About the Fellowship

The CHAIRES Fellowship recognizes individuals whose work, perspective, and way of thinking contribute to a deeper understanding of what it means to be human in an AI-shaped world. Fellows enrich the intellectual and creative life of CHAIRES by bringing insight, curiosity, and thoughtful presence to the ongoing exploration of human–AI collaboration, ethics, and creative practice.

Who Becomes a Fellow

Fellows are educators, creatives, technologists, researchers, and community leaders whose work resonates with the values and direction of CHAIRES. They come from different fields but share a commitment to reflection, clarity, and the human side of emerging technologies.

New Fellows are selected periodically based on their contributions, impact, and alignment with the mission of CHAIRES.

How Fellows Participate

The Fellowship is rooted in conversation and shared inquiry. Fellows engage in ways that naturally complement their own interests and ongoing work.

Participation often includes:

  • Joining CHAIRES salons and idea gatherings
  • Sharing perspectives that inform and deepen collective dialogue
  • Contributing reflections or insights tied to CHAIRES themes
  • Being part of informal exchanges that shape evolving directions for the center

Engagement is flexible and grows organically from each Fellow’s unique voice and practice.

Fellowship Benefits

The Fellowship offers an intellectual home within a small community devoted to thoughtful exploration of human–AI relationships.

Fellows have opportunities for:

  • Participation in CHAIRES conversations, salons, and gatherings
  • Collaboration and shared reflection across disciplines
  • Occasional features or highlights within CHAIRES publications or spaces
  • Connection with a network of practitioners, thinkers, and creators

The Role of Fellows in the CHAIRES Ecosystem

Fellows occupy a key place within the broader CHAIRES ecosystem.
They help shape and inspire the center’s work across:

  • Conversations and salons
  • Publications and future journal initiatives
  • Creative explorations and CHAIRES Editions
  • Emerging questions that guide the direction of the center

The Fellowship is a meaningful commitment to the ideas and explorations that shape CHAIRES.

The Inaugural CHAIRES Fellows (12)

Alina Solotarov

When AI generates our visions of tomorrow, whose futures become unimaginable?

Alina Solotarov is an AI ethicist and futures researcher who examines how AI-generated futures imagery constrains collective imagination. Her concept of algorithmic colonisation of imagination reveals how synthetic images in policy briefs and strategic documents systematically narrow the range of thinkable futures before decisions are made.

Drawing on her research at Fraunhofer ISI and her award-winning thesis at Freie Universität Berlin, she offers a compelling synthesis of theory and practice. She examines how current frameworks fail to account for the ontological and semantic ambiguities of machine-generated futures. By applying Floridi’s Information Ethics, she has developed an ethical co-imagination framework that integrates transparency, representational justice, and the epistemic integrity of visual foresight.

With a foundation in Philosophy from Oxford University, international speaking engagements across three continents, and multilingual cross-cultural expertise, she equips thought leaders with fresh tools to evaluate who gets to imagine futures, what is left out, and how we build futures worth living in.

Arvin Obnasca

Responsible AI is not a discipline; it is a practice shared across many. As a CHAIRES Fellow, I draw on my experiences participating in international and European AI standardisation through ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 42 and CEN-CENELEC JTC 21, alongside my current stint as an AI ethics researcher and prior training in AI policy analysis and development. This mix allows me to move between theory and practice and between values and implementation. I am particularly motivated by spaces that encourage collaboration across technical, social, and policy perspectives. At CHAIRES, I hope to contribute a perspective grounded in governance work while remaining open to being challenged, surprised, and reshaped by multidisciplinary exchange.

C. A. Jean-Louis, MPA, JD

My work sits at the intersection of education, public policy, technology, and law, with a focus on how human–AI collaboration influences learning, authorship, and human agency. Drawing on experience as a former teacher, policy analyst, and now intellectual property lawyer, I also examine how AI can either contribute to cognitive decline through misuse and overreliance or serve as an agentic partner that deepens critical thinking and understanding. I am particularly interested in studying how governance choices, institutional incentives, and cultural narratives influence whether AI augments or displaces human judgment and leading public discourse on the downstream consequences of those choices. My approach emphasizes keeping humans responsible for synthesis and decision-making while using AI to interrogate assumptions, surface alternatives, and refine reasoning. At CHAIRES, I aim to explore how thoughtful policy, design, and culture can guide AI toward outcomes that strengthen learning and preserve what makes human intelligence distinct.

Christa Schmid-Meier

My work explores human–AI relationships through the lenses of inclusive education, disability studies, and everyday practice. I am particularly interested in how people experience AI in relational terms, including moments in which people place trust, attach emotional relevance, or come to feel understood, as well as emerging forms of digital intimacy. At the same time, I approach these developments critically, attending to how people’s access and sense of belonging are shaped through the use of AI systems, and to whose perspectives are centered or marginalized in these processes.

As a CHAIRES Fellow, I contribute a reflective, practice-oriented perspective grounded in people’s lived experiences, focused on questions of diversity and inclusion.

Dr. Michael W. Kimwele

As a scholar and practitioner of human-centered digital transformation, I bring to the CHAIRES Fellowship over two decades of experience at the intersection of technology, ethics, and inclusive innovation in Africa. My work has focused on ensuring that emerging technologies—particularly AI—are designed and governed in ways that strengthen trust, expand opportunity, and reflect the lived realities of diverse communities. I contribute a perspective shaped by academic leadership, policy engagement, and hands-on collaboration with institutions advancing digital skills, education, and responsible innovation. As a CHAIRES Fellow, I aim to help bridge technical and humanistic thinking, elevate context-sensitive approaches to AI, and promote technology ecosystems that honor human dignity, equity, and collective well-being.

Flora Oladipupo

I work at the intersection of large language models, generative AI, and ethical AI development, focusing on how intelligent systems can support human creativity and decision-making without compromising dignity, fairness, or inclusion. My perspective is shaped by building real-world AI tools in an African context, where questions of representation and responsible data use are central to whether technology empowers or excludes. I am especially interested in how curated datasets, model behavior, and deployment choices shape the stories AI tells and whose voices it amplifies or overlooks.

As a CHAIRES Fellow, I aim to contribute a grounded, practitioner-driven view of generative AI: one rooted in transparency, community impact, and a belief that the future of AI must reflect the full diversity of the people it serves.

Jordan W. Henry, MHA, MAOL, FAHM

As a specialist in applied AI ethics and governance in healthcare, I bring a practical lens to the human-AI collaboration at CHAIRES. My work focuses on designing responsible AI systems that prioritize equity, transparency, and patient-centered outcomes in medical settings, from bias-mitigation in diagnostic tools to ethical frameworks for data privacy. Drawing from CHAIRES’ AEIOU Ethos, I advocate for AI that is accessible and inclusive, ensuring technology amplifies human empathy rather than replacing it. As a Fellow, I would contribute insights on how AI governance can foster flourishing in high-stakes domains, bridging technical innovation with cultural and ethical reflection to shape a future where intelligent systems truly serve the common good.

Modupe Akintan

Modupe Akintan earned her Master’s in Computer Science from Stanford University, specializing in computer and network security. As a Privacy and AI Engineer, she reviews AI and privacy risks, helps teams understand how their decisions affect people, and supports them in reducing those risks. Alongside her technical work, Modupe gained experience in technology policy through the Paragon Policy Fellowship. There, she worked on tech policy projects for US state and local governments, covering topics like AI Literacy Training and Gen AI Risk Mitigation Guidelines. Her experience in both engineering and policy has shown her that early choices can shape how AI systems affect people. As a Fellow, she aims to bring a practical perspective and support an ethics-by-design approach that keeps human impact central to AI development and use.

Nakshathra Suresh

Nakshathra Suresh is a cyber criminologist, entrepreneur, and academic who approaches AI safety through the lens of human vulnerability. As the co-founder of eiris, a safety technology consultancy, and as Australia’s leading criminologist advocating for responsible AI deployment, she bridges social science with technology to create safer digital environments. Her work examines AI-facilitated harms, cyberstalking, and the disproportionate risks emerging technologies pose to marginalised communities. Drawing from lived experience as a woman of colour and victim-survivor of cybercrime, Nakshathra champions intersectional approaches to digital safety. She created Australia’s first criminology-backed cybersecurity course and speaks internationally on safety-by-design principles. Nakshathra brings urgent questions about who bears the cost when technology moves faster than accountability, and how we design AI systems that protect rather than exploit human vulnerability.

Ronald Lethcoe, M.Ed.

Ronald Lethcoe is a curriculum and instructional design specialist at Clover Park Technical College, where he helps faculty navigate AI integration with both creativity and critical judgment. He co-developed the state-level AI Essentials in Higher Education course and created 30-hour and 48-hour Applied AI professional development tracks for CPTC faculty. He co-chairs the Washington State CTC eLearning Council AI Task Force and the CPTC AI Task Force, and hosts “Simon Says: Educate!,” a podcast with over 50 episodes on teaching, learning, and technology.

With a background in studio art and twelve years teaching in Korea, Ronald brings a cross-cultural, human-centered lens to educational technology. His perspective as a CHAIRES Fellow is rooted in the belief that AI fluency goes beyond knowing how to use tools. It means knowing when to set them aside and why that choice matters.

Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, MPH, Ph.D.

As Principal of TERSHA LLC and former Acting Deputy Director at DHS, I bring over two decades of experience leading equity-centered innovation across public health, philanthropy, and federal systems. My work integrates culturally responsive evaluation, human-centered design, and systems transformation to build inclusive infrastructures that honor human dignity. From managing multi-million-dollar health equity portfolios at CDC to advising grassroots organizations globally, I have consistently sought to amplify systemically underrepresented voices and embed accountability into organizational practice.

I would bring to the Fellowship a perspective rooted in equity, narrative power, and regenerative leadership—seeing technology and AI not as neutral tools, but as cultural forces that must be used responsibly.

Sundeep PV

As a CHAIRES Fellow, I bring enterprise architecture expertise in quantum-AI integration, authoring Quantum Ready to guide architects through hybrid platforms, governance, and ethical deployment. Preparing for CAIERO-CP™ certification, I specialize in operationalizing quantum machine learning with post-quantum security, bias mitigation, and SRE practices across AWS, Azure, Databricks, PennyLane, and Qiskit. My approach emphasizes Governance by Design, embedding TOGAF-adapted frameworks, CoE models, and compliance heatmaps to scale quantum-AI responsibly in finance, healthcare, and logistics. As a father and lifelong learner, I advocate human-centered tech that amplifies creativity and equity, aligning with CHAIRES’ mission for trustworthy, inclusive AI. Through CHAIRES, I aim to shape quantum-AI’s future, ensuring it enhances societal well-being and promotes a more equitable world.