October 2024
On October 15, President Joe Biden announced his intention to appoint eight members to the National Science Board (NSB), including Joan Ferrini-Mundy, former assistant director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate, and Alondra Nelson, former deputy director for science and society with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
The NSB establishes policies at NSF and serves as an independent body of advisors to the president and Congress on science and engineering policy.
Ferrini-Mundy currently serves as the president of the University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias, as well as vice chancellor for research and innovation for the University of Maine System. She has a research background in math education and has held key leadership roles in NSF. Within the EHR Directorate (now known as the STEM Education [EDU] Directorate), she has served as the inaugural division director of the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings and was assistant director for the EHR Directorate in 2011–2017. She also served as chief operating officer of NSF in 2017–2018.
Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study and leads the Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab there. President Biden appointed Nelson to serve as deputy assistant and deputy director for science and society with OSTP. She also performed the duties of the OSTP director during 2022. Her accomplishments include mobilizing initiatives to advance equity and excellence in STEM, including through shepherding an interagency agenda for the collection and use of equitable data; leading the development of the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights; and strengthening evidence-based policymaking. In addition, under Nelson’s leadership, OSTP produced an updated policy on public access to publications and data supported through federal research funding.
“We applaud the appointments of Dr. Ferrini-Mundy and Dr. Nelson to serve on the National Science Board,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Both bring extensive leadership and service to the board. As the board continues its efforts to meet the goals of Vision 2030, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy and Dr. Nelson will provide important expertise in STEM education and social, behavioral, and education science research to the board’s work.”
Ferrini-Mundy and Nelson join six additional appointed members to the NSB member class of 2024–2030. The additional appointments are
The next NSB meeting will take place on December 4–5.