Cindy Cooper

Program Officer
The Lemelson Foundation

As a Program Officer for The Lemelson Foundation, Cindy Cooper supports higher education initiatives that promote invention education and invention-based entrepreneurship to improve lives. She also leads the Foundation’s Engineering for One Planet initiative accelerate environmentally and social conscious engineering by mobilizing changes in engineering education.

Cindy previously co-founded and served as the Executive Director of Portland State University’s Impact Entrepreneurs Program, where she served as faculty teaching social innovation and entrepreneurship, co-led PSU’s successful bid for recognition as an Ashoka U Changemaker Campus, developed social innovation incubation programs and co-led the creation of the nation’s first online academic and professional certificate in social innovation and entrepreneurship. Previously, she co-founded Speak Shop, an award-winning social enterprise for learning Spanish online by videoconferencing with teachers in Guatemala. She has experience in global marketing and has consulted to corporations, foundations and NGOs on social innovation and environmental impact projects.

Cindy holds a Global M.B.A. with distinction from Thunderbird School of Global Management and earned a B.A. summa cum laude in Psychology/Spanish from Claremont McKenna College.

Michael Milligan

Michael K. J. Milligan is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of ABET, the global accreditor of college and university programs in the STEM disciplines. In this role, Milligan is responsible for all aspects of ABET global operations and reports directly to the Board of Directors. Under his leadership, the organization has increased its geographical reach and diversity, now representing 35 member societies and over 3,700 accredited programs in 30 countries.Prior to joining ABET in 2009, Milligan held various leadership positions in the government and academia. At the Aerospace Corporation, he led a team at the NASA Space Development Center developing the next generation environmental satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He also served as associate professor and deputy department head in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Milligan served 24 years as a career U.S. Air Force officer working in operations, education, international research & development and technology acquisition. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.S. from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and a B.S. from Michigan State University – all in electrical engineering. Milligan also earned an M.B.A. from Western New England College, Springfield, MA and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE). A senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Milligan is also a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, Eta Kappa Nu Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society, and a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Colorado and Maryland.