Ellen Ryan is the Deputy Division Chief and team lead for the Open Innovation program with NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) division. Ryan’s unmatched passion for teamwork and paving the way to ensure others succeed brings tremendous value to the division (and everyone she meets). Bringing a blend of mission-driven attitude and technical expertise, Ryan is a superlative leader for the world-class team of experts on NIST PSCR’s Open Innovation team, which is recognized government-wide as a model for open innovation execution.
PSCR’s communications team interviewed Ryan to understand the challenges she faced as a pioneer for women in the engineering field, and the inspiration that drove her to professional success.
Can you describe your current role?
ER: I’m currently the Deputy Division Chief and the team lead for the Open Innovation program at PSCR. But honestly, I feel my role is truly more about enabling others to do their best work. I feel it’s my responsibility to clear challenges to allow people to focus on what they’re good at.
When I came to PSCR, I thought I would be an engineer in the lab. I think because of my job experience, and 20 years in the telecommunications industry, I had a skill set that was beneficial to the new PSCR division. We were in the process of bringing in engineers from private industry and I happened to have experience with technical work, building labs, doing research, new product development in the telecommunications area, and I’d been a manager for about 15 years. I was asked to take over the l ..
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