Our Team
Team SciTech
Festival Director, Jeremy Babendure, Ph.D.
Jeremy Babendure, Ph.D., coordinates logistics related to the Festival’s signature events, hub and in-field science confirmations, year-round science coordination and communications. Babendure attributes his enthusiasm for directing the first annual Arizona SciTech Festival to the fact that through the festival format comes an opportunity to position Arizona as an emerging world leader in science, technology and innovation. Additionally, Babendure sees the four-week festival as a chance to offer a highly visible platform to pull together academia, businesses and the K-12 educational system to collectively work towards growing a competitive workforce and strengthening Arizona’s economic future.
Growing up in the City of Scottsdale, Arizona, Babendure is a product of the Arizona state school system and received a Flinn Scholarship to continue his studies at Arizona State University, where he developed molecular sensors for the binding of histone proteins to DNA in the lab of Dr. Neal Woodbury. This experience inspired Babendure to continue research at University of California San Diego, CA., in the lab of recent Nobel Laureate, Dr. Roger Tsien, developing molecular sensors for the detection of RNAs in cells and earning his doctorate in Biomedical Sciences. After graduation, Tsien and Babendure collaboratively launched the ScienceBridge program as a mechanism to bring current science to students, teachers and the general public. In just over four years, Babendure lead the development of ScienceBridge from a one-person concept into one of the strongest educational outreach operations in San Diego with a team of 40, impacting over 200 teachers, 20,000 students, and 60,000 members of the general public annually.
Contact Jeremy Babendure at Jbabendure@aztechcouncil.org
Don Ruedy, Executive Emeritus - Southern Arizona
Don Ruedy serves as executive emeritus- Southern Arizona, with the Arizona Technology Council and assists with the coordination of Festival events in Tucson.
He is a retired engineering executive from Raytheon (Hughes) where he served for 37 years in many management positions including Founding Director of the Knowledge Center Southwest. He continues to serve on many advisory boards and councils that value education, team building and STEM initiatives. Don earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from California State University, his master’s degree in structural engineering from UCLA and executive MBA from the University of Arizona.
Charlotte Hodel, IOM, Communications & Development Advisor
Throughout Hodel’s 30 years of professional experience, she has successfully served 26 years in metropolitan Phoenix. With her degrees in Communications and Performance, she has become known for her enthusiastic, creative and effective positions in Business, Community Development and Public Affairs. Her career includes serving as a top producer in corporate business and program development for three chambers of commerce, including Phoenix and Chandler; a non-profit small business association, and a respected executive in publishing. Hodel is recognized as an award winning community campaign director, and pioneer of innovative business programming.
Contact Charlotte Hodel at chodel@aztechcouncil.org
PR and Marketing Team - Tony Felice PR and Marketing
Tony Felice is the President of Tony Felice PR & Marketing. His agency was founded on the idea that you can get big agency results with small agency service.Tony’s 25-year career has taken him from the halls of the U.S. Congress to Hollywood California. He has worked on public policy and strategy and media relations for large multi-national corporations and small businesses alike. Prior to beginning his agency, worked at GoDaddy.com during the launch of its sponsorship of Danica Patrick. At the City of Mesa, he headed up the communications efforts for some of the largest and often the most controversial public projects. In Los Angeles, he managed PR for Jimmy’s in Beverly Hills, the New Otani Hotel, 1800UsedCars, and Steven Spielberg’s Manhattan Beach Studios. His volunteer work includes serving as the Chair of the Greater Phoenix Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, he sits on the Board of Directors of Local First Arizona, Phoenix College President's Advisory Council and is part of Phoenix First Lady Nicole Stanton's "Kitchen Cabinet."
Ana Tackett, Vice President & PR Director - Ana is responsible for client strategy and managing the day-to-day public relations operations. She has more than 15 years of experience driving positive perceptions, media relations, and global brand awareness. A versatile professional, Ana has worked with a diverse set of clients from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, to University of Michigan Healthcare system, to Naturopathic Medicine doctors, to Microsoft Corporation and Bridgepoint Education Group. Before joining Tony Felice PR, Ana worked for Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. In her roles as a PR professional for Microsoft, she has created numerous online and traditional campaigns.
