John Hardin, PhD
John Hardin is the Executive Director of the Office of Science, Technology & Innovation. He was appointed acting director in 2008 and executive director in 2009. From 2003 to 2008, he served as the office’s Deputy Director and Chief Policy Analyst.
In his current role he conducts strategic planning and makes recommendations for technology-based economic development, implements technology-related economic development policy and resource allocations, supervises the staff of the N.C. Board of Science, Technology & Innovation, directs and oversees the administration of grant programs to support technology development and commercialization, and oversees strategic initiatives.
From 1998 to 2003, he served as Assistant Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs in the UNC General Administration. From 1998 to 2005, he held an Adjunct Assistant Professor position in the Dept. of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. He currently holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor position in the Dept. of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he teaches courses on American politics, public policy, and policy analysis.
A native of Tulsa, Okla., he holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from UNC-Chapel Hill, and a B.A. in economics from Baylor University.
Maryann Feldman, PhD
Maryann P. Feldman is the Heninger Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Kenan-Flagler Business School and a Research Director at UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Her research and teaching interests focus on the areas of innovation, the commercialization of academic research and the factors that promote technological change and economic growth. Dr. Feldman is an editor of the journal, Research Policy.
Dr. Feldman was the winner of the 2013 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research for her contributions to the study of the geography of innovation and the role of entrepreneurial activity in the formation of regional industry clusters. Her dissertation, Geography of Innovation, examined the spatial distribution of industrial innovation and provided an empirical model of the factors and resources that affected the production of new product innovation. This publication is noted to be the first time that the term “geography” was used to describe spatial phenomenon and is now an accepted lexicon. Currently, the geography of innovation is a subject area under the strategy division of the Academy of Management.
From 2014-2017, Dr. Feldman held a joint appointment at the National Science Foundation as the Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) Program Director and chaired an inter-agency working group on Science Policy.
Elizabeth Wayne, PhD
Elizabeth Wayne is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. Professor Wayne received her B.A. in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University. She was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow in the NCI T32 Cancer Nanotechnology Training Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy working under the supervision of Professor Alexander Kabanov. where she developed adipose tissue engineered models. Her lab at CMU focuses on using macrophages as tools for diagnostic evaluation and drug delivery carriers in cancer and regenerative medicine. Her advocacy has been featured in Nature Medicine and Nature Careers and she is a 2017 TED Fellow.
