Dr. Adib Farhadi is Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of Executive Education for the University of South Florida. His research is at the intersection of religion, politics, and conflict with a particular focus on the “Silk Road” Central and South Asia (CASA) Region, which is the subject of his recent book, Countering Violent Extremism by Winning Hearts and Minds. In addition, he is the director and editor of the Great Power Competition book and conference series. Formerly, Dr. Farhadi served in senior positions in Afghanistan and extensively advised the US government and various other international organizations.
Dr. Farhadi is internationally recognized and a frequent presenter on the topics of great power competition, countering violent extremism (CVE), conflict resolution, strategic negotiations and communication, and geoeconomics. Dr. Farhadi earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Canberra, M.A. from New York University, and B.S. from East Carolina University.
Dr. Ronald P. Sanders is currently Staff Director for the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, Clinical Professor in USF’s College of Arts and Sciences, and previously Director of the College’s School of Public Affairs. He was elected in 2006 to the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and has served with distinction in senior positions within the US government, the private sector, and academe, and he has played a key role in the transformation of some of the most critical and impactful public sector organizations in the world. Among his many accomplishments, he helped lead the historic post-Cold War transformation of the US Defense Department; the post-9/11 stand-up of the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of National Intelligence, and the integration of the US Intelligence Community (IC), as well as the recruiting, development, and deployment of thousands new intelligence officers to fight the Global War on Terror; the reform and restructuring of the IRS; the creation of the cybersecurity and space agencies of the United Arab Emirates; and aided in the establishment of China’s National School of Administration.
In addition to USF, Dr. Sanders has taught on the faculties of Syracuse University’s top-ranked Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the George Washington University (GWU) and led research centers at both institutions; he also chaired the faculty of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Policy Education. Dr. Sanders has also written four books—including two published by the Brookings Institution and one by NAPA—and has also served as a member of National Security Agency’s Advisory Board, as well as on the Boards of Directors of the National Intelligence University Foundation, the Senior Executives Association, the American Society for Training and Development, the journal The Public Manager, and the National Academy of Sciences Cybersecurity Panel. And from 2017 until his unintentionally well-publicized resignation in October 2020, he was also the presidentially appointed Chairman of the US Federal Salary Council. He earned his Doctorate in Public Administration (DPA) from GWU and holds a B.A. from USF (Class of 1973) and an M.S. from the University of Utah.
Dr. Anthony Masys is Affiliate Associate Professor and Former Director of Global Disaster Management, Humanitarian Assistance and Homeland Security. As former senior Air Force Officer, Dr. Masys has a B.Sc. in Physics and M.Sc. in Underwater Acoustics and Oceanography from the Royal Military College of Canada. Dr. Masys holds a Ph.D. from the University of Leicester. He is Editor in Chief for the Springer Publishing book series: Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications and holds various advisory board positions with academic journals and books series.
Dr. Masys is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and facilitator and has held workshops on security, visual thinking, design thinking, and systems thinking in Europe, Canada, South America, West Africa, and Asia. He has published extensively in the domains of physics and the social sciences. His recent books include:
• Opening the Black Box of Human Error
• Networks and Network Analysis for Defense and Security. Springer Publishing
• Disaster Management- Enabling Resilience. Springer Publishing
• Applications of Systems Thinking and Soft Operations Research for managing complexity. Springer Publishing
• Exploring the Security Landscape - non-traditional security challenges. Springer Publishing.
• Disaster Forensics: understanding root cause and complexity causality. Springer Publishing
• Asia/Pacific Security challenges: managing black swans and persistent threats. Springer Publishing
• Security by Design
Dr. Masys is a visiting professor at the International Center for Policing and Security University of South Wales.