Executive Director, Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy
Roland Stephen, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy (CISP). He has 25 years of leadership experience in science and technology program management, policy analysis, program design, and program evaluation. His work is focused on agencies, policies, and practices that improve the economic and social impact of technology, innovation, and skilled workforce initiatives.
Recent projects include serving as the PI for a multi-year program in support of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) at NSF; collaborating with the Polish National Center for Research and Development to develop new R&D program management processes and technology prize competitions; implementing a multi-year project on new metrics for innovation programs at the U.S. Department of Commerce; and developing a novel, skills-based definition of the energy engineering workforce for the Department of Energy. Overall, his work focuses on investments at the frontier between technological change, innovation, workforce, and economic growth.
Prior to joining SRI, he served as an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University, where he helped build the Institute for Emerging Issues, a policy institute analyzing and facilitating technology-based economic development. Projects included aligning higher education institutions around state economic development goals and accelerating the growth of technology-intensive businesses.
Dr. Stephen received a doctorate degree in International and Comparative Political Economy from UCLA and a bachelor’s degree in History and Economics from Cambridge University (UK).