Dr. Phil Potter

Dr. Philip Potter is the Executive Director of the National Security Data and Policy Institute (NSDPI), the University of Virginia’s sixth university-level institute. A professor of Public Policy and the founding director of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy’s National Security Policy Center, Dr. Potter’s decades of research have focused on US foreign policy, military affairs, data analysis, and international security. He has published dozens of articles, policy papers, and government reports on these topics as well as two books, and serves as a university expert for the Intelligence Community and a senior advisor in the Department of Defense. An active voice in both academia and government on national security research and policy, Professor Potter launched the NSDPI to build collaborative networks of experts and practitioners across government, industry, and academia to address the country’s most pressing national security challenges.

Dr. Seth Berl

Dr. Berl is the Global GTM, Government Technologies Chief Technologist for Intel Corporation. He previously served as the Deputy Chief Data Officer at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) where he utilizes his technology, scientific research, academic, and leadership expertise to drive a cohesive technology and implementation strategy for the DOE Enterprise Data Management program. 

He previously served as the Chief Technology Officer for GovSmart, Inc., a federal government contractor with over $397 Million in revenue in 2023 and over 15% average year-over-year growth during his tenure. Here, he led innovation and partnership efforts with a future strategic vision while working with account managers, partners, and US Federal Government civilian and Department of Defense and clients to solve complex technical problems and mission challenges. 

Dr. Berl has a formal education in physics and electrical engineering with his Ph.D. and M.A. in experimental atomic physics earned at the University of Virginia and dual B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and physics with a mathematics minor at Old Dominion University. He has worked on projects led by various government agencies, including: Army, Navy, Air Force, Special Operations Command, DIA, DARPA, Dept of Energy, NASA, Health & Human Services, Dept of Commerce, and NSF. Using his scientific, engineering, and problem solving skill-sets, he founded and operated a technology consulting company with clients including Fortune 500 companies prior to his tenure at GovSmart.

Some of Dr. Berl’s business and technology interests include, but are not limited to: high performance computing, data science, AI/ML, IoT, tactical/mission edge, enterprise networks, storage systems, cybersecurity, software development, embedded systems, aerospace/defense satellite communications, research & development, and general problem solving. Dr. Berl seeks to assimilate and integrate his expertise in support of the DOE mission. He always welcomes new opportunities and considers it a privilege to contribute to mission success.

When not at work, Seth can be found enjoying tennis, guitar, rock climbing, hiking, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Diana McSpadden

Diana McSpadden is a Data Scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), where she plays a pivotal role in leveraging artificial intelligence and data science for scientific and regional resilience initiatives. She works closely with laboratory scientists to calibrate particle detectors and ensure optimal performance of high-throughput physics data systems.

At the forefront of innovation, Diana leads machine learning operations (MLOps) for a landmark project in Jefferson Lab’s data center. Her “Next Top Model” initiative employs a continual-learning ensemble of neural network models to autonomously identify and elevate the best-performing algorithm—termed the “daily champion”—thereby enhancing system reliability and efficiency.

A champion of interdisciplinary research, she contributes to the Hampton Roads Digital Twin project to advance climate resilience and public health, merging environmental data, digital modeling, and community engagement. She also collaborates in the Joint Institute on Advanced Computing for Environmental Studies (ACES)—a partnership between Jefferson Lab and Old Dominion University—focused on applying uncertainty quantification and AI-driven insights to inform environmental and health decision-making in the Hampton Roads region.

Diana’s scholarly work includes a peer-reviewed 2024 co-authored study, “A Comparison of Machine Learning Surrogate Models of Street-Scale Flooding in Norfolk, Virginia,” where she led methodology, software development, validation, formal analysis, and visualization. The study compared Random Forests, LSTM, and GRU models for real-time urban flooding predictions.

Previously, she developed innovative data tools for collecting, analyzing, and publishing U.S. state court data at the National Center for State Courts, demonstrating her adaptability across civic, environmental, and scientific domains.

Education: Diana holds a Master’s degree in Data Science from the University of Virginia.

