Alexandra Graddy-Reed (Price School of Public Policy)
Alexandra Graddy-Reed is an Assistant Professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Her research examines how organizational structures and financial strategies impact innovation. Working at the intersection of philanthropy and innovation, she primarily studies how various grantmaking strategies promote or deter the production of innovation across the sectors. Currently, her research is focused around three projects. First, she is evaluating the financing strategies of philanthropic organizations and the impact of their grantmaking on research and development, notably with respect to rare diseases (NSF 1431289). Second, with Lauren Lanahan (Oregon), Graddy-Reed is examining the impact of early-stage federal grantmaking on research production (NSF 1661157). Third, to understand the role of organizational structure, she is assessing the growth and practices of social enterprises and hybrid legal structures on innovation and public goods. Graddy-Reed also teaches courses on the theories and policies of nonprofits and social innovation.
Andrea Belz (Viterbi School of Engineering)
Andrea is Professor of Practice in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. From 2019 to 2022, Andrea served as Division Director at the National Science Foundation, where she oversaw the agency’s translational research activities and a $300+ M annual budget, including roughly 300 startups annually; as well as the launch of the Translational Impacts Division in the new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships. Under her leadership, NSF initiated many new topics in the principal translational research programs funding startups, including: Advanced Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Cloud and High-Performance Computing, Cybersecurity and Authentication, Human-Computer Interaction, Learning and Cognition Technologies, Mobility, and Pharmaceutical Technologies. In addition to launching these topics and overseeing the prestigious Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, she oversaw: tripling of the translational life sciences portfolio, doubling of Environmental Technologies, and reorganization of the data sciences portfolio; the creation of the new Inclusion in Innovation Initiative (I4), impacting 1,000 under-represented students by the conclusion of her term; and the reorganization of the I-Corps program.
From 2016-2019 Andrea served as the inaugural Vice Dean of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship at USC Viterbi, following her creation of Innovation Node – Los Angeles (IN-LA), a regional center of excellence for the NSF I-Corps program; after five years, IN-LA’s region of impact ranged from Fairbanks, Alaska to San Diego on the west; and from Boulder to Tuscon in the east. Besides NSF, she has been supported by NASA, DHS, and DOD in her translation efforts and her research in engineering policy, public-private partnerships, and associated applications of natural language processing, with recent publications in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, IEEE Transactions in Engineering Management, and the Journal of Technology Transfer. She has held prior faculty appointments at USC Marshall, USC Iovine/Young Academy (where she was on the founding faculty), and Caltech, where she served as Visiting Professor of Engineering. Previously she spent ten years serving as a consulting systems engineer at NASA JPL, leading roadmap efforts for the Solar System Exploration Directorate in topics ranging from life detection; electronics for extreme environments; and guidance, navigation, and control systems.
She currently serves as President-Elect of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management (TEMS) Society. Andrea has consulted extensively to JPL, venture capital firms, startups, small businesses, and world-class innovators including Avery Dennison, BP, Caltech, HRL (formerly Hughes Research Laboratory), the National Academies, Occidental Petroleum, and UCLA. A veteran of the Los Angeles startup scene, she was the first woman to represent the Pasadena Angels on a portfolio company board, serving as a Director of Caltech laser spinoff Ondax from 2010 until its acquisition by Coherent (NASD: COHR) in 2018. Initially she was a postdoctoral fellow in astrobiology and biogeochemistry at JPL/ Caltech. She holds a PhD in experimental nuclear physics from Caltech, a BS in physics from the University of Maryland at College Park, and an MBA in finance from the Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business.
Learn more about Dr. Belz’s technology background here and her NSF appointment here.