Agenda and Presentations

Richard DalBello is currently the Director of the Office of Space Commerce. In this role he is responsible for managing the Department’s efforts to establish a space traffic control system to ensure safe space operations for commercial and international civil space ventures. In addition, Richard is responsible for the regulation of the US commercial remote sensing industry and for general advocacy, across the government, for commercial space industry interests.

Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, Richard was Virgin Galactic’s Vice President of Global Engagement. In this role, Richard was responsible for international business development for the company’s unique fleet of carrier aircraft and space vehicles. Prior to joining Virgin, Richard served as Director, Space and Aeronautics, in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, he served as the principal advisor on space and aeronautics matters to the Science Advisor to the President. In this position, Richard played a key role in the development and implementation of the Administration’s domestic and international space policy and program priorities.

Prior to joining OSTP, Richard served as the Vice President of Government Affairs for Intelsat General. He served previously as president of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, and for more than three years as the president of the Satellite Industry Association.

Richard earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree in law from McGill University, and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of San Francisco.

Simonetta Di Pippo is Professor of Practice of Space Economy at SDA Bocconi School of Management and Director of Space Economy Evolution Lab (SEE Lab). She is an italian astrophysicist and before joining SDA Bocconi she served as Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs(UNOOSA).

She holds a Master’s Degree in Astrophysics and Space Physics from University "La Sapienza", an Honoris Causa Degree in Environmental Studies, and an Honoris Causa Degree of Doctor in International Affairs.

In her career, she has been able to cover all the main different fields in space activities, with experience at national, regional and global level. She wrote two books and contributed to many more. She is also author and co-author to several international articles, and always advocating the importance of increasing awareness of the benefits of space activities, she has been featured in more than 1000 interviews and TV and radio shows and podcasts

Prior to joining UNOOSA, she served as Director of Human Spaceflight at ESA, Director of the Observation of the Universe at the Italian Space Agency and led the European Space Policy Observatory at ASI-Brussels.

She is an Academician of IAA and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on space since 2016, co-chairing it since 2020. In her career, Simonetta Di Pippo has been active in bridging the gender gap in STEM and the space sector. In 2009, she co-founded Women in Aerospace Europe and in 2017, she became a UN International Gender Champion.

In 2008, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named asteroid 21887 "dipippo" in honour of her contribution to space activities and in 2006, she was knighted by the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as Cavaliere Ufficiale al Merito. She has been the first woman to be honored with the Hubert Curien award.

Dr. Richard Green is Astronomer and Assistant Director for Government Relations for the astronomy program at the University of Arizona. He recently served as the Division Director for Astronomical Sciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation, and currently serves as co-lead of the Policy Hub for the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. In 2021, he chaired the Policy Working Group for the NSF-sponsored conference SATCON2. Green is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Astronomical Society. He has served as the director of three major ground-based astronomical observatories, served on two NASA astronomy space mission science teams, and was listed among the top 100 most highly cited astronomers for his work on quasars and black holes. He earned his AB from Harvard and his PhD from Caltech, both in Astronomy.

Dr. Patrick Seitzer is a Research Professor (Emeritus) at the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy. He conducts research in Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and optical studies of orbital debris. Using U-M’s 0.6-meter Curtis-Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory in Chile, he and his collaborators conduct optical surveys to assess the total amount of debris at geosynchronous orbit (GEO) then follow up with spectroscopy with the 6.5-m Magellan telescopes to characterize particular objects. Magellan is also used to do deep pencil-beam surveys for faint orbital debris in the GEO regime.

He served on the NASA delegation to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordinating Committee (IADC) from 2001 through 2015.

Gordon Gillerman, Director, Standards Coordination Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Department of Commerce Standards Executive, leads NIST’s work in standards coordination and the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program. Gordon supports extensive standards development and advises federal agencies and other stakeholders on standards and conformity assessment policy. The Standards Coordination Office is the NIST standardization focal point for federal government, administers the NIST Standards Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program, operates the U.S. Inquiry Point for the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, is the U.S. Designating Authority for Telecom Mutual Recognition Agreements, and is a key information source for US industry on standards related market access issues.

