SPI is hosting a virtual panel on 4/8 from 5-6 PM on science policy careers in the government. We have four alumni panelists. Come hear about their career paths and ask any questions you may have!

Please find the panelist bios below:

Dr. Jack Reid is an engineer on the Science, Technology Assessments, and Analytics team at the US Government Accountability Office, where he works out of the Boston Field Office. There he develops reports for Congress on technology policy issues and serves as an expert advisor to analysts conducting audits of federal government programs in the areas of environmental justice and aerospace technology.  A born and raised Texan, he obtained dual bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Philosophy at Texas A&M University before heading off to New England for grad school after a short stint as a shock and vibrations engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. He pursued another dual degree at MIT, this time master's in technology policy and aerospace engineering. His work during this period focused on defense acquisition policy and included a couple of internships at the RAND Corporation. Most recently he completed a PhD, also at MIT but in a quite different field: the use of satellite earth observation imagery for sustainable development and urban planning decision-making.

Dr. Scott Olesen is a Lead Data Scientist in the CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics. The Center’s mission is deploy better data and better analytics to improve infectious disease outbreak response. He earned his PhD at MIT, where he studied environmental microbiology and the human microbiome, and completed postdoctoral training at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, where he focused on the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance. He served as Scientific Director for OpenBiome, the fecal microbiota transplantation bank, before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, when he shifted to epidemiology consulting work for state and federal government, the US Navy, the National Basketball Association, and, finally, Biobot Analytics, a wastewater epidemiology company.

Mr. Martin Holmes has served as a professional staff member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence since February 2023.  In that capacity, he focuses on oversight of the National Security Agency, including a wide range of topics including signals intelligence, cybersecurity, research, microelectronics, and artificial intelligence.  Prior to joining HPSCI, Martin was the Chief of Space Domain Strategy for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  Before that, he served as a space policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Dr. Rebecca Black specializes in policy development, communications strategies, and evaluation for scientific research programs. She has used cutting-edge computational approaches to evaluate the performance and impact of over twenty large-scale federal scientific research initiatives. Dr. Black has developed and executed comprehensive communication plans for audiences including the general public, scientific researchers, policymakers, and executive leadership. She is an experienced biomedical researcher and has published peer-reviewed publications that studied systems-level therapeutic effects in disease-relevant models. Dr. Black efficiently synthesizes information, implements projects, and builds collaborations across scientific and engineering disciplines.