Working Group

Working Group focuses on the development and testing of the model professional ethics of AI and Big Data curricula and on formulating and refining the themes of the convenings accompanying the project.

David Broecker is the Chief Innovation and Collaboration Officer at the Purdue Research Foundation. Mr. Broecker has a long history of industry and entrepreneurial experience at Fortune 500 and startup medical device and biotechnology companies in Indianapolis and the Boston area. Mr. Broecker is the CEO and Chairman for Zorion Medical, a medical device startup he founded and located to Indianapolis. Before joining the Purdue Research Foundation, he served as Founding President and CEO of the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, where he helped raise more than $120 million in funding, recruited world-class scientific and operational talent, and spearheaded several early and successful university and industry partnerships. He also is the former President and CEO of Alkermes, a global biopharmaceutical company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developing innovative medicines for the treatment of central nervous system diseases. He has founded several life science companies and provided executive leadership and is a board member to multiple startups. Mr. Broecker began his career at Eli Lilly and Co. as a Process Engineer, but quickly assumed leadership positions throughout the company. He graduated summa cum laude from Wabash College. He holds a graduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Donna L. Ferullo, JD, is the Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for Libraries and the School of Information Studies, the Director of the University Copyright Office and Professor of Library Science at Purdue University. Ms. Ferullo advises Purdue on copyright compliance issues and is responsible for educating the university community on their rights and responsibilities under the copyright law. She is also the Libraries Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs where she is responsible for oversight of seven libraries. Ms. Ferullo holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Suffolk University Law School; a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland; and a BA degree in Communications from Boston College. Ms. Ferullo is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, Indiana Bar and the United States Supreme Court Bar. Ms. Ferullo’s recently published book is entitled Managing Copyright in Higher Education. She has also published articles and given many presentations on copyright and its impact on higher education and libraries.

Trenten D. Klingerman is the Deputy General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer in the Office of Legal Counsel at Purdue University. Counselor Klingerman’s responsibilities include faculty, staff, and student matters; privacy and public records issues; and litigation. He also serves as the primary Office of Legal Counsel liaison to Purdue Fort Wayne and Purdue Northwest. He is a Purdue graduate and a graduate of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. While in law school, Counselor Klingerman was named a managing editor of the Indiana Law Journal and worked as the student director of the Protective Order Project, a group dedicated to assisting victims of domestic violence. Prior to joining Purdue in 2012, he was a partner in the Lafayette, Indiana, law firm of Stuart & Branigin, where he successfully represented employers of all sizes in federal and state trial and appellate courts. Counselor Klingerman then worked in Human Resources at Purdue University, including serving as the Director of Employee Relations and the Vice President for Human Resources.

Gerry McCartney, PhD is the Executive Vice President for Purdue Online. Purdue Online is an online education initiative adopted in June 2018 by Purdue University President Mitch Daniels and the Board of Trustees with the goal of systematically developing and growing a coordinated, unified systemwide portfolio of offerings from Purdue’s physical campuses and from Purdue Global that serves all types of students. He is overseeing development of a one-stop-shop system for matching prospective students with courses and programs that best fit their needs – even pointing them to options they may not have considered. He is also positioning Purdue as a top provider of tailored corporate training and re-training. Under Dr. McCartney, Purdue’s online offerings are being rooted in sophisticated market research and online analytics to provide the best experience and most value for students seeking the same kind of world-class education traditionally available from Purdue. Dr. McCartney served as Purdue's chief information officer from July 2007 to December 2018.

Jenna Rickus, PhD is the Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Her research interests include novel micro and nanoscale biosensors for real time measurements of neurotransmitters, metabolites, ions, and small signaling molecules in neural cells. She is also interested in the integration of -omics technologies with biosensor and biomaterial platforms for novel approaches to problems in neural cell biology, biological silica as a cellular interface, and cell-silicon hybrid implantable devices. She is designing the neural biomaterial interface to direct cell fate and function. Her research applies to the treatment of Glioblastoma, Epilepsy, and Diabetes. Dr. Rickus earned her PhD in Neuroscience and Neuroengineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has a BS in both Biochemistry and Biological Engineering from Purdue.

