Knatokie Ford, PhD

Futures ALCHEMY™: Transforming Disruption into a Portal of Possibility A framework to empower the next generation of scientists to thrive in uncertain times

Description:

We are living through a period of profound and accelerating disruption, which doesn’t just shift the world around us — it reshapes how we imagine our own futures. In this inspiring keynote, Dr. Knatokie Ford shares her personal journey in STEM, from overcoming challenges as a student to shaping national science policy and becoming a global thought leader. Drawing on these experiences, she introduces Futures ALCHEMY™, a human-centered framework that helps students harness creativity and agency in the face of uncertainty. Grounded in cognitive science and futures thinking, the framework equips participants with practical tools to reframe disruption as a catalyst for imagination, resilience, and possibility. This session will empower students and scientists at any career stage to widen their horizon, see beyond fear-driven narratives, and embrace their own capacity to shape the future of STEM.

Bio:

Dr. Knatokie Ford is Founder and CEO of Fly Sci® Enterprise, an education and media consulting practice leveraging the power of storytelling to promote social change, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. A dynamic and inspiring speaker, Dr. Ford is an international advocate for equity and inclusion in education, media, and STEM careers. Her latest venture, Augmented Futures: Convergence™, is a bold initiative that merges futures-thinking and collective imagination with the transformative potential of advanced technologies.

Dr. Ford previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) during the Obama Administration. In this role, she oversaw development and implementation of the “Image of STEM” project. Listed in the top 100 S&T accomplishments of the Obama Administration, the Image of STEM project was a national initiative designed to raise visibility and improve the image of STEM fields and careers in order to help promote diversity in the STEM workforce. From 2012-2014, Dr. Ford served as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at OSTP with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). In this capacity, she managed concurrent projects on education technology and improving the nation’s healthcare system, in addition to working with OSTP’s STEM inclusion team.

Prior to working in the Obama Administration, Dr. Ford was a postdoctoral fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. She also spent time in Los Angeles where she had the opportunity to work in the entertainment industry and serve as a middle school teacher in an underserved community.

Dr. Ford received her PhD in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University and her BS/MS in Chemistry/Biological Chemistry from Clark Atlanta University.