Mia Chung-Yee, Executive Director and Founder, has enjoyed great success internationally as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. In 1993, she won first prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition and in 1997, she received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the highest recognition for young concert artists in the United States. Mia graduated with a bachelor's degree from Harvard College, a master’s degree from Yale University and doctorate from The Juilliard School. She served as Professor of Music and Artist in Residence at Gordon College from 1991 to 2011 and joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music as Professor of Musical Studies in 2012. She has been a guest speaker and panelist at Veritas Forum events and was a fellow in the Veritas Riff program in 2014 and 2018. Dr. Chung-Yee’s introduction to the Christian study center movement occurred in 2018 when she was a guest lecturer at Cornell’s Chesterton House.

Nathan Barczi, Associate Director and Senior Theologian,, has served as Associate Pastor at Christ the King Presbyterian Church since 2014, where he was awarded the John Stott award from the Creation Project at the Henry Center, a grant that supported him and his congregation in a year exploring the doctrine of creation in an age of science with eminent scientists and theologians.  He is a cohort facilitator for the Boston Fellows, and a fellow of the Center for Pastor Theologians.  His Christianity Today article about his work with Harvard geneticists exploring the bioethics of gene editing won an Evangelical Press Association Award. Prior to serving in full-time vocational ministry, he was an economic consultant for The Brattle Group and an assistant economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  He was the founding executive director of the Octet Collaborative, and he holds a PhD in theology from the University of Nottingham and a PhD in economics from MIT.  He did his undergraduate work at Stanford University in his native Silicon Valley.  He lives with his wife (another Bay Area native) and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Kim Glass, Communications Specialist, also serves as Communications & Development Manager for the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. Prior to her roles at the Consortium and Octet, Kim worked in communications, nonprofit fundraising and advertising. She holds a bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master’s degree from Duke University in religious studies with a focus on the New Testament. While pursuing graduate studies at Duke, Kim attended lectures and reading groups hosted by the Center for Christianity & Scholarship. When not working, Kim can be found running, riding her indoor bike or reading. She lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband, Stephen, and English Cocker Spaniel Frances.

Glen Comiso is Senior Director for Institute Affairs in the Office of the President at MIT. He co-manages the MIT Task Force 2021 and Beyond effort, charged to help develop a better MIT in the post-Covid world. He also facilitated the MIT task force defining the structure and priorities for the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Other efforts Glen has managed include The Engine (tough tech innovation incubator) working groups and Institute-wide studies on digital health and advanced manufacturing. Glen was Chief of Staff to the MIT president from 2012-2015. He also previously managed administrative processes of the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation (trustees) and the Academic Council (academic leadership), MIT’s primary governing bodies. He joined MIT in 2010.

Daniel Hastings is the Department Head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Professor Hastings earned a PhD and an SM from MIT in Aeronautics and Astronautics, in 1980 and 1978 respectively, and received a BA in Mathematics from Oxford University in England in 1976. He joined the MIT faculty in 1985. Professor Hastings was MIT’s Dean of Undergraduate Education from 2006 to 2013, head of the MIT Technology and Policy Program and director of the MIT Engineering Systems Division. He was US Air Force Chief Scientist From 1997-1999 and chair of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board from 2002-2005. He served on the Board of the Aerospace Corporation, the Board of the Draper Corporation and currently serves on the Advisory Board of MIT Lincoln Lab. He has served on several US National Research Council committees including the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and the Government University Industry Interactions Roundtable. He has published over 120 papers, written a book on spacecraft environment interactions and won 5 best papers awards. His recent research is focused on Complex Space System Design. 

Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). An international expert on the physics of plasmas, his research underlies the effort to generate practical energy from fusion reactions, the power source of the stars.  A graduate of Cambridge University and the Australian National University, he is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society. He has authored over 200 scientific journal articles and two advanced science text books. He has also written and spoken widely on the relationship between Science and Christianity, in events sponsored b Christian organizations and also in the wider secular media. His new book recently published by InterVarsity Press is entitled "Can a scientist believe in miracles? An MIT professor answers questions on God and science." It answers hundreds of the tough questions that young people today have asked him about the relationship between science and Christianity.

