Jenn Gustetic is an enterprise technology and innovation executive with nearly 20 years of experience leading portfolios that bridge cross-sector research and development (R&D), industry partnerships, public policy, and commercialization.
Currently, Jenn is the Director of Metascience and R&D Policy at the Institute for Progress in Washington D.C., leading IFP’s work on maximizing the return on American’s public R&D investment.
Most recently, she served as Deputy Associate Administrator for Management for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, where she effectively served as COO of the 700-person organization. In this role, she led strategy, operations, and a major organizational restructuring during a period of significant budget cuts, workforce reductions, and political transitions.
Prior to this role, Jenn served as NASA’s Director for Early Stage Innovations and Partnerships as a member of the federal Senior Executive Service, managing over $2 billion in early-stage technology investments—capital that helped seed companies and capabilities now shaping the commercial space economy.
Jenn also served in the White House as Assistant Director for Open Innovation at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, focusing on scaling the use of novel incentive structures like prizes, grand challenges and crowdsourcing to drive progress across sectors from health to energy.
Jenn was also a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School on the future of work and has testified before Congress on small business innovation.
Her work has been cited in numerous outlets including the Economist, Washington Post, and Mashable.
She holds a master’s degree in technology policy from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Florida. She previously served on the board of the Van Alen Institute (as Treasurer), as an officer on the Advisory Board for the National Science Policy Network, as the founding co-chair of the Partnership for Public Service's Federal Innovation Council, and as a co-founder of Design Thinking DC.
See more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenngustetic