Dr. Ella Atkins is a Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, where she is director of the Autonomous Aerospace Systems (A2SYS) Lab and Associate Director of Graduate Programs for the Robotics Institute. Dr. Atkins holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. She previously served on the Aerospace Engineering faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Atkins is past-chair of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee, AIAA Associate Fellow, IEEE senior member, small public airport owner/operator, and holds a Part 107 UAS certificate. She served on the National Academy’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) (2011-2015 term) and the Institute for Defense Analysis Defense Science Studies Group (DSSG) (2012-2013). Dr. Atkins has established a long-term research program in decision-making and control to assure safe contingency management in manned and unmanned air and space applications. She currently serves as AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems (JAIS) Editor-in-Chief.