Rob King

Rob King is a proven leader in data and technology with more than 20 years of experience driving enterprise data strategy across government and industry. He most recently served as Chief Data Officer for the U.S. Department of Energy, where he advanced data management, governance, and analytics to strengthen mission execution and evidence-based decision-making. Previously, he was the Chief Data Officer and Associate Commissioner at the Social Security Administration and directed large-scale IT modernization efforts at the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier in his career, Rob worked as a systems and enterprise architect advising Fortune 500 companies and federal agencies. He holds a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor’s degree from Stockton University.

Kshemendra Paul

Dustin Hux

Dustin Hux leads Elder Research’s Defense and Intelligence business unit where he helps government agencies make better use of their data to achieve mission objectives.

Under Dustin’s leadership, his teams have earned a sterling reputation for being at the forefront of transforming the government’s use of data driven threat detection. For decades his teams have continued to apply cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to better protect personnel, facilities, information, and missions from threats. This includes establishing the intelligence community’s first, and preeminent, counter insider threat data science capability, which has since expanded to many other government agencies and Fortune 100 companies.

Dustin enjoys working closely with executives, analysts, investigators, behavioral psychologists and other stakeholders to develop precise analytical solutions that achieve his client’s mission more effectively and efficiently.

While Dustin has over 25 years of cross-domain data science experience, including the academic, commercial, financial, defense, and intelligence fields, he is particularly honored to be focused on initiatives that apply innovative data technology to further strengthen our national security.

Dustin earned a Master’s degree from the University of Virginia and two Bachelor’s degrees from Emory and Henry College.

Dr. John Elder

Dr. John Elder founded Elder Research, America’s largest and most experienced data science consultancy in 1995. With offices in Charlottesville VA, Baltimore MD, Raleigh, NC, and Washington DC, they’ve solved hundreds of challenges for commercial and government clients by extracting actionable knowledge from all types of data. Dr. Elder co-authored three books — on practical data mining, ensembles, and text mining — two of which won “book of the year” awards. John has created data mining tools, was a discoverer of ensemble methods, chairs international conferences, and is a popular workshop and keynote speaker.

Dr. Elder earned Engineering degrees from Rice and UVA, where he’s an Adjunct Professor. He was named by President Bush to serve 5 years on a panel to guide technology for national security. Lastly, John is grateful to be a follower of Christ and the father of five.

Dr. Benjamin Tuttle

Benjamin Tuttle, PhD, is currently a Deputy Tech Director with General Atomics Intelligence. Previously, Benjamin held role of CTO at EOI Space, CTO at Arturo.ai, and prior to that the position of Director of Outposts, while working at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He holds a BA in Geography and a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MS in GIS and PhD in Geography from the University of Denver. His research interests include human environment interactions and nighttime satellite imagery and the intersection of geography and technology. One of his main drives is finding opportunities to leverage emerging technology and remote sensing data to help decision makers across many communities make decisions better, faster, and cheaper than previously possible.

Bill Breedlove

Mr. Breedlove has over 26+ years of experience supporting internal and external sales and customer relationship management focused mainly on the Federal Government and Commercial entities; he also has 20+ years of experience managing multiple levels of staff. His experience spans from grass roots analysis of disparate data sets, to program management, IT business analyst, line management and entry level to executive level customer relationship management. In addition to these skills he has extensive customer liaison skills and a natural ability to quickly identify, scout solutions to bridge gaps between customer needs and industry offerings. Mr. Breedlove also has excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as proven sales growth, project and line management success.

Victor Diloreto

Vic Diloreto leads the software engineering group at Elder Research. In this role, Vic is chartered with the continuing support of our data science service to clients where software is needed in data preparations and/or visualizations. Vic is also leading the efforts to convert select portions of Elder Research’s intellectual property library into standalone products.

Prior to Elder Research, Vic was a Senior Director of Technology at MegaPath, where he led a team in charge of architecture, design and operations of advanced communication solutions. Prior to MegaPath, Vic was VP of Engineering and CTO of telecommunication start-up sentitO Networks, where he led hardware and software developments. In this capacity, he assisted in raising 60M in venture financing. Vic also had roles within BNR/Northern Telecom and Pulsecom in engineering and management positions – most notably leading the technical aspects of the sale of Pulsecom’s Broadband division to ECI Telecom for 61M.