Twenty-Five Years After 9/11: From Bioterrorism to Generative AI with Dr. David Bray

Dr. David Bray brings a unique perspective forged in crisis response and technological transformation. On the morning of September 11, 2001, as IT Chief for the CDC’s Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program, Dr. Bray was scheduled to brief the FBI, CIA, and public health officials on how to respond to a bioterrorism attack. That briefing was postponed by the day’s tragic events, then rescheduled for October 3, 2001—less than 24 hours before the first anthrax case appeared. What followed were years of emergency response to anthrax, SARS, monkeypox, and other threats that tested the resilience of our institutions and the trust that binds societies together. Now, twenty-five years later, on the evening before the anniversary of those events, Dr. Bray, recognized as one of “24 Americans Changing the World” by Business Insider, will offer actionable insights drawn from both crisis response and strategic foresight. His journey from emergency responder to earning his Ph.D. in Information Systems, completing post-doctorates at MIT and Harvard, deploying to Afghanistan in 2009, and serving as Executive Director for two bipartisan Commissions on technology, data, and geopolitics, positions him uniquely to address the converging forces reshaping our world. Dr. David A. Bray is Chair of the Accelerator and Distinguished Fellow with the Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council at the non-partisan Henry L. Stimson Center. He also is a CEO and transformation leader for different “under the radar” tech and data ventures seeking to get started in novel situations. He is Principal at LeadDoAdapt Ventures and has served in a variety of leadership roles in turbulent environments, including bioterrorism preparedness and response from 2000-2005 and subsequent work as a Senior National Intelligence Service Executive & Senior Executive. He has received both the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award and the National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal. David accepted a leadership role in December 2019 to direct the successful bipartisan Commission on the Geopolitical Impacts of New Technologies and Data. From 2017 to the start of 2020, David also served as Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet coalition Chaired by Internet co-originator Vint Cerf and was named a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition starting in 2018. In 2019, he was invited to give the AI World Society Distinguished Lecture to the United Nations on UN Charter Day. Business Insider has named him one of the top “24 Americans Who Are Changing the World” under 40 and he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2025, he was invited to be an expert witness before a public Congressional hearing on AI, specifically to provide both verbal and written testimony as well as answers to questions from members of the U.S. Congress to help inform AI policies. Dr. David Bray has spent more than two decades translating advanced technology into public benefit at the national scale, from building the CDC’s bioterrorism-response information systems to modernizing 207 legacy IT systems at the FCC onto modern cloud infrastructure. As Executive Director of the People-Centered Internet coalition, chaired by Vint Cerf, and co-chair of IEEE committees on AI standards, he has helped build global frameworks for responsible AI governance well ahead of today’s debates, bridging AI innovation with healthcare, national security, and public policy. Dr. Bray has the distinction of receiving the inaugural Marconi Award for Excellence in Artificial Intelligence from The Marconi Society. Nominations for this award are evaluated against criteria specific to each Institute’s mission, spanning technical innovation, real-world impact, and leadership in building the field’s future regarding responsible AI deployment, community broadband research, and the wireless standards embedded in billions of devices worldwide. **Learn more about IWP graduate programs: https://www.iwp.edu/academics/graduate-degree-programs/ ***Make a gift to IWP: https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E231090&id=3 The production of this lecture was brought to The Institute of World Politics by Spotlight Speaker Videos, spotlightvideos.com.