Our time is now: 2026 conference

Jon Fasman is The Economist’s senior culture correspondent. He was previously American business and society correspondent, and the co-host of “The Intelligence,” The Economist's daily news podcast. He is a regular panelist on “Checks and Balance,” The Economist's American-politics podcast, which he helped develop and launch. He has also been the US digital editor, overseeing all non-print coverage of the United States, Washington correspondent, South-East Asia bureau chief and Atlanta correspondent. He has written in depth on, among other subjects, surveillance technology, crime and policing, Indonesian politics and development, the gambling business, Mekong River development and how technology is changing the criminal-justice system. In addition to his work for The Economist, he spent the 2023-4 academic year as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University. He is the author of “We See It All: Liberty and Justice in an Age of Perpetual Surveillance,” (Jan 2021), as well as two novels, both published by The Penguin Press: “The Geographer’s Library”, which was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into more than a dozen languages; and “The Unpossessed City”, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award.

Gabrielle Sierra is the director of podcasting at the Council on Foreign Relations, overseeing the production of four shows. She is also the host of the Webby Award–winning Why It Matters podcast. Prior to her time at CFR, she spent several years as an editor at Facebook, and has written for a number of publications including InStyle, Billboard, and Gothamist. As a 2020 International Career Advancement Program fellow and current co-chair for CFR’s Employee Resource Group on Diversity of Underrepresented Groups in the Workplace, Sierra continues to make diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives a crucial focus of her work. She has her master’s degree in journalism and is an alumna of Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media.

The Honorable Ona T. Wang serves as a United States Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of New York. Appointed to the bench in 2018, Judge Wang brings an interdisciplinary approach to the law, drawing on her background as both a scientist and a litigator. A Harvard-trained biologist, she earned her Ph.D. in Zoology from Duke University before completing her J.D., cum laude, at NYU School of Law. Her unique pathway, from the laboratory to the courtroom, shapes her perspective on evidence, analysis, and the role of law in addressing complex societal challenges.

Before her judicial appointment, Judge Wang was a litigation partner at Baker Hostetler LLP, where she focused on white-collar defense, securities, and complex commercial litigation. She played a leading role in the Madoff trustee’s recovery efforts and served in several firm-wide leadership roles, including Vice-Chair of the Pro Bono Committee and New York Office Hiring Partner.

Judge Wang’s long-standing commitment to public service and equity is reflected in her pro bono work, which has included post-conviction representation for inmates on death row in Alabama, as well as briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on gender equality and transgender rights. Her contributions have been recognized by the New York Law Journal’s “Lawyers Who Lead by Example” and NYU’s Public Service Award.

She is an active member of the Federal Bar Council American Inn of Court and a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Judge Wang also serves on internal committees within the Southern District and was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts to the Federal Judicial Center’s Magistrate Judge Education Advisory Committee.

Currently, Judge Wang is presiding over discovery and procedural matters in the multi-district copyright litigation involving OpenAI, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, a landmark case addressing the use of copyrighted materials in training large-language models.

Kenneth Cukier is an award-winning journalist and author. He is the deputy executive editor of The Economist, and the coauthor of the NYT bestselling book “Big Data”. His latest book is “Framers” on the power of mental models and limits of AI. He has been a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Beth Hofmeister is a Supervising Attorney in the Pro Bono Practice of The Legal Aid

Society, the nation’s oldest and largest social justice law firm. Whether through

individual representation, client-centered projects and clinics, or bringing

groundbreaking civil rights litigation, each year the Pro Bono Practice provides over two

thousand volunteers from New York City-based law firms and in-house corporate legal

departments with training, supervision, and mentorship. These volunteers help Legal

Aid staff deliver life-changing legal assistance to a multitude of clients each year,

donating an average of over 150,000 hours a year.

Prior to her move into the Pro Bono Practice, Beth was an attorney in the Law Reform

Unit of LAS’ Civil Practice where she provided individual and class representation to

homeless New Yorkers for almost a decade with the Homeless Rights Project. In

addition to notable pandemic-related litigation, Beth monitored and enforced the right to

shelter litigation in New York City, including a ground-breaking settlement on behalf of

homeless youth. Beth began her legal career as an attorney in Legal Aid’s Juvenile

Rights Practice where she represented children in both child welfare and juvenile justice

proceedings, and on various class action cases in their Special Litigation and Law

Reform Unit.