Victoria Starkey brings spark to the Tony Felice team as an Account Manager. She assists with all things social media. Victoria earned her dual Bachelors degrees in Public Relations and Advertising from Northern Arizona University. She has professional experience as a Territory Manager working with a wide array of business including restaurants, schools and hotels. Most recently she served as an Account Manager for Yelp.com, helping over 500 local businesses with reputation management using social media.
Festival Blogs, Meghan Skiff
Meghan Skiff works at the intersection of creativity and results. Meghan began her career doing market research, which provided her with a sincere appreciation for data and analysis. She then transitioned into a strategic marketing role for a professional services firm, using online marketing to increase brand visibility and generate demand. In 2011, Meghan completed her graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business (MBA) and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (MPIA, Security and Intelligence Studies). She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington & Jefferson College in 2005, with a double major in International Business and German Language & Literature.
Management Board
Steven G. Zylstra Sc.D. (Hon.), President & CEO, Arizona Technology Council
Steven G. Zylstra Sc.D. (Hon.) serves as president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, a role he assumed in December of 2007. He is responsible for strategy, development, operations and accomplishment of policy development, business goals and objectives and all financial matters related to the Council. Zylstra is a vocal spokesman for the value technology can provide in raising social and economic standards in Arizona. He has served in numerous technology leadership and advisory roles to the Governor and currently serves on several association, industry and community boards. Steve earned a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering technology from Western Michigan University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science in Technology from the University of Advancing Technology.
SETHURAMAN “PANCH” PANCHANATHAN, Senior Vice President ASU ,Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development
Dr. Panchanathan is currently the Senior Vice President of the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development. He is a foundation chair in Computing and Informatics and Director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC). Dr. Panchanathan was the founding director of the School of Computing and Informatics and was instrumental in founding the Biomedical Informatics Department at ASU. He was also the chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department. Panch’s research interests are in the areas of Human-centered Multimedia Computing; Face/Gait Analysis and Recognition; Haptic User Interfaces; Medical Image Processing; Media Processor Designs and Ubiquitous Computing Environments for enhancing quality of life for individuals with disabilities. CUbiC’s flagship project iCARE for individuals who are blind and visually impaired won the Governor’s Innovator of the Year-Academia Award in November 2004. Panch has published over 400 papers in refereed journals and conferences and has mentored over 100 graduate students, post-docs, research engineers and research scientists who occupy leading positions in academia and industry. He has been a chair of many conferences, program committee member of numerous conferences, organizer of special sessions in several conferences and an invited speaker, panel member in conferences, universities and industry. Panch is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE) and a member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
Chevy Humphrey, CEO Arizona Science Center
When Ms. Humphrey assumed the President & CEO role, she accelerated the strategic growth both financially and through high impact science programming. In her tenure of six years as President & CEO she has grown the Center’s assets from $3M to more than $21M. She provided the leadership for the planning, design, fundraising and implementation of the Arizona Science Center’s master plan which transformed the Arizona Science Center’s second phase of growth. Under her leadership, the Center has received numerous national competitive and prestigious grants from the National Institutes for Health and the National Science Foundation. In addition, the Themed Entertainment Association awarded the Center a THEA award which represents the highest standards of excellence and achievement associated with the arts and science of themed entertainment for its Forces of Nature gallery, which is located in the Sybil B. Harrington galleries.
Humphrey serves on the executive committee as Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Science-Technology Centers and serves on the boards of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, Arizona College Scholarship Foundation and Phoenix Country Day School. She has previously served as a board member and on the executive committee as Treasurer for Charter 100 and as a commissioner of the City of Phoenix’s Cultural Affairs Commission. In 2011, Ms. Humphrey was honored by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of its Most Admired CEO’s and in 2008 Humphrey was recognized as one of 10 Women Who Move the Valley from Arizona Foothills Magazine. Humphrey was also selected in 2001, the first year class, of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Piper Fellows program.