We’re thrilled and honoured to have James L Burk as a keynote speaker to deliver a captivating talk about the Mars Society’s mission, accomplishments, and vision for the future!

James L Burk is the Executive Director of The Mars Society, the world’s largest #space#advocacy organization dedicated to sending human explorers to the planet #Mars, where he is responsible for the overall program delivery, #fundraising activities, #organizational infrastructure, new initiatives, event planning, and overseeing chapters around the world.

James also founded the Mars Virtual Reality (#MarsVR) initiative to create research and training experiences using virtual reality and human-machine interaction technologies which creates immersive experiences using the latest technologies to tell the story of human Mars exploration.

James Co-Founded Space Northwest with his talented colleagues to organize space advocacy activities in the Pacific Northwest. The team is now getting some traction including organizing a workshop as part of the State of the Space Industrial Base forum in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and NewSpace Nexus, New Mexico. This is in addition to Space Entrepreneurs, Techstars Startup Weekend Space, their annual #NASA Space Apps Challenge hackathon, and many others.

James is a former Microsoft project leader, product and feature designer, build and led PMOs, served as people manager and a director of IT, and many other roles in corporate America and global NGOs. He also served as the Senior Manager of Business Management Services & Nonprofit Practice Artic Consulting where he led the Business Management Services practice and Nonprofit practice and provided engineering strategy, management consulting, and a variety of technical services to clients across the US. He is a polylingual software developer, solutions architect, and a strong, compassionate, empathetic leader of scientists and engineers.

James earned his B.S. in Computer Science & Business Administration from the University of Florida – Warrington College of Business, a certificate in Nonprofit Management, Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management from The University of Texas at Austin, and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Learning Experience Design & Education Technology from Western Governors University.

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