CSET Events

Creating an Innovation Workforce for Uncertain Times

Department of Labor Chief Innovation Officer Chike Aguh, together with CSET's Anna Puglisi and Diana Gehlhaus, discussed how the United States can prepare an innovative workforce for the future.

Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are poised to—and, in some ways, already are—transforming the nature of work in the United States and abroad. These changes will have major implications for our domestic labor force and national competitiveness that will require a whole-of-society approach to effectively address. 

CSET hosted a conversation on the U.S. government’s role in developing an innovative workforce for the coming economic and technological transition featuring Chike Aguh, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Chief Innovation Officer. Mr. Aguh joined CSET Research Fellow Diana Gehlhaus for a panel discussion moderated by CSET Senior Fellow and Director of Biotechnology Programs Anna Puglisi.

Recording and Discussion

Participants

Chike Aguh was sworn in as Chief Innovation Officer (CInO) at the U.S. Department of Labor on January 20, 2021, appointed by President Joe Biden. Reporting to the Deputy Secretary and also serving as Senior Advisor for Delivery, he leads efforts to use data, emerging technologies, and innovative practice to advance and protect American workers.

Previously, Chike launched the Community College Growth Engine Fund, a national multimillion dollar effort helping community colleges train thousands for careers in high-growth fields. He has been a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Carr Center focused on the future of work and racial equity, a venture partner at Maryland-based New Markets Venture Partners focused on workforce technologies, a Council on Foreign Relations Future of Work Taskforce member, a lecturer at Columbia University and guest speaker at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.

Additionally, Chike has worked as an education policy official, a Teach For America corps member, and a teacher in America’s largest school system. He has also been a Fulbright Scholar in Asia, the Director of Corporate Strategy and Performance Technologies at Education Advisory Board (EAB), a Chief Executive Officer of a national social enterprise which helped connect five hundred thousand Americans in 48 states to affordable internet and digital skills, and a Senior Principal and Future of Work Lead at the McChrystal Group, a business advisory firm founded by Gen. (ret.) Stanley McChrystal. Chike has written for or been featured in/at Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, Fortune, Harvard, Wharton, and the White House.

Chike holds degrees from Tufts University (BA), Harvard Graduate School of Education (EdM), Harvard Kennedy School of Government (MPA), and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (MBA). He is a former presidential leadership scholar, Council on Foreign Relations term member, 40 under 40 honoree from Wharton and Washington Business Journal, and a member of the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Board.

Diana Gehlhaus is a Research Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Prior to CSET, she was a Doctoral Fellow at the RAND Corporation, receiving her PhD in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Diana’s research focuses on the intersection of tech and talent, including domestic talent pipelines in AI and other emerging technologies; workforce development and education policy; youth career and educational decision making; trends in employer hiring, recruiting, and retention; military and federal civilian talent management; and technology and telecommunications policy.

Prior to RAND she was an economist and Director of the Young American Prosperity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, a policy analyst at the U.S. Export-Import Bank and an Economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She has an MA in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in mathematics and economics from Bucknell University.

Diana’s media appearances include CNBC, Comcast Newsmakers, Wisconsin Public Radio, Nevada Public Radio and the Richard Fowler Show. Her research and commentary have been featured in The Hill, USA Today, Fortune, Washington Post and the Harvard Business Review blog, among other outlets. 

Anna Puglisi is the Director of Biotechnology Programs and Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Previously she served as the National Counterintelligence Officer for East Asia, advising senior U.S. and foreign government officials at the highest levels, academia and the private sector on counterintelligence (CI) issues. She played a prominent role in drafting the recently released U.S. National Counterintelligence Strategy, and in designing mitigation strategies for both the public and private sectors to protect technology.

As a member of the Senior Analytic Service, she developed multidisciplinary efforts to understand global technology developments and their impact on U.S. competitiveness and national security, as well as efforts to target U.S. technology. Anna also started a government-wide working group looking at developments in biological sciences and has worked on several bio-security issues. She has received numerous awards including the FBI Director’s Award for Excellence.

Anna holds an MPA, an MS in environmental science and a BA in Biology with honors, all from Indiana University. She studied at the Princeton in Beijing Chinese language school and was a visiting scholar in Nankai University’s Department of Economics, where she studied China’s S&T policies, infrastructure development and university reforms. She is a co-author of the 2013 study Chinese Industrial Espionage, the first book-length treatment of the topic, as well as countless related proprietary studies.