Merrilea J. Mayo, Ph.D.

Founder, Mayo Enterprises, LLC

Dr. Merrilea J. Mayo, founder of the Mayo Enterprises, LLC consultancy is working on key projects across the U.S. focused on STEM, workforce and employment. Currently she is a lead strategist for the New Options Project, a 28.7 million dollar project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation seeking to find innovative enterprising pathways for employment for young adults ages 16-24. Other projects have included writing an Intel-funded science policy report for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), providing advice on game-based learning to the Susan Crown Exchange, and assisting the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES) with an overarching strategy for education at NASA, under request of the Office of Administrator. Dr. Mayo was previously Director of Future of Learning Initiatives at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. From 2001-2006, Dr. Mayo was Director of the Government-University-Industry Roundtable (GUIRR) of the National Academies. GUIRR focused on tri-sector issues such as the science and engineering workforce, intellectual property rights, the impacts of globalization on national competitiveness, STEM education, deemed exports regulations, and national-laboratory university collaborations. Dr. Mayo’s other work included two years at Sandia National Laboratories, 11 years on the faculty of Pennsylvania State University, and a founding role in both ASTRA (an advocacy organization for the physical sciences) and the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (an organization devoted to improving the ability of companies and universities to conduct joint research). Dr. Mayo is a materials scientist and engineer by training, having received her doctorate degree in that field from Stanford University in 1988, publishing approximately 80 technical articles, and serving as the Materials Research Society’s President in 2003.