Gordon has extensive standards experience across a wide range of critical issues including homeland security, safety, health, and protection of the environment. Gordon is an expert on conformity assessment systems design, an advisor to the U.S. Trade Representative on technical barriers to trade and related trade agreements, and has collaborated across the standards community to develop standards based solutions for national priorities throughout his career. Gordon provided direct support in the drafting and negotiation of the Technical Barriers to Trade chapter of the USMCA.

Prior experience includes leading government affairs for the largest U.S. product safety certification and standards development organization, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in Washington, DC, and Staff Engineer for the medical device and information technology sectors at UL’s Northbrook, IL headquarters.

Chris Hofer joined Amazon’s Project Kuiper in 2020 as the international team lead for regulatory affairs, with responsibility for spectrum policy and satellite coordination. An engineer by training, Chris leads Project Kuiper’s work at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) and operator-to-operator satellite radio frequency coordination. He also leads Project Kuiper’s collaboration with astronomers and currently serves as the co-chair of the Industry and Technology Hub at the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark & Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. In 2021, Chris co-chaired the industry subgroups for the SATCON2 and Dark and Quiet Skies 2 astronomy conferences.

Before Amazon, Chris served as director of regulatory affairs for Viasat, representing Viasat’s satellite interests in the ITU’s Working Party 4A preparations for the WRC. He also served as the elected international chairman of ITU-R Study Group 4 for two terms, from 2012-2019.

Previously, Chris was the lead representative for WRC activities for the Chief Information Office of the Office of Secretary of Defense. Earlier he worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), acting as the chairman of the Space Systems Subcommittee under the U.S. interagency spectrum group, Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC).

He holds a master’s degree in telecommunications from the University of Colorado in Boulder and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University.

Dr. Julie Davis is the John N. Bahcall Public Policy Fellow at the American Astronomical Society (AAS). She has a PhD is Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin, where she worked on extragalactic radio astronomy surveys. She now works to promote and protect the interests of the astronomical sciences on behalf of the 8000+ members of the AAS.

Therese Jones joined the Satellite Industry Association as its Senior Director of Policy in January of 2018. Ms. Jones supports SIA’s work on government services, regulatory, legislative, defense, export-control and trade issues of critical importance to the Association’s members.

Prior to joining SIA, Therese was an assistant policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, where she focused on space policy. In this role, she supported the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Army in assessing new space technologies, increasing the resilience of the national space architecture, and determining commercial acquisition strategies for communications and remote sensing services. Her research portfolio also includes several cyber security projects on the impact of cyber incidents to the global economy. Before transitioning into space policy, she worked as an astrophysics researcher focusing on galaxy formation and evolution.

Therese is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Policy Analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She holds a master’s in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, and bachelor’s degrees in astronomy and astrophysics, physics, German, and international studies from The Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Heather J. Patrick is a physicist in the Sensor Science Division at NIST. She is responsible for maintaining the national scale for reflectance and conducting reflectance calibrations for stakeholders in government, industry, and academia. Dr. Patrick received the 2018 NIST Judson C. French award for advancing reflectance measurement technology through the development of ROSI, the Robotic Optical Scattering Instrument. She holds a B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Dr. Jeremy Tregloan-Reed completed his undergraduate Master degree (M.Phys with Hons) in physics, astrophysics, and cosmology at the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom in 2010. After which he then went on to complete his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Keele, United Kingdom in 2014. Between 2014 and 2016, Jeremy was a fellow of the NASA postdoctoral program and was based at Ames Research Center, Mountain View California, USA. In 2018, Jeremy moved to Chile as a Fondecyt Postdoctoral research fellow at the Universidad de Antofagasta where in 2020, he began his first faculty position at the Universidad de Atacama. Dr. Tregloan-Reed's primary research is in the detection and characterization of exoplanetary systems around active stars, using space-based survey telescopes (e.g. CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS) combined with ground based surveys (e.g. SuperWASP, NGTS, and HAT).

