Speakers

Dan Seaton, PhD

Dan Seaton, PhD, is a staff scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. A graduate of Williams College, with a doctorate in space physics from the University of New Hampshire, Seaton studies the sun and its deep connection to the solar system via both solar eruptions and the solar wind. He is the project scientist for the SunCET CubeSat who studies the sun’s extended atmosphere in extreme ultraviolet light. He is also deputy principal investigator for the EUV Coronal Connectivity and CME Observatory (ECCCO) Small Explorer mission, currently under consideration for flight by NASA. Seaton serves as a member of the mission teams for multiple NASA and ESA sun-observing space missions. He has a special interest in studying the sun’s atmosphere at solar eclipses, which he has done since 1999. He also serves as the project scientist for the Citizen CATE 2024 and NASA WB-57 airborne observatory projects, which successfully observed at the 2024 total eclipse. Seaton lives and works in Boulder, Colorado.

Lewis Ward

Lewis Ward is an expert in global video game and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR/XR) marketplaces. On the hardware front, he researches and assesses video game console, PC, mobile, and XR devices and related accessories. From a software and services perspective, Ward researches and forecasts demand for all kinds of game software, esports- and media influencer-related content, and game and 3D app development tools. He took over IDC's gaming practice in 2009. Ward earned a letters and science degree from U.C. Berkeley in 1994 and currently lives near Boston.

Kristin Schwain, PhD

Kristin Schwain, PhD, is a professor of art history in the School of Visual Studies at the University of Missouri. She received her doctorate in art history and humanities from Stanford University and funding from the Smithsonian Institution, the Luce/American Council of Learned Societies, and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center. Schwain’s pluralistic understanding of the American past and interdisciplinary approach to material and visual culture drive her research into objects, beliefs, and practices that have been overlooked in scholarship despite their considerable influence on everyday life. Her first book, Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age (2008), attends to religion’s significant role in art production and interpretation despite the common assumption that modernization extinguished religious belief. Coedited volumes with scholars from multiple disciplines — Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America (2017) and Handmade in Cuba: Rolando Estévez and the Beautiful Books of Ediciones Vigía (2020) — consider traditional craft and mass-produced objects as meaningful lenses into habits of mind and social practice.

Trent Rash

Trent Rash proudly assumed the position of executive director of the Missouri Symphony (MOSY) in August 2019. In this position, he oversees the staff and the organization's day-to-day operations, which has been a mainstay of the Columbia arts community for more than 50 years. Before MOSY, Rash spent 12 years as an assistant professor of music and musical theatre at Stephens College, where he taught applied private voice lessons, musical theatre performance techniques classes, and musical theatre repertory classes. He was also the executive director of the Summer Theatre Institute, the first summer intensive for the BFA performing arts students. In

addition to his duties at MOSY, he occasionally teaches a handful of students of all ages through RashMusik, his private voice studio, and serves as an adjunct voice instructor at the MU School of Music. Rash attended the University of Missouri, where he received both a BS in music education and an MM in vocal performance. He is proud to serve on the boards of Landlocked Opera Inc. and The Quorus (Columbia’s LGBTQIA+ community choir) and is the secretary for the 7-8 Orchestra Constituency group for the League of American Orchestras at the national level. He is an active member of the Columbia ACA Business Club and is also a certified tourism ambassador (CTA) for the City of Columbia and serves as a co-chair on the Columbia Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Committee.

Sally Stapleton

Sally Stapleton is a former deputy executive photo editor for the Associated Press. During her tenure as international photo editor, she led a team of photographers, based in Africa, to two Pulitzer Prizes in photography. The recognition was for team coverage of the Rwanda Genocide Against the Tutsi in 1994 and simultaneous al-Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. While serving in the role of managing editor, she oversaw coverage at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette during the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. The Post-Gazette staff was recognized for its coverage with the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting. Stapleton received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. In October 2023, she was inducted into the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame.