Our experts in residence

BU Spark!, through the Boston University Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, hosts distinguished individuals and alumni as part of its Experts in Residence Program. Experts in residence get deeply involved with Spark! by leading initiatives, providing strategic counsel to the Spark! team, and directly engaging with and supporting students. They also pursue projects with support from student teams. Learn more about the Experts in Residence Program.

Jesse Belanger

Engineering Manager, ezCater

Jesse is an engineering manager and active BU alum. He currently leads teams at ezCater – a Boston-based “Food for Work” startup – where he focuses on ML and AI-powered products. A 2016 graduate of Boston University’s College of Engineering, he earned a BS in Computer Engineering with a concentration in Technology Innovation. In addition to volunteering with Spark!, Jesse has served on the BU Young Alumni Council and now continues his engagement as a member of the Alumni Council.

Ayora Berry, Ed.D.

VP – AI Product Management, PTC + Program Lead at Launch Lab 

Ayora is a software product leader and educator with experience in academic, non-profit, and corporate sectors. He takes a holistic approach to problem solving that blends business, design and technology frameworks. He is Vice President of AI Product Management at PTC, an engineering software company with 37,000+ customers worldwide. Ayora holds a Bachelor of Arts in History, a Bachelor of Science in Biology, a Master of Teaching, and a Doctorate in Education. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Stephen Ellis

Director of Analytics, BU Sustainability

Stephen oversees data collection, analysis, and reporting for BU Sustainability on a range of topics such as energy, waste, green buildings, and transportation, and key reports such as BU’s GHG (greenhouse gas) inventory, and STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System). BU serves as a Committee Member, STARS Steering Committee, and an Advisory Council Member, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

Adam Friedman

Founder and CEO, Civera

Adam is an entrepreneur, political organizer, and full-stack software engineer. He is founder and CEO of Civera, a small software consultancy in Cambridge, whose mission is to liberate public data and improve government transparency. Civera’s flagship product is ElectionStats, a publishing platform used by seven states to make election results and voting statistics far more accessible to the public. Adam has also served as a leading advocate for ranked choice voting. He co-founded Rank the Vote in 2020 and co-founded ranked choice voting organizations in over 20 states, training up volunteer leaders on the grassroots capacity growth model he built and executed as the founder and Executive Director of Voter Choice Massachusetts (VCMA) between 2016 and 2019. VCMA transformed into the YES on 2 ballot measure campaign of 2020 and became the largest statewide movement for ranked choice voting in US history. Adam has a Bachelor of Arts in History from Boston University, and resides in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Tom Hopper

Director, Center for Housing Data at MHP

Tom (he/him) is a housing policy professional and data scientist focused on making complex data sets and policy topics more accessible to a general audience using interactive tools and visualizations. Tom has over 15 years of experience in the affordable housing field, including developing database systems, designing metrics, and creating data tools and analytical reports that provide insight into issues facing affordable housing developments. He has also led public policy research efforts on topics such as transit-oriented development, housing production, affordability, land use, and housing stability. Tom has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s degree in city planning from Boston University, and a master’s degree in urban informatics from Northeastern University.

Michelle Johnson

Associate Professor Emerita, Boston University

Michelle is an associate professor emerita at the Boston University Department of Journalism. She retired in 2022, where she taught a variety of courses focused online journalism and media storytelling. She is a former editor of the Boston Globe and Boston.com. A graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism, Michelle was awarded the school’s distinguished alumni award in 2020. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Online News Association’s Rich Jaroslovsky Founder Award, which honors “a senior-level individual who has significantly advanced or made lasting contributions to the field of digital journalism.” She was also inducted into the Association of LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame in 2022. Michelle was named 2013 Educator of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. She served as the very first Academic Representative on the board of the National Association of Black Journalists from 2015 to 2018. She writes and edits AI Insider, a newsletter that tracks the latest developments in artificial intelligence.

Jenna Jordan

Senior Data Management Consultant, Analytics8

Jenna is a senior data management consultant at Analytics8, where she helps transform mission-driven organizations with data, specializing in the adoption of data mesh & dbt. Before joining Analytics8, Jenna was a data engineer with the City of Boston Analytics Team and played a pivotal role in modernizing their data infrastructure by spearheading the adoption of dbt. Jenna has a Master’s in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and always brings an LIS perspective to her data work. As a data engineer, Jenna has expertise in data modeling, database design, data warehouse design, ETL pipelines & orchestration, CI/CD, data testing, and more. Jenna has a BA in Journalism & Political Science from UNC Chapel Hill; she has a passion for civic data & is actively engaged in online civic tech communities. Jenna lives in Asheville, NC, with her rescue pup Bella.

