2024 Security Conference Speakers

Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, USAF, Ret., is a highly decorated retired general of the U.S. Air Force where he reached the highest levels of military leadership as one of six geographic combatant commanders and the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. During 39 years of service, General Breedlove served in a variety of demanding command and staff positions, leading large-scale, diverse, global operations across two theaters of combat.

As the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the Commander of U.S. European Command, he answered directly to NATO’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council, and to the President of the United States and Secretary of Defense. He led the most comprehensive and strategic structural and policy security changes in the alliance’s 70-year history. His diplomatic skills reassured allies, deterred potential aggressors and maintained alliance unity during the most dynamic and challenging period since its inception. He led the forces of 28 nations and multiple partners in ensuring the security of an alliance that accounts for more than half the world’s gross domestic product. As Commander, U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, General Breedlove was responsible for organizing, training, equipping and maintaining combat-ready forces while ensuring theater air defense forces were ready to meet the challenges of peacetime air sovereignty and wartime defense.

As Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, he presided over the Air Staff and served as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Requirements Oversight Council and Deputy Advisory Working Group during a period of intense challenge. Additionally, he was one of two original authors of the Defense Department’s Air-Sea Battle Concept. His extensive command and control experience in wartime, contingency planning, and humanitarian relief actions include operations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

He earned his Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Science in aerospace technology from Arizona State University. Additionally, he completed a Masters of International Security Affairs from the National War College, a Fellowship in International Security Affairs, Seminar XXI from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed Leadership at the Peak at the Center for Creative Leadership, Colorado Springs. General Breedlove is the CEO of Emerald Coast Strategic Solutions and currently serves on the Georgia Tech Civil and Environmental Engineering School Advisory Board. Further he is a Distinguished Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech, is a Senior Advisor to Fairfax National Security Solutions, and is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council.

Antonina Broyaka is PhD in Economics and Associate Professor from Ukraine. From 1998 to 2022 she carried out scientific and educational activities at the Vinnytsia National Agrarian University on various positions, ended up as Associate Dean for Research and then as Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Entrepreneurship. In her research, she focuses on the development of agro-industrial sector, agricultural extension service, food security, grain markets, and ag foreign trade. After beginning of Russian invasion of Ukraine she found refuge in the USA. She is continuing research activity as an Extension Associate of Agricultural Economics Department at Kansas State University on an issue of economic impact of Russian military aggression on Ukrainian agriculture, grain markets and glob food security.

Dr. Joshua S. Campbell is the Founder of Sand Hill Geographic, a consultancy providing advisory services on geospatial technology, policy, and product management.  Dr. Campbell has over 25 years of geographic information science and technology experience working across a range of national security, diplomacy, international development, and academic contexts.  Most recently he served as a Senior Advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR).  In this position he supported the Department’s Geographer, helping write the Department's first Geospatial Data Strategy, and managing several geospatial technology initiatives related to cartographic production, web-based GIS, and management of the official International Boundaries dataset.  Beyond the State Department and World Bank, Dr. Campbell has worked in research and development positions at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), DARPA, and other Department of Defense organizations. He is a Councilor of the American Geographical Society, voting member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), and a charter member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).  He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Geography, Master of Arts in Geography, and Bachelors of General Studies in Anthropology, each from the University of Kansas.

A native of Odesa, Ukraine, Professor Chernetsky completed his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to the University of Kansas, he taught at Columbia University and at Miami University in Ohio. His research focuses on modern and contemporary cultures (literature, film, popular culture) of Ukraine, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, considered in a broader comparative/cross-regional and interdisciplinary contexts. He has also been researching globalization and its cultural aspects, postmodernism/postmodernity, Modernism/modernity, postcolonial theory & writing, questions of identity & community, diasporic cultures, nationalism & ethnicity, and broader issues in literary & cultural theory, cultural studies, film studies, feminist theory, gender and queer studies, and translation studies.

