Subject:

Appointment of Angela Phillips Diaz as Executive Director of Government Research Relations

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Angela Phillips Diaz as UC San Diego's new executive director of Government Research Relations, effective September 8.

Diaz will help ensure that the benefits, promise, and needs of our institution's research enterprise are effectively communicated in the agencies, departments, offices, and hallways of Washington, D.C. As chief government-research-relations strategist, she will identify and arrange interactions between university leaders and elected and appointed officials in the nation's capital and elsewhere, and monitor and influence legislative and agency developments that will or could affect UC San Diego.

Diaz will work at the highest levels of government, scientific and institutional analysis, policy, program-planning, and development to increase UC San Diego's visibility and identity in this region, throughout California, across the nation, and around the world. She will work closely with other government-relations professionals on our campus and within the UC system, and will help coordinate, clarify, and unify our university's message in this key arena.

She is well qualified to do so with executive leadership experience in government, higher education, and non-profit organizations. Most recently, Diaz served as an advisor to the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) and the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (VASEM), serving as the Washington liaison for education, science and technology and executive director respectively. Prior to these current roles, she served as the inaugural managing director of Purdue University's Global Policy Research Institute (GPRI). During her tenure there, her vision and leadership for GPRI raised Purdue's profile, visibility, and impact in government research funding awards and student internship opportunities in Washington DC.

Prior to that posting she worked as a special assistant to the Chancellor of UC Riverside, and as director of strategic communications and development for NASA's Ames Research Center.

In addition, Diaz held several senior executive posts at NASA Headquarters, including assistant administrator for education and deputy assistant administrator for legislative affairs; and served for five years prior to those positions at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as executive director of the President's Committee of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) and executive director of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

Diaz earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Marymount University. She was a senior executive fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Among many other awards, she has earned the Women in Aerospace Outstanding Member Award, and the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award. She has served on multiple non-profit boards of directors and chairs ARCS Foundation's Science and Engineering Advisory Council.

Her experience with, and knowledge of, federal agencies as well as the research and technology industries; her knowledge of the relationships among federal, state, and local research and public-service priorities; and her senior leadership roles at the institutions listed above, all demonstrate that Angela will provide a keen insight, sound judgment, and experienced voice on behalf of UC San Diego's growing research enterprise.

Please join us in welcoming her to our campus.

Pradeep K. Khosla Chancellor Sandra A. Brown Vice Chancellor for Research