Office hours: schedule here

Julie Lee

Technology for Liberty Fellow, ACLU of Massachusetts

Julie (she/they) is the Technology for Liberty Fellow at the ACLU of Massachusetts. She works at the intersection of technology and civil rights and civil liberties, using data-driven investigations to hold government and corporations to account. Her work focuses on surveillance, privacy, and algorithmic decision-making/“AI”, such as investigating police use of surveillance technologies, and the sale of cellphone location data. Prior to joining the ACLU of Massachusetts, she was a postdoc at New York University. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bristol. Her academic expertise is in reinforcement learning and decision-making, using the tools of computational modeling, machine learning, and computational neuroscience broadly.

Stamatios “Stamati” Liapis

Co-founder and CTO, Enlaye

Stamati is the Co-founder and CTO of Enlaye, the AI-native Risk Lifecycle Management™ platform for the build world. He and his team are on a mission to help all actors in the built environment – contractors, owners, and developers – build better together. As CTO, he is responsible for the development of Enlaye’s Risk AI, designed to identify, assess, compare, and manage risk at all stages of the project lifecycle. Before launching his venture, Stamati received a PhD in computational neuroscience from Boston University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focused on bridging the gap between human and artificial intelligence, with a special emphasis on learning, memory, and decision-making. His expertise lies at the intersection of AI/ML, mathematics and graph theory, and cognitive neuroscience. Based out of the Harvard Innovation Labs in Boston, Stamati is passionate about applying AI to solve real-world problems and mentoring the next generation of tech innovators. He is also an avid runner and foodie. 

Jack Lull

Principal Scientist, Adobe + Program Lead at Launch Lab

Jack is a longtime veteran of the software industry in the Boston area and has served in both technical and senior management roles at four successful startups. He’s currently a Principal Scientist at Adobe, primarily focused on architecture for large-scale software-as-a-service products. Jack is a three-time graduate of Boston University with a BS/MS in Computer Science and MBA. He currently resides in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.

Singer 

Senior Editor, Equity & Justice, GBH News

Singer is the Senior Editor, Equity & Justice at GBH News, leading a team of four focused on amplifying voices and communities in the Boston area that have long been overlooked. Singer previously served as Investigative Editor for the GBH News Center for Investigative reporting, where he spearheaded GBH’s Life After Prison series documenting the challenges faced by thousands of people in Massachusetts who return from incarceration each year. With a group of Boston University students, Singer also led the creation of the interactive project “ Mapping the Enslavement History of the Freedom Trail. ” Prior to moving to Boston in 2018, Singer served as Politics Editor for USA Today, White House Correspondent for the UPI wire service and stage manager/roadie for the National Folk Festival in Lowell (and other cities).

Russ Wilcox

Founder and CEO, ArtifexAI

Carl Williams

Associate Clinical Professor, Cornell Law School

Carlton (he/him) is an associate professor of clinical law at Cornell Law School. He is a movement lawyer and organizer dedicated to building and supporting liberation struggles. He has practiced criminal and civil rights law in Massachusetts for many years. He began his legal career as a criminal attorney with the Roxbury Defenders and later served as a racial justice attorney with a national civil liberties non-profit. Carlton has been an advocate on issues of war, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, and Black and Palestinian liberation. He is a member of the National Lawyers Guild and has served as the chair of its Massachusetts board of directors. He was part of the legal defense for the Occupy Boston movement, providing legal, bail, and court support and training to the thousands of participant-organizers. In 2015, he served on the working group that organized the inaugural Law for Black Lives convening and was a featured speaker in its RadTalks event. He has taught issues of social justice and the law at Northeastern University School of Law and Yale Law School. Carlton was the executive director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, defending and supporting Indigenous environmental justice and sovereignty. He is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, the Pre-Law Summer Institute for Native Americans, and the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Ricardo Villamil

Software Engineering Manager, Slang

Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Ricardo moved to Boston over 25 years ago. He studied at BU where he obtained both his Bachelor’s and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science and graduated summa cum laude. He has always been passionate about coding and technology in general, as well as coaching and mentoring to share that passion. Currently, he manages the software engineering team at Slang to create powerful backend systems that fuel their language learning platform. Previously, Ricardo worked at HubSpot where he honed his leadership and backend systems skills, while his teaching assistant role at Harvard University Extension School allowed him to guide students in AI, robotics, and wearable technology. Ricardo is passionate about using technology to solve real-world problems and is always eager to take on the next big challenge. In his spare time, he likes to play tennis, run, ski, and is also an airplane pilot!