In late 2019 after the launch of the first batch of 60 Starlink
satellites, Dr. Tregloan-Reed began an observational campaign to
measure the reflective brightness of satellites in low Earth orbit and
in particular satellites designed to mitigate the reflective brightness (e.g. Starlink's Darksat and Visorsat). The purpose of the observations is to obtain data to help develop reflective brightness
models of the different satellite designs, in order to aid data driven
forecasting models, to understand the short and long term impact of
satellites in low Earth orbit to ground based astronomy and the
quality of the dark sky.
 

Mark Mulholland is the Principal Systems Engineer, U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Space Commerce, MITRE.  He has held a wide range of satellite acquisition and space operations jobs dating back to 1976.  He has had careers in the U.S. Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  He is currently a MITRE employee working as a consultant to the Director and staff of the Office of Space Commerce in the U.S. Department of Commerce in his MITRE role as the Principal Systems Engineer for Space Commerce.  He has acquired 45 years of government, international and private-sector experience in satellite design, acquisition, launch, on-orbit operations, and systems engineering for national security, civil and commercial space and ground programs.  He joined the OSC team in September 2019.

Mr. Mulholland was a civil servant in the NOAA Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS) from 2006-2018.  He was the Director of the Policies, Procedures, and System Assurance Division in the Office of Systems Architecture and Advance Planning (OSAAP) until retirement in January 2018.  He organized the first-ever NESDIS enterprise risk management structure. He was the subject matter expert for the 2014 Export Control Reform initiative, helping to secure significant export control reforms for civil and commercial satellite systems. For ten years, he was the NESDIS member of the United States delegation to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and worked on the Long-term Sustainability Working Group developing guidelines and best practices for safe space operations. Earlier, Mr. Mulholland served as the acting Deputy System Program Director for the GOES-R satellite program and as the GOES-R Program Executive to the NESDIS Assistant Administrator.  He was the primary subject matter expert for all aspects of space flight safety and participated as the NOAA representative on numerous interagency and

Dr. Mark Skinner is internationally recognized as a researcher in space object characterization and commercial space situational awareness. He is currently leading The Aerospace Corporation’s effort to support the transition of space traffic management (STM) from the Defense realm to the Civil. For almost two decades he supported research efforts at the AMOS facility on Maui, Hawaii, and now supports STM in Washington, DC.

For eight years, he supported the US delegation to the UN COPUOS Working Group on the Long Term Sustainable use of outer space in the development of guidelines and best practices, as an expert on space debris and SSA.

Skinner holds a BS degree in Physics and a BS in the Humanities and Science from MIT; a PhD in experimental astrophysics from UW-Madison; and an MBA from ISU.

Ruth Pritchard-Kelly is an expert on satellite regulatory policy with over 30 years of experience. She is currently the Senior Advisor for Regulatory & Space Policy at OneWeb where she advises a global team of legal & technical policy analysts.  Pritchard-Kelly has also worked at O3b (now SES Networks) and American Mobile Satellite Corporation.  She has a Master’s Degree in space and telecommunications policy from George Washington University and a J.D. from the University of Maryland.  Ms. Pritchard-Kelly is on the board of the US Telecommunications Training Institute and is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Secure World Foundation.

Erwin Hudson is Vice President, Telesat Lightspeed System Development. He is responsible for directing the development and implementation of Telesat’s LEO satellite constellation that will offer high throughput, low latency communications on a global basis.

Mr. Hudson is one of the industry’s most experienced executives in satellite-enabled broadband networks. He was Chief Technology Officer at WildBlue Communications, an early satellite broadband provider later acquired by Viasat, that began building its U.S. subscriber base using the Ka-band spot beams on Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite. Prior to WildBlue, Mr. Hudson was a senior executive at Space Systems Loral and, before that he was Director Satellite Communications at TRW Space & Electronics.

Mr. Hudson led the Viasat team that NBN Co selected to provide the ground infrastructure for the satellite portion of Australia’s National Broadband Network. He holds a number of patents and his innovations, technical and commercial, have driven the growth of satellite broadband in markets around the world. Mr. Hudson earned an Electrical Engineering degree from North Carolina State University, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University and a Professional Engineers Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Dan Oltrogge is the Director of the Center for Space Standards and Innovation, Chief Scientist, and space policy expert at COMSPOC Corporation.  He is also the program manager of the Space Data Center, founder and administrator of the Space Safety Coalition, U.S. Head of Delegation to ISO TC20/SC14, and the author of numerous technical papers, international space standards, and industry best practices.