Beth is a current member of the New York City Bar’s Pro Bono and Legal Services

Committee and serves as the Legislative Sub-committee Co-Chair. Beth also Co-chairs

the Public Interest Pro Bono Association (PIPBA) and is a member of the New York

State Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Aid and Pro Bono Coordinators Network.

Beth sits on the board of the Coalition for Homeless Youth and previously Beth served

as a union officer for the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW Local 2325 for over

twelve years. Beth graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law as a

Civitas Child Law Fellow. As an undergraduate she received a B.A. in Child

Development and a Certificate in Community Health from Tufts University.

John Mealy is the Director of Sustainability at MBB Architects where he advises clients on effective building systems and design options and coordinates critical details from concept design through construction.  His project experience includes a range of educational buildings, cultural institutions, and residences. He has also developed in-house energy modeling capabilities and established the firm’s standards for sustainable design.

An active member of New York’s green design community, John serves on the Committee on the Environment of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and previously served on the NYC Energy Conservation Code Commercial Advisory Committee. He coordinated a series of workshops on resilient public housing design at the Center for Architecture and has served on design juries at New York City College of Technology. An advocate for architecture’s role in responding to the climate crisis, John has testified before the New York City Council and participated in a panel discussion about Local Law 97, New York City’s Climate Mobilization Act.

John holds a Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design, and a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College.

D. Graham Burnett is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History and History of Science at Princeton University and co-editor of Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement (Crown, 2026) as well as Twelve Theses on Attention (Princeton University Press, 2022), both with the Friends of Attention coalition — creators of the non-profit Strother School of Radical Attention in Brooklyn, which Burnett directs. He co-curated the “Practices of Attention” program at the 33rd São Paulo Biennial, and is associated with the speculative collective ESTAR(SER). In 2023, he was a visiting artist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland. Burnett writes widely on technology, culture, and media.

Jimmy McMillian is a sustainability and corporate finance professional at J.P. Morgan’s Center for Carbon Transition (CCT), the firm’s center for helping clients navigate the challenges and opportunities of the global shift toward a low-carbon economy. In his work across Sustainable Solutions Advisory, M&A Structuring, and Corporate Finance Advisory, Jimmy provides strategic guidance to companies integrating climate resilience, decarbonization, and long-term sustainability into their business strategies.

At CCT, he collaborates across industry and product teams within J.P. Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank to deliver insights, financial solutions, and transition-focused advisory services. He helps clients develop credible decarbonization plans, identify green economy investment opportunities, and structure innovative financing solutions to advance their climate goals.

Jimmy’s research and client briefs address topics such as climate adaptation, resilience planning, and the financial implications of regulatory change, helping leaders mitigate risks and seize opportunities in an evolving market. His presentations include “Building Resilience Through Climate Adaptation” and “Insurance: Weathering the Storm of Inflation, Climate Change, and Market-Distorting Regulation,” offering actionable insights at the intersection of climate strategy and corporate performance.

Guided by J.P. Morgan’s Carbon Compass® framework, Jimmy contributes to the firm’s efforts to define, measure, and track portfolio-level carbon targets, supporting both clients and the institution in the transition toward a more energy-secure, low-carbon future.

Steven Corsello is a multi-disciplinary thinker, collaborator, and designer interested in the relationships between the built environment, urban conditions, and life-outcomes–he believes that better cities start with better buildings. 

With broad experience in sales, marketing, and product management, he brings a uniquely heterodox, results-driven background to architecture. As a member of Gensler’s Cities 2 studio, Steven has worked on some of New York’s biggest residential and mixed use projects, including pre-concept real estate strategy for Manhattan’s largest owners, operators, and developers. 

Outside of work, he serves on the board of the Center for Community Alternatives, a justice reform non-profit dedicated to restorative justice and ending mass incarceration. 

Steven holds a M.Arch and a M.S. in Real Estate Development from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning and B.A in Economics from Amherst College. He was twice awarded GSAPP’s Incubator Prize for his project De-Carceral Futures.