Meet the Internet2 Emerging Leaders Scholarship Recipients

Shira Acosta is a business analyst on the Identity and Access Management (IAM) team at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., and currently resides in Florida. She was instrumental in UVA’s Grouper implementation, providing Tier 3 support, developing training materials, and managing attestation processes.

As the university’s IAM environment continues to evolve, Shira focuses on enhancing and refining the group management system, developing a cohesive single sign-on (SSO) strategy that integrates Shibboleth and Microsoft Entra ID, and supporting the new PAM implementation, while maintaining operational oversight of the IAM system in multiple capacities.

Shira has also co-presented on UVA’s Grouper experience at the Association of Collegiate Computing Services of Virginia (ACCSVA) in 2024 and 2025. She’s excited to connect with the research and education community at TechEX, share her experiences, and learn from peers.

Nathan Carlson worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the physics department while gaining his degrees at the University of North Dakota (UND). During his last couple of years at UND, he shifted his focus to computer science and landed a junior role as a site reliability engineer at a weather analytics company.

This role introduced Nathan to the field of managing large computer systems. After graduating, he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, serving in both software development and computer system management roles. In 2020, he returned to Minnesota to join the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute.

Pablo Garcia Acuna completed his post-secondary education at Washtenaw Community College and the University of Michigan, obtaining his bachelor’s in Computer Engineering. From a very young age, he developed an interest in technology and science, which inspired him to pursue a career in networking, driven by its modular nature and his interest in low-level software development, hardware, and operating systems.

After completing his education, Pablo was drawn to Merit Network because of its mission and his desire to help maintain and improve the network infrastructure, ensuring that research, education, and public services are accessible through internet connectivity.

At Merit Network, he serves as the network operations field coordinator for the Regional Inclusive Strategic Expansion (RISE) project. His role bridges network engineering activities with effective operational coordination to ensure smooth project delivery. As an early-career professional, he aims to master the fundamentals of networking across multiple layers, with a focus on the physical, data, and network layers. He aspires to become a great engineer with a mission to serve a greater purpose, striving to make the best decisions he can each day, with the hope that these goals will put him on the right path to developing expertise and achieving Ikigai.

Esen Gokpinar Shelton works at the intersection of program management and UX research and design, helping large-scale technology and computing projects run seamlessly while creating user experiences people genuinely enjoy. Her work focuses on advancing high-performance computing (HPC) initiatives and ensuring researchers can easily access and leverage these powerful systems.

Esen started out leading research programs and partnerships at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, then went on to earn a PhD in Higher Education Leadership (focused on institutional analytics) and an MS in Human-Centered Computing from Indiana University.

Along the way, she found her sweet spot at the intersection of research, data, and design, building technology ecosystems that put people first. These days, she’s part of the Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University, where she serves as lead program manager for the NSF-funded Midwest Research Computing and Data Consortium and as UX/UI Lead for national projects, such as the ACCESS Roadmap/Badging System, which supports more than 10,000 researchers. Whether through usability studies, strategy, or design, she loves turning complexity into clarity and making advanced technologies feel a little more intuitive, inclusive, and human.

Stella Kwon is a project manager at the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), a nonprofit organization that manages a Research and Education network in California. A University of California San Diego graduate, Stella taught English in Korea for several years before joining CENIC as a Network Operations Center (NOC) intern. She has been at CENIC for nearly a decade and has held her current role as project manager for The Library Program for the past few years. She has experience with grant-funded projects and has worked on federal and state discount projects such as E-rate and CTF.

Luis Marin Vera is the assistant director of IT at Florida International University’s (FIU) Center for Internet Augmented Research and Assessment (CIARA) and leads the AtlanticWave-SDX project with UNC’s Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI). He is pursuing a master’s in Information Management with a major in Artificial Intelligence Applications at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Florida, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy with a doctoral specialization in Research in Engineering at Universitam.