Chris Hofer joined Amazon’s Project Kuiper in 2020 as the international team lead for regulatory affairs, with responsibility for spectrum policy and satellite coordination. An engineer by training, Chris leads Project Kuiper’s work at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) and operator-to-operator satellite radio frequency coordination. He also leads Project Kuiper’s collaboration with astronomers and currently serves as the co-chair of the Industry and Technology Hub at the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark & Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. In 2021, Chris co-chaired the industry subgroups for the SATCON2 and Dark and Quiet Skies 2 astronomy conferences.

Before Amazon, Chris served as director of regulatory affairs for Viasat, representing Viasat’s satellite interests in the ITU’s Working Party 4A preparations for the WRC. He also served as the elected international chairman of ITU-R Study Group 4 for two terms, from 2012-2019.

Previously, Chris was the lead representative for WRC activities for the Chief Information Office of the Office of Secretary of Defense. Earlier he worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), acting as the chairman of the Space Systems Subcommittee under the U.S. interagency spectrum group, Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC).

He holds a master’s degree in telecommunications from the University of Colorado in Boulder and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University.

David Goldstein is a SpaceX Principal Engineer. In this role he’s an ambassador to government agencies and satellite owner/operators on SpaceX satellite collision avoidance and space safety, he leads SpaceX integration with the Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron and NASA/CARA and he develops, codes and fields satellite GNC algorithms.

Goldstein graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a bachelor's of science in 1988. His career covers a wide variety of Air Force technical leadership assignments including satellite science and technology, research and development, test and evaluation, payload integration, system engineering, acquisition, and launch operations. After serving 27 years in the US Air Force, Goldstein retired as a Colonel in January 2016. In his last assignment he was director of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate and Commander of the Phillips Research Site, at Kirtland Air Force Base.

Goldstein earned a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and three Master’s Degrees. He has been married for over 33 years and has three children.

Dr. Ashley (Zauderer) VanderLey is Senior Advisor for Facilities in the Division of Astronomical Sciences in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation.  Dr. VanderLey joined the Division of Astronomical Sciences in 2017 as a Program Director. Dr. VanderLey’s responsibilities include work in the Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Unit where she has worked to represent the scientific interests for protection and use of the electromagnetic spectrum both within the United States and internationally. In this role, she represents NSF on NTIA’s Interagency Radio Advisory Committee and its subcommittees, coordinating frequency usage in the National Radio Quiet Zone, and serves as U.S. Head of Delegation on behalf of the State Department to the Radio Astronomy Working Party (7D) of the International Telecommunication Union.  Additionally, she served as a spokesperson and subject matter expert on the U.S. delegation for several agenda items at the 2019 World Radio Conference in Egypt.  She is a member of the NSF-wide ESM Coordination group and has helped lead NSF efforts to establish the cross-Directorate Spectrum Innovation Initiative (SII). Dr. VanderLey completed her masters and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Maryland, College Park and her bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics from Agnes Scott College.  Upon completion of her Ph.D., she was a Research Fellow and an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in the Berger Time Domain Group at Harvard University.

Connie has been a Scientist at NSF’s NOIR Lab for over 20 years. She is actively involved with light pollution issues on the ground and more recently in space, heading their Office of Observatory Site Protection. She has leadership roles nationally with the American Astronomical Society and internationally with the International Astronomical Union and with the International Dark-Sky association. In 2020 and 2021, she was co-chair of two workshops focusing on the impacts of satellite constellation and two conferences focusing on the impacts of satellite constellations and artificial light at night. As of this April, she has taken on the co-directorship of the new IAU Center on the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (CPS). She has an AB in astronomy and in physics from Smith College, an MS in electrical engineering from U. Mass Amherst and a PhD in astronomy from U. Arizona. She has had a couple of years of experience as an electrical engineer for a large aerospace company between the advance degrees.