analyst on Iran after getting an economics degree at the University of Utah and working for a top-50 US bank. He and his wife, Sandi, have four sons.

Jeannie L. Johnson is the Director of USU's Center for Anticipatory Intelligence and an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Utah State University. Dr. Johnson’s primary research interest, strategic culture, examines the impact of national and organizational cultures on the formation of security policy. Dr. Johnson co-founded the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence in 2018 with the vision of creating an interdisciplinary nexus that fuses expertise in national security and geopolitics with cutting-edge instruction in cyber threats, data analytics, and emergent technology. The CAI facilitates academic programs—including the nation's first undergraduate minor and graduate certificate in Anticipatory Intelligence—and engages in research and partnerships with government and industry. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Johnson worked within the Central Intelligence Agency’s Directorate of Intelligence as a member of the Balkan Task Force from 1998-1999 and served with the US State Department in Embassies Paris and Zagreb. The Cultural Topography analytic method she pioneered with co-author Matt Berrett was featured in CIA’s June 2011 edition of Studies in Intelligence. Dr. Johnson has conducted in-depth research on US national and military service cultures, including critical blind spots in our foreign and security policy. Her 2018 book, The Marines, Counterinsurgency, and Strategic Culture: Lessons Learned and Lost in America’s Wars includes a foreword from former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and explores the collective impact of three layers of culture: the internal culture of the US Marine Corps, the culture of the US military, and American national culture across 100 years of counterinsurgency operations. Dr. Johnson has also focused on the application of strategic culture analysis to the nuclear weapons issue and has co-edited two books on that topic. Dr. Johnson received her doctorate in strategic studies from the University of Reading in 2013.

Mary Kent is an adjunct professor of Criminal Justice and National Security Studies at Utah Valley University, Orem Utah. Before coming to UVU, Prof. Kent served in the United States Army for 7 years as an Aviation Operations Specialist. Her time in service placed her in the Middle East during the 9/11 attacks of 2001. She also worked as a Victim's Advocate for a local Utah police agency where she lead the internship program and provided training and case interviews for the Provo Police Citizen's Academy, Fox13 News, ABC4 News, the Center for Women and Children in Crisis, and the University of Toledo's International Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference. She obtained a Master's Degree in National Security and Terrorism Studies with honors from the American Military University. Prof. Kent currently serves as an Intelligence Analyst working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. She has received intelligence analysis training from multiple agencies to include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Secret Service.