Alysa Christmas Rollock is Purdue’s Vice President for Ethics and Compliance. As Vice President for Ethics and Compliance, she serves as Purdue University’s ethics and compliance officer, as well as its equal opportunity and Title IX officer. The Vice President for Ethics and Compliance provides oversight to the Office of Institutional Equity and the University Policy Office. Vice President Rollock received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1981 and her law degree from Yale University School of Law in 1984. Following her graduation from Yale, she worked as an associate with the New York City law firms of Cahill Gordon & Reindell and Battle Fowler. In 1988, she became associated with the Indianapolis law firm of Ice Miller. In 1992, Ms. Rollock was appointed an associate professor of law at Indiana University-Bloomington, where her research and teaching were concentrated in the areas of corporate law, corporate finance, securities regulation, and professional responsibility. In July 1998, Vice President Rollock joined Purdue as Interim Vice President for Human Relations and an associate professor of management. She became Vice President for Human Relations in July 1999 and was named Vice President for Ethics and Compliance in November 2008. Ms. Rollock is a member of the Board of Directors of YMCA Camp Tecumseh.

Christopher Yeomans, PhD is the Head of the Department of Philosophy. Dr. Yeomans received his PhD at the University of California, Riverside in 2005. He began his academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied primarily linguistics, literature, and literary theory. Eventually, literary theory led him to critical theory and then to the classical German philosophy that serves as its foundation. After a dissertation on Hegel’s theory of free will, he then became an assistant professor of philosophy at Kenyon College, joining the Purdue faculty in 2009. His broad project is to develop a political theory that integrates the conceptual riches of the Kantian theory of autonomy (free will), the phenomenological riches of an expressivist theory of moral psychology, and the political riches of concrete social and historical description. Hegel pursued a project of just this sort for his own time (turn of the 19th-century Germany), and thus since his dissertation, Dr. Yeomans' work has been primarily concerned with reconstructing Hegel’s views.

Theresa Mayer, PhD is the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships. Mayer served since 2016 as Vice President for Research and Innovation and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech. She oversaw the institution’s portfolio of research and associated centers and offices, research activities within the colleges and institutes, technology transfer, industry partnerships, sponsored programs, and compliance. Prior to her role at Virginia Tech, Mayer was at Pennsylvania State University for more than 20 years, where she served as a Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering, Associate Dean for research and innovation in the College of Engineering, the site director of the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, and Director of the Materials Research Institute Nanofabrication Laboratory. Mayer is internationally recognized for her research in applications of nanotechnology to electronic and photonic devices and microsystems, and her work in directed assembly of nanoparticles is being used to address a variety of device and manufacturing challenges, ranging from low-power integrated nanosensor circuits to nontraditional patterning processes.

Melinda S. Zook, PhD is the Director of Cornerstone: Integrated Liberal Arts for the College of Liberal Arts. She received her Ph.D. from Georgetown University. She is a specialist in the history of Tudor and Stuart England, political thought, and religion and women in early modern Europe. Professor Zook teaches courses on English and medieval history, as well as on such topics as Shakespeare’s Kings, great books and the search for meaning and the history of toleration. She has published articles on radical politics, martyrdom, women and religion, and teaching. Her book Radical Whigs and Conspiratorial Politics in late Stuart England was published by Penn State Press in 1999 and in paperback in 2009. In 2013, she published Protestantism, Politics and Women in Britain, 1660-1714 with Palgrave, awarded Best Book on Gender for 2013 by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. She is the co-editor of Revolutionary Currents: Nation Building in the Transatlantic World (2004); Challenging Orthodoxies: The Social and Cultural World of Early Modern Women (2014); and Generations of Women Historians: Within and Beyond the Academy (2018).

Roberto Gallardo, PhD is Assistant Director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development and a Purdue Extension Community & Regional Economics Specialist. He holds an electronics engineering undergraduate degree, a master's in economic development, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration. Gallardo has worked with rural communities over the past decade conducting local & regional community economic development, including use of technology for development. He has authored more than 70 articles including peer-reviewed and news-related regarding rural trends, socioeconomic analysis, industrial clusters, the digital divide, and leveraging broadband applications for community economic development. He is also the author of the book “Responsive Countryside: The Digital Age & Rural Communities”, which highlights a 21st century community development model that helps rural communities transition to, plan for, and prosper in the digital age. Dr. Gallardo is a TEDx speaker and his work has been featured in a WIRED magazine article, a MIC.com documentary, and a RFDTV documentary. He lives in West Lafayette with his wife and two daughters.