SPEAKERS
Jason sperling
Creative director & author
Jason serves as Senior VP, Chief, Creative Development at RPA Advertising in Los Angeles. He oversees marketing for Honda, UNICEF Worldwide, Amazon, TikTok, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) and the LGBT Center, Los Angeles. With the PBTF, Sperling helped develop “The Imaginary Friend Society," the first animated film series developed specifically for pediatric cancer patients.
kyle haden
Assistant Professor of Acting at Carnegie Mellon University and Director/Equity Actor
Kyle Haden is a director, educator, and equity actor. He is in his 6th season as the artistic director of the Ashland New Plays festival in Oregon, where over a dozen new plays have premiered globally. He has also helmed various productions and performed at regional theaters nationwide. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Acting at Carnegie Mellon University in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.
Rebecca Cherian
Co-Principal Trombone with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Artist/Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University
Rebecca Cherian was awarded the position of Co-Principal Trombone of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra by Lorin Maazel in 1989. She has been a trombone instructor at Carnegie Mellon University since 1993. Cherian was a founding member of the International Women’s Brass Conference in 1994 and served as the IWBC Newsletter Editor for five years. Cherian holds degrees from The California Institute of the Arts and The Yale School of Music. In September 1993, Cherian performed at the White House in Washington, D.C. for the opening reception of the Annual International Women’s Forum. Cherian has recorded two solo CDs, “Water Awakening” and “L’Invitation au Voyage,” and multiple recordings with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Sridhar Tayur
University Professor of Operations Management and Ford Distinguished Research Chair at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
Sridhar Tayur is the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and University Professor of Operations Management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Madras (where he is a Distinguished Alumnus Award winner). He is an INFORMS Fellow, a Distinguished Fellow of MSOM Society and has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has been a visiting professor at Cornell, MIT and Stanford.