James Ehrlich is Director of Compassionate Sustainability at the Stanford University School of Medicine CCARE Institute (Center for Compassion, Altruism Research and Education, under Dr. James R. Doty). Additionally, James is appointed Faculty at Singularity University, Senior Fellow at NASA Ames Research Center, and a White House / OSTP Appointee to a joint taskforce on Regenerative Infrastructure.

Mr. Ehrlich is also the Founder of ReGen Villages Holding, B.V. a Stanford University spin-off formed in the EU as a Netherlands impact-for-profit company, using machine learning software to address the U.N. 17 Sustainable Development Goals, specifically to provide solutions for affordable housing, climate change adaptability, and regenerative resiliency.

Mr. Ehrlich founded ReGen Villages in 2016, with its patent-pending VillageOS™ operating system software, using machine learning to design and operate bio-regenerative and resilient (self-reliant) neighborhood infrastructure and retrofits - integrating clean water, renewable energy micro-grids, high-yield organic food, and circular nutritional flows at the neighborhood scale. To promote healthy long-term outcomes for residents and flourishing communities.

A serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for over 25-years, James successfully founded and managed technology and media companies with successful exits. For nearly a decade, Mr. Ehrlich executive produced an award-winning national public broadcasting series based on his case study research of organic and bio-dynamic family farms, that at its apex reached over 35-million homes each week and is also the co-author of a best-selling companion book on Hachette, Organic Living THG (2007).

James is a graduate from New York University Gallatin, and MSc studies in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He has won several awards for sustainable design and is a researcher and global lecturer on the topic of regenerative neighborhood development. He has co-authored two (2) U.N. Sustainable Development Goal Platform Briefs (2015/2018) with Prof. Larry Leifer and Chris Ford (AIA) from the Center for Design Research at Stanford University.

ReGen Villages is an active member of the EU Commission on Smart Rural Villages, the EU Network for Rural Development, the New EU Bauhaus Roundtable, and appointed to the U.N. Climate Resiliency Lab, participating and presenting at both COP26 and COP27, and upcoming at COP28.

Chris Ford is a design professional, design educator, and design researcher in the areas of both Architecture and Infrastructure design. He studies and shapes urban futures through design-actionable research utilizing human-centered methodologies.

Chris has worked in the offices of Richard Meier & Partners (New York), Rick Joy Architects (Tucson) and Rob Paulus Architects (Tucson). Projects assisted or managed include residential (single and multi-family), commercial, and infrastructural typologies. He is a registered architect in the State of North Carolina.

After teaching as a lecturer at the University of Arizona, Chris joined the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska as tenure-track/tenured faculty. He regularly taught undergraduate and graduate design studios including the NAAB Comprehensive Project, elective courses in Design Methodology and Modern Craft, and advised Design Thesis. In Spring 2013, Chris coordinated the "London | 2013" Program where his funded research prompted coursework on Hybridized Urban Infrastructures. In 2015, Chris resigned as a tenured Associate Professor in Architecture to pursue a PhD in Mechanical Engineering.

Chris was the 2016-2019 Hamamoto Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow at Stanford University, where he completed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Design Group) and a PhD Minor in Civil & Environmental Engineering. His PhD investigation is titled "Resilient Infrastructure Futures: An Aetiological Analysis of Lifeline System Failures since 2000 for Enhancing the Resilience of Next-Generation Infrastructure Design" Chris was originally advised by Larry Leifer (Emeritus ME), and was co-advised by Martin Fischer (CEE) and Sean Follmer (ME) at the close of the PhD investigation. As a research coordinator for the Urban Futures initiative, Chris applied Design Thinking to demonstrated problems in the built environment including housing, lifeline infrastructure systems, and urban resilience.

Chris is also a co-founder and charter editorial board member of "Technology | Architecture + Design (TAD Journal)," a peer-review scholarly journal published by the ACSA and printed by Taylor & Francis. He served as its inaugural Associate Editor and has also served as Issue Editor for TAD: "Urbanizing" (v3,i1) and TAD: "Engineering" (v6,i2).

Chris maintains exposure to multiple disciplines through memberships with the AIA, ASME, and ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) where he also serves on the Emerging Technology Committee within the organization's Infrastructure Resilience Division.