Chernetsky is the author of the book Mapping Postcommunist Cultures: Russia and Ukraine in the Context of Globalization (2007), of five edited or co-edited volumes, and numerous articles and reviews. A book in Ukrainian, Intersections and Breakthroughs: Ukrainian Literature and Cinema between the Global and the Local,is forthcoming. His published translations from Ukrainian and Russian into English include two novels, two poetry collections, and numerous shorter literary works, as well as scholarly articles and historical documents.

Vitaly Chernetsky served as Director of the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas in 2015-2020. He is a past president of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (2009-2018) and the current First Vice President of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the US. He has served on multiple prize juries and expert review panels and is on the editorial and advisory boards of several journals. He is the editor of the Ukranian Studies book series at Academic Studies Press. 

Professor Chernetsky joined the Slavic Department at KU in Fall 2013. In 2024, Prof. Chernetsky is serving as the President of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).

A 34-year veteran of the U.S. Intelligence and Foreign Affairs communities, Professor Glenn Corn served for over 20 years abroad, including tours in Russia, Turkey, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. He served as the Chief of Station/Director of National Intelligence Representative in three Eurasian countries and one Middle Eastern Country and held leadership positions in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Counter Terrorism Center, South Asia Division and one of the Agency’s most important Mission Centers. He is a graduate of a number of CIA sponsored specialized training programs in Intelligence Collection, Counter Intelligence, Security, Analysis, Denial and Deception, and Executive Leadership. He is a founding partner of the Strategic Advisory and Consulting firm “Varyag”, Expert contributor to the “Cipher Brief”, member of the Board of Advisors of the Non-Profit organization “Intelligence for Good” and the Special Advisor to the President of the Diplomatic Studies Foundation. He has a master’s degree in Russian Language and Literature from American University and a bachelor’s degree in Russian Studies from Hofstra University, and he is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Russian Institute.

Mike Denning has been the Director of the Office of Graduate Military Programs at The University of Kansas since July of 2011. A retired Marine Corps colonel, Mike is a graduate from the University of Kansas, the Naval War College, and a National Security Fellow from Harvard Kennedy School. He served in the Marine Corps for 27 years, commanded light-attack and tilt-rotor aviation units, and had multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. As the Director of GMP, Mike serves as the University's liaison to DOD for advanced civilian education programs and research proposals.

Col. Matt Dimmick, U.S. Army, Ret. served 29 years in uniform, retiring in 2021. He is currently the European Program Manager for Spirit of America, a non-profit organization that has delivered over $40 million dollars in nonlethal aid to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Previously, Matt was the Director for Russia and Eastern Europe on the National Security Council Staff during the Trump and Biden administrations. He also served as the Russia Director for the Secretary of Defense from 2016 to 2019. Additionally, he held positions as Defense Attaché in Tbilisi, Georgia, Deputy Foreign Policy Advisor for the Chief of Staff of the Army, and Assistant Army Attaché in Moscow. Matt is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, holds a Master of Arts in National Strategy from the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, and a Master of Arts in Russian and Eastern European Studies from the University of Kansas.

Volodymyr Dubovyk is an Associate Professor, Department of International Relations and Director, Center for International Studies, Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University (Ukraine). V. Dubovyk has conducted research at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1997, 2006-2007), at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland (2002), taught at the University of Washington (Seattle) in 2013 and at St. Edwards university/University of Texas (Austin) in 2016-17. Volodymyr has been a Fulbright Scholar twice. He is the co-author of “Ukraine and European Security” (Macmillan, 1999) and has published numerous articles on US-Ukraine relations, regional and international security, and Ukraine’s foreign policy.

Currently, in addition to his work in Odesa, he is a Visiting Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. He is also a recipient of the emergency grant from the Kennan Institute (2022), non-resident fellowships from the George Washington University (2022-2023) and University of Toronto (2022-2023). Areas of expertise: Ukraine, Transatlantic Relations, U.S., Black Sea security, security studies.

Dr. Kristina Hook is an Assistant Professor of Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development. She is an anthropologist and scholar-practitioner specializing in civilian protection and human security. Hook is an expert on the Russia-Ukraine war, where her work focuses on the identity, technological, and environmental ramifications of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. A former Fulbright scholar to Ukraine, she has conducted multiple years of fieldwork in Ukraine since 2015 and is writing a book on the Ukrainian Holodomor. Her work has been supported by National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, Fulbright, and USAID fellowships and has appeared in venues including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN, Washington Post, and USA Today. Kristina received her joint PhD in anthropology and peace studies from the University of Notre Dame's Department of Anthropology and Kroc Institute for International Studies. She previously served as a U.S. Department of State policy advisor for mass atrocity prevention, as a nonresident research fellow at the Marine Corps University, and as a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. Published in July 2023, she is the Principal Author of the expert report, The Russian Federation's Escalating Commission of Genocide in Ukraine: A Legal Analysis, from the New Lines Institute and Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

Dr. Mahir J. Ibrahimov (also known as Dr. I.) is the Director of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) Cultural and Area Studies Office (CASO), the U.S Army Combined Arms Center, U.S. Department of Defense.

He is the author or editor of six books, and his expertise is featured in global media outlets such as BBC World News, Los Angeles Times, and other global venues. As the first U.S. Army Culture and Foreign Language Advisor, he established a successful Culture and Foreign Language Program during the U.S. and coalition military and related Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere at that time. It was recognized as the Army-wide model, and he was promoted to become the Army’s Senior Culture and Foreign Language Advisor. In that position, and later as Director of CASO, he continues developing and improving the program with an outreach extending across the Army and beyond with a variety of educational programs, including publishing, guest speakers, direct support to CGSC classes, live panels, video podcasts, international cooperation, and research.

He is known for his unique background. He served as a deputy platoon commander in the Soviet Army and witnessed the breakup of the Soviet Union. Then he was a Senior Middle East Expert in Moscow, USSR. After the demise of the USSR, Mahir helped to open the first embassy of independent Azerbaijan and served as a senior diplomat in Washington, DC., then he served as the vice president of the newly established American University in Azerbaijan, which followed by his work at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State in Washington DC.

While providing vital assistance to U.S. forces in the Middle East as a multi-lingual cultural adviser, Dr. Ibrahimov was featured as the linguistic ‘genius’ in early years of Iraq war and during the U.S. and coalition Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in the region. He has then served as the first senior U.S. Army Culture and Foreign Language Advisor, travelled to Ukraine as part of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff ‘Study,’ and provided follow on recommendations in support of U.S. national security.

Based on his extensive first-hand knowledge, regional and global expertise, he has been regularly invited to support our European NATO partners’ regional policy development over the last years. He is fluent in five languages and versed in many cultures.

Rebecca Adeline Johnston is the inaugural Cyber Social Fellow at the University of Kansas, where she conducts research on the intersection of Russian and Soviet history, culture, and information warfare. She holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas-Austin. She previously held positions at UT-Austin as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Historical Studies, National Security Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, and project lead at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Her expertise includes the history of culture, ideology, and governance across the Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet space. She has also worked extensively within the field of international human rights. She received a Master’s degree in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies from the University of Texas-Austin and a bachelor’s degree in Russian language and literature from Grinnell College.

