Dr. Vera A. Kazakova is a Computer Science educator and researcher, with expertise in artificial intelligence, experiential learning, and collaborative methodologies. With a PhD in AI focused on nature-inspired computation and emergent division of labor, her research spans CS Education, Evolutionary Computation, Narrative Generation, Decentralized Multi-Agent Systems, and Cyber Social Science. Dr. Kazakova also has extensive experience as a CS educator, having taught programming, artificial intelligence, research, and software development courses. Dr. Kazakova has coined the term "Soft-Aware Development" to encapsulate a holistic approach for building software, building stakeholder relationships, and building up each developer along the way. An ardent proponent of experiential learning and agile methodologies, Dr. Kazakova champions a multi-sprint learning architecture that enables students to adapt and iterate, fostering a shared environment of continuous growth. Her passion for collaboration, from simplistic autonomous agents to human developers, and members of large online communities, sets her apart as an advocate for a more interconnected, empathetic, and empowering approach to CS research, education, and software development.