Arlington, VA

CNA President and CEO Katherine McGrady today announced that Prof. Odest Chadwicke Jenkins is joining the CNA Board of Trustees. Jenkins is a professor of computer science and engineering and associate director of the Robotics Institute at the University of Michigan.

"Professor Jenkins’s knowledge of computer science and robotics is a vital asset as we look toward future technology, and I am delighted he is joining our board of trustees," said McGrady.

His research addresses problems in interactive robotics and human-robot interaction, primarily focused on mobile manipulation, robot perception and robot learning from demonstration. This research often intersects topics in computer vision, machine learning and computer animation. He has been recognized as a Sloan Research Fellow and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and Young Investigator awards from the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation.

"His experience aligns very well with the strategic imperatives of CNA as we seek to provide our sponsors and clients with analysis and research that support the safety and security of the nation," said Ambassador Maura Harty, chair of the board.

Jenkins is currently editor-in-chief of the journal ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is an alumnus of the Defense Science Study Group, where he was a member from 2018 to 2019. Jenkins holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from Alma College, a Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Tech (1998), and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.