Lea Shanley

Dr. Lea Shanley is the co-Executive Director of the South Big Data Innovation Hub, based at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Prior to this, she served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow at NASA, where she developed open innovation strategies for engaging the public in scientific research and problem solving, and worked with the White House and US Federal government agencies on technology policy issues. She also was the chief organizer and co-founder of the Federal Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Community of Practice, which has grown to more than 200 federal staff from 35 federal agencies. Previously, Lea founded and directed the Washington-based Wilson Center Commons Lab, which analyzes emerging technologies, networks, and methods that mobilize public participation in science, technology, and policy. She also conducted research and engaged local, state, and tribal governments in the development of GIS-based decision support systems for city planning, environmental monitoring, coastal management, and disaster response. Dr. Shanley serves on the advisory boards of Virginia Tech's Interdisciplinary Graduate Education in Remote Sensing Program, the Adler Planetarium's Zooniverse program, and the Crowd & the Cloud, a 4-hour series for public television focusing on citizen science. She holds a PhD in Environment and Resources, with a focus on Geographic Information Science and remote sensing, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Contact Information: [email protected]; 919-445-0470