Governing Board

The JSPG governing board

JSPG's governing board is comprised of leading science policy scholars and practitioners who share the JSPG's mission of empowering students and early career researchers to substantively engage in the policy debate through research and writing. The governing board provides guidance on outreach, business development, partnerships, fundraising, and strategic planning.

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Chair of the Board

Erin Heath is the Director of Federal Relations at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. Erin handles a range of policy issues of interest to the scientific community and is heavily involved in efforts to empower scientists and engineers to engage with policymakers, the media, and the public. She co-chairs the Coalition for National Science Funding, the Engaging Scientists and Engineers in Policy Coalition, and the steering committee of the Golden Goose Award. Before joining AAAS, Erin worked for the American Institute of Biological Sciences, where she led the organization’s media training and outreach efforts and cut her teeth on science policy. She also worked in the United Kingdom Parliament as a Research Assistant. She spent years as a journalist in Washington, most notably as a science policy reporter and columnist for the National Journal. Follow Erin on Twitter at @PublicHeath.

William B. Bonvillian is a Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Senior Director for Special Projects at MIT’s Office of Digital Learning. He is the former Director of MIT’s Washington, DC office where he led MIT’s federal relations and efforts in science policy for 11 years. Prior to that, he served for 17 years as Legislative Director and Chief Counsel to Senator Joseph Lieberman. His legislative efforts in the senate included science, technology, and innovation policy issues. He worked extensively on legislation, creating the Department of Homeland Security, intelligence reform, defense and life science R&D, and national competitiveness and innovation legislation. He has lectured and given speeches before numerous organizations on science, technology, and innovation questions, and he has taught in this area at MIT, Georgetown University, and Johns Hopkins SAIS. He chairs the Committee on Science, Engineering Public Policy at AAAS, serves on the Innovation Policy Forum standing committee of the National Academies of Sciences and on the board of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. He was elected a AAAS Fellow in 2011, was the recipient of the IEEE Distinguished Public Service Award in 2007 and is co-author of Advanced Manufacturing: The New American Innovation Policies by MIT Press and two other books.

Mehrdad Hariri is the Founder and CEO of the Canadian Science Policy Centre, a non-profit hub for science, technology, and innovation policy in Canada. He founded the national annual Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC), a national multidisciplinary forum dedicated to the Canadian Science Technology and Innovation Policy discussions, engaging hundreds of organizations from various sectors and across the country to discuss the most pressing issues in Canadian science and innovation policy. Mehrdad Hariri has numerous publications and opinion pieces in various media outlets, and regularly appears in media as a commentator on science policy issues. Follow Merhdad on Twitter at @MehrdadHariri.

Larisa K. Schelkin is the CEO, President and Founder of the Global STEM Education Center. Larisa is a teaching faculty at the United National Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Global Diplomacy Initiative Fellowship Program. She is also a UNITAR Fellow on Global Diplomacy, and was previously a Fellow on Education Policy at the Rennie Center for Educational Research and Policy & Institute for Education Leadership (IEL), and a Fellow and Board member of Massachusetts Academy of Science. Larisa studied Global Education at Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She has developed over 35 Global STEM projects and established partnerships with K-12 schools & universities in 12 countries. Larisa is a strong advocate for science diplomacy, for women in science and engineering and for diversity and inclusion in STEM. She holds BS and MS in Petroleum Engineering & MS in Computer Science.

Tobin (Toby) Smith is the Vice President for Policy and Global Affairs at the Association of American Universities (AAU), where he provides strategic leadership and management to the association’s priorities, and oversees matters relating to science and innovation policy, broader impacts of science, and AAU’s international activities. Prior to joining AAU, Toby worked as a federal relations representative in the Washington D.C. Offices of the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his Washington career on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Assistant to Congressman Bob Traxler. Toby has written and spoken widely on science policy and funding issues. He is the co-author of the widely used text, Beyond Sputnik – U.S. Science Policy in the 21st Century by University of Michigan Press. He currently serves on the Advisory Board to the National Alliance for Broader Impacts, and is co-chair of the Engaging Scientists and Engineers in Policy Coalition. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Follow Toby on Twitter at @SciPolGuy.

Melanie Roberts is Director of State and Regional Affairs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory. Previously, Melanie served as a science policy consultant focused on the ethics of science and technology and higher education reform. She was founding Executive Director of the AAAS Emerging Leaders in Science & Society program where she helped graduate students build leadership skills through collaborative community-oriented projects. Prior to working for AAAS, she was at University of Colorado-Boulder, where she served as Assistant Director for the Biofrontiers Institute and as a Research Fellow at the Center for Science & Technology Policy Research. She began her policy career as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Senate and the NSF. She has served on a number of boards and committees for the National Academy of Sciences, Olin College of Engineering, Engineers & Scientists Acting Locally, and the National Alliance for Broader Impacts. She is an Elected Fellow of AAAS.