His synergistic activities include cross-institutional research collaboration with RENCI, UNC, and USC; mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students in automation and cybersecurity; cyberinfrastructure community engagement through FABRIC and AtlanticWave-SDX demos; IT infrastructure modernization at FIU/CIARA; and serving as technical reviewer for Hands-On Application Development with PyCharm (Packt, 2019).

Dr. Sasmita Mohapatra is a HPC research scientist and facilitator working on HPC software tools and user support at the University of Texas at Dallas, High Performance Computing, Office of Research and Innovations, in Richardson, Texas. She works on parallel jobs, SLURM configuration, and resource usage analysis. Lately, she’s been focused on improving job efficiency policies across their clusters. She enjoys debugging weird MPI behavior and helping users get the most out of their code, as well as performance tuning with OpenMP and MPI.

Bradly Shoen is a system administrator at the University of Montana. Born and raised in Missoula, Mont., Bradly has always been passionate about technology. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and began his IT journey as a student technician at the UM IT help desk. After graduating, he transitioned into system administration, initially focusing on Windows servers before shifting his expertise toward Linux systems. He recently earned his Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) certification.

In Bradly’s current role, he works closely with a diverse group of IT professionals to ensure smooth system operations. This team includes web developers, network engineers, Identity Management (IdM) engineers, help desk personnel, and various application administrators. These collaborations have exposed him to diverse technology environments, making him a highly adaptable and versatile IT professional. Outside of work, Bradly enjoys hiking, playing chess, and creating video games.

Brian Stookey is a seasoned network engineer with extensive experience in deploying and supporting complex network infrastructures. As a Lead Field Engineer at Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN), Brian specializes in installing fiber optic cabling, configuring networking and optical equipment, and ensuring seamless integration across new and existing environments. His hands-on approach and technical acumen make him a trusted resource for both strategic initiatives and day-to-day operations.

Brian collaborates closely with Project Managers to meet critical milestones and serves as a mentor to fellow engineers, driving operational excellence through coaching and training. He has developed key tools such as an operational tracker to streamline task management and regularly conducts reviews to ensure accountability and completion.

In addition to his engineering expertise, Brian plays a pivotal role in shaping company policies and procedures, enhancing documentation standards, and improving training programs. He is adept at managing vendor relationships, resolving escalations, and responding to after-hours outages, consistently maintaining high service standards for both internal and member networks.

As the designated owner of core systems and processes, Brian brings a proactive mindset and a commitment to continuous improvement, making him an invaluable asset to any technical team.

Katie Whitfield is a hands-on tech person with a strong background in computer repair, troubleshooting, and real-world problem-solving. She does not just follow instructions; she figures things out, adapts quickly, and gets the job done right.

She has worked in IT support for about 15 years, with experience across nearly every area—from network infrastructure and server administration to security systems and end-user support. She takes pride in staying calm under pressure and helping people through frustrating tech issues without making it complicated. Katie currently works in IT support at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where she wears many hats and tackles the unsolvable regularly.

When Katie is not working, you’ll usually find her at home surrounded by a chaotic mix of tech gadgets she definitely does not need but absolutely has to have. She shares her space with two black labs—Hippopotamus and Hunnie Pie—and a few other pets who fully support her lifestyle of lounging in front of the TV like it’s an Olympic sport. She dabbles in 3D printing—strictly printing, not designing—because let’s be honest, downloading cool stuff and watching it slowly come to life is half the fun. Her hobbies might be low-key, but they’re exactly what keep her recharged and ready to take on whatever’s next.

Reilly Wolfe began working full-time as a Network Engineer for the University of Idaho after graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering in 2021. Initially, he primarily worked on upgrading layer 2 switches and wireless access points, as well as supporting the continuous development of their in-house NMS. More recently, he’s been working on various routing projects. These include a recent border router and SDMZ switch upgrade, the university’s first IPv6 implementation, and the migration of many of their WAN sites to private IP networks.

Outside of work, Reilly enjoys spending time outdoors and staying active. In addition to backpacking and surfing whenever he gets the chance, he enjoys backcountry skiing in the winter and water skiing in the summer.