Jeff Weld, Ph.D. is an executive consultant and professor emeritus at the University of Northern Iowa upon retirement at the end of 2023 after twelve years as executive director for the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, and after 5 months as chief innovation officer at the Iowa Department of Education, and after 23 years as faculty in the UNI Department of Biology.
In 2018-19 Jeff served as Senior Policy Advisor for STEM Education at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, producing the 2018-2023 federal STEM education strategic plan that today guides $3.2 billion in STEM investments across 16 federal agencies. At UNI, Jeff was named national collegiate biology teacher of the year while publishing widely on STEM education in both scholarly journals and popular media, launching new coursework and faculty pedagogy workshops, and serving on regional and national committees and boards including the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) and the Triangle Coalition for STEM.