OUR TEAM
Our SPACEAIMS team is able to draw on specialists with deep cross-disciplinary expertise in politics, national security, economics, business, law, military strategy, and policy. We pool our knowledge, decades of experience in a variety of settings, and extensive networks around the world to A.B.E.T.® you in your enterprise and endeavors. For all communications, please contact us via our Contact page or at info@spaceaims.com.
Saadia M. Pekkanen
Saadia M. Pekkanen is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. In addition to this appointment in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, she is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Law where she also teaches courses. She founded and manages SPACEAIMS, and as a full-time faculty member at the University of Washington takes on outside work that has been approved by the University. As appropriate to the task, she is fortunate to be able to work with the following set of independent experts and consultants on a project. She can be reached directly at saadia.pekkanen@spaceaims.com.
She earned Master’s degrees from Columbia University and Yale Law School, and a doctorate from Harvard University in government. Her research reflects her training in international relations and international law, spanning the law and policy of outer space affairs, the geopolitics of critical infrastructure investment, and the foreign affairs of Japan in Asia and the world. She has published a half dozen books on these themes, bringing together economic, political, and legal strands to better analyze the changing fortunes of the contemporary world order. She is a member of the International Institute of Space Law. She serves as Founding Co-Chair of the U.S.-Japan Space Forum, and at the University of Washington is the Founding Co-Director of the Space Policy and Research Center (SPARC); and the Founding Director of the Space Law, Data and Policy (SLDP) at the School of Law.
Kristi Morgansen
Kristi Morgansen received a BS and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, respectively in 1993 and 1994, an S.M. in Applied Mathematics in 1996 from Harvard University and a PhD in Engineering Sciences in 1999 from Harvard University. Until joining the University of Washington, she was first a postdoctoral scholar then a senior research fellow in Control and Dynamical Systems at the California Institute of Technology. She joined the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the summer of 2002. As a full-time faculty member at the University of Washington she takes on outside work that has been approved by the University.
Her research interests focus on nonlinear systems where sensing and actuation are integrated, stability in switched systems with delay, and incorporation of operational constraints such as communication delays in control of multi-vehicle systems. Applications include both traditional autonomous vehicle systems such as fixed-wing aircraft and underwater gliders as well as novel systems such as bio-inspired underwater propulsion, bio-inspired agile flight, human decision making, and neural engineering. The results of this work have been demonstrated in estimation and path planning in unmanned aerial vehicles with limited sensing, vorticity sensing and sensor placement on fixed wing aircraft, landing maneuvers in fruit flies, joint optimization of control and sensing in dynamical systems, and deconfliction and obstacle avoidance in autonomous systems and in biological systems including fish, insects, birds, and bats. She is a member of the Defense Science Board in the United States Department of Defense. She is the Founding Co-Director of the Space Policy and Research Center (SPARC), and is presently serving as the Chair of the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics at the University of Washington.
Michael Fletcher
Michael Fletcher received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the California State Polytechnic University in 1984 and his S.M. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering in 1986. He joined the Northrop Corp. in 1986 as a propulsion engineer, and then moved to the NASA Ames Research Center, in the Silicon Valley, in 1990. Early in his career at NASA, he had assignments as a computational sciences researcher, systems engineer, and a project manager. From 2000-2003, he was detailed as a systems engineer to the USAF/AFRL in Dayton Ohio where he worked as a liaison with project engineers at AFRL. In 2015, he was selected as a Mansfield Fellow and spent a year in Tokyo from 2016-2017 working at Government of Japan (GOJ) offices of MEXT, CAO, MOD and JAXA on topics of space and aeronautics policy. Upon returning to NASA, he became the technical advisor for partnerships, supporting both the Ames Research Center and NASA Headquarters. In October 2020, he retired from NASA after serving in the Office of the Chief Engineer where he was the acting Chief Engineer for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
Since his retirement, he started MJF Consulting LLC, at consulting service which offers management consulting services for U.S. and Japanese companies in the commercial and civil space sector interested in collaboration, partnerships and policy between the US and Japan.Since his retirement, he started MJF Consulting LLC, at consulting service which offers management consulting services for U.S. and Japanese companies in the commercial and civil space sector interested in collaboration, partnerships and policy between the US and Japan.
P.J. Blount
P.J. Blount received a Ph.D. in Global Affairs, Rutgers University, 2016; an M.S. in Global Affairs from Rutgers University, 2015; an LL.M., Public International Law from King’s College London, 2007; a J.D from the. University of Mississippi School of Law, 2006; and a B.A./A.B.J., University of Georgia, 2002. He is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Finance at the University of Luxembourg. He also serves as an adjunct professor in the LL.M in the Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law and in the Department of Political Science and Law at Montclair State University. Previously, he served as Research Counsel for the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law; an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University, and as a Visiting Scholar at the Beijing Institute of Technology School of Law. His teaching includes courses such Space Security Law, International Telecommunications Law, Cyberlaw, International Law, Human Rights Law, Intellectual Property, and US Foreign Policy.
Blount’s primary research areas are legal issues related to space security and cyberspace governance. He has published and presented widely on the topic of space security law and has given expert testimony on space traffic management before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space. Blount serves as the co-editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the IISL; as a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Space Law; and as an editorial board member of the Journal of Astrosociology. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Space Law. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.
Ben Dennis
Benjamin Dennis received his doctorate in economics from Harvard in 1996.
He has been a tenured professor of economics; a consultant to central banks and finance ministries; a lead economist for the Millennium Challenge Corporation focusing on economic growth and development; a senior staff economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers; a US Treasury Department senior staff member on issues ranging from regional affairs in South and Southeast Asia to the chief economist’s office for international affairs to international banking and finance, to international financial institutions; an adjunct professor at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy; and a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Corey Crosbie
Corey Crosbie is an expert trainer, having spent most of his career leading and training large US Army organizations in preparation for worldwide contingencies and combat using various live, virtual, constructive, and gaming environments in an effort to ready those organizations and their soldiers.
He recently retired from the US Army after twenty-five years of service. Over the last five years, as part of an executive training team, Corey planned and managed large live and virtual war games for organizations to respond and assess performance across multiple warfighting domains. This training included reacting and planning for contingencies against the denial of services from the Space Domain. He’s also recently published work addressing the Army’s preparations to fight in a multi-domain environment.
Colonel (Ret.) Crosbie holds a Master’s Degree in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma, a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Business from Emporia State University, and most recently was the US Army War College Asia/Pacific Fellow with the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies.
Kelli Hooke
Kelli Hooke is a senior corporate counsel focused on public sector compliance and unmanned aerial systems. Kelli is also highly involved in the American Bar Association; she is a Co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Drone Law Committee, and an active member of the Space Law committee and Public Sector Contracting Law division.
She recently retired from the Army after twenty years of service. Her service included advising commanders on extensive regulations, statutes and treaty obligations both here in the U.S and abroad. Her career as an Army attorney provided her opportunities to practice diverse legal disciplines as she has progressed into challenging assignments relating to the whole lifecycle of government contracting to top secret space and cyber operations. She has published and presented widely on the topics of space security law, drone law, and government contracting.
Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Hooke holds a Masters of Law (L.L.M) from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, a Juris Doctor from Regent University, a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma (Magna Cum Laude), and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the Henry M. Jackson School of the University of Washington (Cum Laude). She is a member of the International Institute of Space Law.