The CDI Foundation Fellowship

Lauren Goerz brings 9 years of experience building conversational AI solutions across industries, use cases, languages, and platforms. She began her career as a consultant, guiding enterprise teams from concept to production, delivering conversational interfaces that address real customer needs. As a Technical Marketing Engineer at Rasa, Lauren bridges product development and implementation. She translates complex technical capabilities into actionable workflows, creates educational content, and develops strategies that help teams overcome challenges and achieve measurable results in real-world deployments. Her expertise spans across the conversational AI lifecycle, from dialogue flow design and implementation to testing, conversation analysis, and project management. Lauren specializes in transforming early chatbot concepts into fully functional, problem-solving systems.

Guido Jongen is a seasoned professional with a robust background in the field of applied artificial intelligence and customer service. In his professional career, Guido has held pivotal roles that bridge the gap between cutting-edge technology and industry applications. With his company Virtually Human, he uses his broad knowledge of chatbot and speech recognition technologies to focus on what he thinks is the next step in the interaction between companies, governments and consumers: Digital Humans. He focusses on the further adoption of advanced Digital Human technologies, driving innovation in creating lifelike Digital Humans for various sectors, including healthcare, hospilality, and customer service. Guido works closely together with several Universities to bring research and “the market” closer together. He is a member of the AI Committee of the Dutch Direct Marketing Association and Board Member of Another Kind of Blue, an innovative dance company using immersive technology in their work.

Cynthia defines global brands using her expertise in CX/CD + AI + VUI to create dynamic end to end digital assistants. A creative force, Cynthia is a natural charmer who is committed to inspire and help others by example most recently, as Female Founder and President of HelpNow, Inc, leading an incredible group of global volunteers. She is currently lead CX/CD at University of Phoenix, CEO of Creative Content Services and a mentor at Ai4All & Botrepreneurs.

Olivia H. Marrese is a linguist-turned-technologist specializing in conversational AI and applied AI engineering. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Colorado Boulder and draws on her training in conversation analysis to build data-driven AI agents that drive both business value and improve user experience. Currently a Conversational Architect at 66degrees, Olivia has led the design and engineering of multilingual, multimodal agents across a variety of sectors including travel, finance, and retail for Fortune 500 companies. At the core of Olivia’s work is a fascination with how humans use language to accomplish everyday tasks—especially when those tasks increasingly involve talking to machines. Her research has been published in the fields of computer science, linguistics, and conversation analysis, and she shares her expertise through mentorship, guest talks, and webinars in academia and industry.

Conversation design as a profession wasn’t on my radar until surprisingly recently. But looking back on what I’ve done in my schooling and career, it almost looks like I had this trajectory planned out. I studied architecture and French in college before discovering linguistics. My PhD is in linguistics with a doctoral minor in cognitive science, specializing in the structural and communicative features of human language as compared to other animal communication systems. For a while I taught linguistics at local colleges and universities (with some side work as an on-air radio host) before redirecting my skills to UX research and design. From there, conversation design was a natural next step. What I love about conversation design is that it lets me pull from all of these interests and skills. It uses my linguistics expertise, of course, but it also lets me analyze and solve problems, ask “why?” a lot, and design systems that let people get things done.

I’m the Founder & CEO of Chat Nation, where we’re reshaping how governments serve their people — by making services personal, instant, and inclusive through WhatsApp. In many Global South countries, citizens still face long queues, complex portals, and inaccessible support. Getting help often means waiting for hours, incurring travel costs, missing work, losing income — and facing deep frustration. We believe it shouldn’t be this hard to access your own government. Citizens expect faster, simpler, and more human-centered support. It’s time for a shift. That’s why, at Chat Nation, we’re building AI-powered, multilingual, low-data chat solutions that work for anyone, anywhere — 24/7, even on a basic smartphone. No downloads. No training. Just meaningful services delivered instantly, in the language people speak and the platform they already use. From taxes and travel to business permits and customs, our WhatsApp-native experiences are transforming how governments engage with citizens — serving thousands daily across cities, towns, and remote villages. 

Janaína da Silva Pereira is a black woman from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who leads conversational design teams, working since 2011 in processes, tools, voice, chat and multimodal technologies, both for NLU and NLG.

Marcelo Salas Montes has over 13 years of experience in marketing, digital products, growth strategy, ecommerce, and conversational AI. User-centered mindset, analytical and innovative capabilities. He holds an MBA in Digital Business with a specialization in Digital Transformation from IEBS Business School and the Catholic University of San Antonio de Murcia (UCAM) - Spain. Currently, he works as a Conversational AI Product Owner at Pacífico Seguros (Perú).

I’m Anne Cantera, an experienced conversation designer, AI strategist, and UX expert who’s passionate about creating smart, human-centered voice and chat experiences. With a background in both design and AI, I specialize in building enterprise-level chatbots, designing multimodal interfaces, and leading projects that combine technology with thoughtful user journeys. Over the years, I’ve worked across industries, from legal tech to healthcare, turning complex workflows into intuitive conversations. I also teach and mentor others in prompt engineering, conversational AI, and AI-UX integration, helping teams harness the power of AI in meaningful ways. I host the podcast DESIGNathon, where design and AI meet with heart, humor, and curiosity.