Anne McCants is Professor of History and Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT where she directs the Concourse First Year Learning Community for the integration of the humanities in the science core. She serves as the President of the International Economic History Association and as an editor for both Social Science History and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Her books include Civic Charity in a Golden Age: Orphan Care in Early Modern Amsterdam, and several edited volumes on railroad construction in technological, economic and social context.  She has authored numerous articles on welfare in the Dutch Republic, European historical demography, and material culture and global consumption.  Her current work includes a study of medieval building technology in its social and economic context, an examination of the role of gender and family in long-run economic growth, and problems in modeling institutional and economic development.

Rosalind Picard is founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, co-founder of Affectiva, which provides Emotion AI, and co-founder and chief scientist of Empatica, which provides the first FDA-cleared smartwatch to detect seizures. Picard is author of over three hundred peer-reviewed articles spanning AI, affective computing, and medicine. She is known internationally for writing the book, Affective Computing, which helped launch the field by that name, and she is a popular speaker, with a TED talk receiving ~1.9 million views. Picard is a fellow of the IEEE and the AAAC, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Masters and Doctorate, each in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, from MIT. Picard leads a team of researchers developing AI/machine learning and analytics to advance basic science as well as to improve human health and wellbeing, and has served as MIT's faculty chair of their MindHandHeart wellbeing initiative.

Troy Van Voorhis is the Robert T. Haslam and Bradley Dewey Professor and Department Head of Chemistry at MIT. Troy earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics from Rice University and his PhD in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, he joined the faculty of MIT. His research focuses on the intersection of quantum mechanics and chemistry.

Mia Chung-Yee, Executive Director

Nathan Barczi, Associate Director & Senior Theologian

Paul Burke PhD ‘92 is Principal at Burke Bioventures LLC. He provides strategic advice and scientific direction for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and drug delivery companies with a focus on translating research breakthroughs—particularly those based on nanotechnology, targeting, and RNA—into products. He serves in advisory role and provides interim R&D management for start-ups, and conducts technical due diligence in support of venture investment, licensing, and M&A.

David Chan PhD ‘06, Vice Board Chair, is a Portfolio Manager at a New York-based hedge fund. David has over sixteen years of investing and trading experience in both U.S. and international markets. He started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he developed quantitative trading strategies. In 2013, he transitioned into investment management, eventually becoming a Portfolio Manager specializing in systematic equities trading. David holds a PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research focused on photonic band-gap materials. David received his Master of Physics degree from the University of Oxford with top First Class Honours. He was one of twelve awarded the Kennedy Scholarship, a prestigious UK award for graduate study in the USA. David also holds a patent in surface-plasmon index guided waveguides. Prior to the Octet Collaborative, David served as finance chair of the board of the New York City Rescue Mission, America’s oldest homeless shelter.

Ruth Chang SM ’87, Board Chair, received a master’s in Management at the MIT Sloan School with a concentration in management of technology. Following MIT, she spent her career in corporate Finance, in positions of increasing responsibility at Procter & Gamble, Ford Motor Company and retiring from Johnson & Johnson in 2018. During her corporate career, Ruth was known as a champion of talent, leading teams to mentor, recruit, develop and promote promising talent, especially women and minorities. Ruth received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College, majoring in physics and astronomy. She has served on the Board of Trustees for Wellesley College including Chair of the Finance and Audit committees.

Ehi Nosakhare PhD ‘18 is a Data and Applied Scientist in the AI development and acceleration program at Microsoft. She designs, develops and leads the implementation of machine learning (ML) solutions in application projects across Microsoft’s products and services. Prior to Microsoft, she completed a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is very passionate about using ML to solve real-world problems and studying the ethical implications of ML/AI. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and re-learning to play the cello.

David Williamson ‘89, SM ‘90, PhD ‘93 is the Chair of the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, and a Professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT under Professor Michel X. Goemans in 1993. After a postdoc at Cornell under Professor Éva Tardos, he was a Research Staff Member for IBM Research at the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. From 2000 to 2003, he was the Senior Manager of the Computer Science Principles and Methodologies group at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. He moved to Cornell University in 2004. His research focuses on finding efficient algorithms for hard discrete optimization problems, with a focus on approximation algorithms for problems in network design, facility location, and scheduling. Other interests include algorithms for information networks. He previously served as chair of the board of Chesterton House, a Christian study center serving Cornell University.