Dr. Shannon O'Lear is a political geographer with interests in environmental geopolitics, critical geopolitics, the South Caucasus, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). She is interested in decoding political stories about the environment and how those stories, and agendas underlying them, have spatial impacts and implications. She demonstrates this approach in her 2018 book, Environmental Geopolitics (Rowman and Littlefield) and her 2019 edited volume, A Research Agenda for Environmental Geopolitics (Edward Elgar). She has also edited a volume, A Research Agenda for Geographies of Slow Violence (Edward Elgar 2021) in which a wide range of scholars demonstrate different ways to study violence that is obscured and difficult to see. She has published work on climate science, geography and STS, geopolitics in Azerbaijan and Armenia, genocide and other forms of violence. She served as an Expert on the Environmental Science and Human Security Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education (AC-ERE) of the National Science Foundation to produce a report, Environmental Change and Human Security: Research Directions. She has served as the Councilor for the Great Plains Rocky Mountain Region of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) through 2023, and she is now a Fellow in the AAG’s “Elevate the Discipline” inaugural cohort. She holds a BA in Geography and Russian and a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Ph.D. in Geography from Syracuse University. Currently, she is the Director of the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Kansas.

With over 25 years of leadership experience in national security and environmental science, Dr. Kurt Preston recently joined the University of Kansas as a Professor of Practice.  He brings a unique combination of academic, legal, and military expertise to his role, as well as a passion for advancing research and innovation that supports sustainable and resilient solutions for complex challenges. Prior to coming to his current position, he was a Program Manager for both the Department of Defense (DoD), Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. As such, he was the focal point for the development of technologies to sustain DoD environmental infrastructure. Dr. Preston’s has tracked his career between civilian university and military positions. Previously as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of NebraskaLincoln (UNL), he led faculty development efforts to improve research competitiveness, executed initiatives that built upon the strengths of the faculty, and worked with technology transfer personnel, academic departments, and colleges to build university research capability. In addition, he was the university’s export control empowered official. At the national level, he was a member of the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Advisory Board while at the university. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy-soil science from the University of Georgia, a master’s degree and a doctorate in environmental engineering from Purdue University, and a juris doctorate from North Carolina Central University. Dr. Preston is a retired lieutenant colonel with previous assignments in Europe, South America, and the Middle East. He is a past Federal Environmental Engineer of the Year for his work in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia. 

Kat Romanova (Ph.D., University of Florida) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Kansas. Her research interests include political communication, misinformation, and media effects. More specifically, she examines the influence of media messages on political engagement among ethnic diasporas, political radicalization, and the spread of misinformation. Her research can be found in journals like Mass Communication and Society, Journalism Studies, Political Studies Review, and Public Relations Journal, among other publications. Dr. Romanova teaches courses on political communication and political campaigns.

Erik Scott is an Associate Professor in the KU History Department, and the Director of CREES. He is a historian of modern Russia, the Soviet Union, and the global Cold War. His work examines migration, diaspora, and empire within and beyond the borders of Russia and Eurasia to illuminate the region’s diversity and reconsider its relationship to the broader world. He received his B.A. from Brown University, his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and he has held research fellowships at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, and Fulbright-Hays, among others. In addition to his historical research, he is the author of several publications on contemporary Russia and Eurasia. His latest book, Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World, traces the winding journeys of defectors from the Soviet Union to the West through border zones, extraterritorial spaces, and areas at the limits of state jurisdiction, such as international waters and airspaces. He is currently working on a global history of hostage-taking in the Cold War, examining it as a practice and paradigm that defined the era.

Anton Shirikov is a Postdoctoral Scholar in Russian Politics at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at KU. Anton earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022. His book project investigates how propaganda helps authoritarian leaders maintain public support and undermine the influence of independent media. In related research, he studies how we can teach citizens to treat propaganda and disinformation more critically and how Russian propaganda spreads in the United States. His other work examines political elites and institutions in Russia and Ukraine, inter-ethnic trust in Kazakhstan, and the legacies of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His research has been published in The Journal of Politics, Political Communication, The Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Problems of Post-Communism, The Journal of Legislative Studies, and East European Politics and Societies. His analysis and commentary have appeared in The Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, The Financial Times, Newsweek, Huffington Post, USA Today, Euronews, and other media outlets. Before his PhD studies, Anton worked as a journalist and an editor in Russian independent media