APLU Staff Profile: Shalin Jyotishi

Name: Shalin Jyotishi
Department: Office of Economic Development and Community Engagement
Title: Assistant Director for Economic Development and Community Engagement
Date you joined APLU: June 2017

Why did you want to work at APLU? One of my core professional goals is to help maximize the positive impacts of research, technology, and new knowledge while minimizing the negative impacts (which do exist). Public research universities help achieve just that through their work in economic and community engagement. The breadth of our members’ work in this space really speaks to me. In the morning, I could be working on advanced manufacturing workforce development issues, entrepreneurship and innovation in the afternoon, and public engagement in the evening. I’ve been lucky to have been engaged with APLU since 2013—first as an intern, then as an advisory board member for the Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity (now the Commission on Economic and Community Engagement), and a member of various CICEP committees and working groups. It was great to join a familiar team!

What education or work experience had the greatest impact on you? Tough question. I’m really thankful for my experiences as a University Innovation Fellow of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Design at Stanford University. I learned a great deal about cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit among college students through the fellowship. I also really benefited from entrepreneurial experiences of my own. Outside of APLU, I serve as CEO of the Journal of Science Policy and Governance, a small non-profit organization and peer review journal focused on encouraging early career researchers to contribute substantively to science, technology, and innovation policy debate. Above all, though, I’m most grateful for all I’ve learned from mentors over the years.

What current APLU project or initiative are you most excited about? This is a tough question. I’m very excited about the evolution and growth of our Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) Universities designation and awards program. The IEP designation recognizes institutions for a substantive, sustainable, and campus-wide commitment to economic and community engagement while providing a framework, process, and national peer network for institutions to better “know, measure, and tell” their economic engagement impact. We now have 65 IEP designees across North America and counting!

What’s most rewarding about working with public research universities? Public research universities are committed to public impact. Our members walk the walk through economic and community engagement and that, for me, is very energizing.

What is your favorite thing to do on your day off? Reading down by the river in Georgetown.

What was your dream job as a child? To become a marine biologist! Now I settle for watching sea-life documentaries on Netflix and listening to ocean-themed white noise to stay focused at the desk.

What’s the last book you read? Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership – Nixon to Clinton by David Gergen. This is a really fascinating read by an awesome journalist and scholar. Gergen book explores leadership similarities and differences across the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations.