William B. Bonvillian is a Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teaching courses on innovation and on science and technology policy. He is a Senior Director at MIT’s Office of Open Learning, conducting major research projects on workforce education. Previously, he was Director of MIT’s Washington, D.C. Office between 2006 and 2017, supporting MIT’s longstanding role on national science and technology policy. He was an advisor to MIT’s Production in the Innovation Economy study issued in 2013, and participated for MIT in the President’s industry-university Advanced Manufacturing Partnership and its reports of 2011 and 2014. Prior to MIT, he served for over fifteen years as a senior policy advisor in the U.S. Senate working on innovation issues.
Declining U.S. manufacturing has sharply curtailed a key path to the middle class for those with high school educations or less, thereby exacerbating income inequality nationwide. The United States can address many of these problems through concerted efforts in advanced manufacturing.
Expanded manufacturing programs will invest in our nation’s long-term competitive innovation capacity.