The Board of Governors of GIA welcomed Samantha F. Ravich, Ph.D., as the newest member of the Institute’s governing body during their regularly scheduled meeting following the Oct. 7 to 9 GIA International Gemological Symposium held at GIA’s world headquarters in Carlsbad, CA. Just before the Symposium, GIA’s global research team of nearly 60 experts gathered for their 12th annual meeting.
Dr. Ravich is the chair of the Transformative Cyber Innovation Lab, a not-for-profit organization with the mission to drive revolutionary, society-wide improvement in cyber resilience in both the U.S. government and the private sector. She is a managing partner of A2 Partners, LLC and serves on several government and private sector boards. She has extensive expertise in cyber risk mitigation, strategic business guidance and corporate culture transformation. Dr. Ravich joined the GIA Board of Governors following the departure of Karen Evans, who resigned in August to take a position with the U.S. government.
The more than 60 attendees at GIA’s three-day annual research meeting included GIA staff involved in research (more than 20 with doctoral degrees), consulting scientists, fellows from the Richard T. Liddicoat Postdoctoral Research Fellowship program, and GIA governors and executives. The researchers reviewed topics including developments in instrumentation, advancements in detecting diamond treatments and laboratory grown gems, origin determination of colored gemstones and pearl structures.
The GIA Symposium has been held every five to seven years. This most recent meeting, with the theme ‘New Challenges. Creating Opportunities,’ showcased the latest scientific discoveries from leading researchers and scientists, and offered a unique program in collaboration with the Harvard Business School to examine key business issues – authentic leadership, disruptive innovation and customer centricity. The Symposium proceedings will be published in the Fall 2018 issue of Gems & Gemology, GIA’s quarterly journal, which will be available at no cost on GIA.edu in November.
The role of the Board of Governors is to direct the strategy of the Institute to ensure that the mission and vision of GIA are followed in all decisions; that the reputation of GIA is preserved and continues to grow globally; and that the financial goals of the Institute are met.