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Heather Evans (Fed)
Senior Advisor for Economic Security
Dr. Heather Evans serves as the Senior Advisor for Economic Security in the Office of the Chief of Staff. In this role, she provides leadership in economic security matters that involve NIST, the Department of Commerce and its bureaus, and the White House. This work includes the alignment of critical and emerging technologies with economic and national security issues such as inbound and/or outbound investments and U.S. leadership in international standards.
Throughout her career, she has led efforts on policy and strategy related to U.S. competitiveness in many areas including advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and open innovation. From 2023-2024, Evans served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing in the International Trade Administration, overseeing a team of 70 analysts covering biotechnology, transportation, IT, and environmental industries to advance international trade and investment policies and strengthen critical supply chains. In 2021-2022, she served in the Office of the Secretary of Commerce as NIST Liaison and Senior Technology Advisor, where she led efforts on international standards, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies. Evans joined the NIST Program Coordination Office in 2011, serving initially as Senior Program Analyst and later the office’s acting director, where she led efforts on policy, budget, and strategy. During a 2008-2010 AAAS S&T Policy Fellowship, she led domestic and international efforts on emerging technology policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. Heather was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Gottingen, Germany.
She earned her doctorate in materials science from the University of California Santa Barbara and bachelor's degree in physics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Awards
Bronze Medal Award (2021)
Selected as Mentor, GSA Challenge and Prize Mentorship Program (2015)
Selected for Department of Commerce Executive Leadership Development Program (2013)
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow (2008)
Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2006)
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (1998)