Career
Fountain earned a bachelor's degree in music from the Boston Conservatory of Music in 1977, serving as concertmaster from 1975–77. [1] She then earned a master's degree in education (administration, planning and social policy) from Harvard University in 1982, and several degrees from Yale University, culminating in a Ph.D. in political science and organizational behavior in 1990. [1] She began teaching at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1989. In 1998 she established the Women in the Information Age Project and in 2001, with support from the National Science Foundation, established the National Center for Digital Government with David Lazer. In 2005 Fountain moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and NCDG was re-established there. [2] Fountain also directs the Science, Technology and Society Initiative at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Fountain has worked with numerous governmental and NGO organizations. She has been involved with the World Economic Forum for a number of years, [3] [4] serving on the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government and as Council Chair and Vice Chair. [5] In 2012 she was appointed to the Massachusetts-based Governor's Council on Innovation. [6] She has also worked with the World Bank, the European Commission, the National Science Foundation, and numerous national governments. [1]
In 2001, Fountain published Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change, which has been published in multiple languages, and is regarded as a key text in digital government scholarship. [7]
The University of Massachusetts Boston is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. UMass Boston is the third most diverse university in the United States. While a majority of UMass Boston students are Massachusetts residents, international students and students from other states make up a significant portion of the student body. Founded with a distinct urban mission, UMass Boston has a long history of serving the city of Boston, including numerous partnerships with local community organizations . It is an official member institution of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities and the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it is the flagship and the largest campus in the University of Massachusetts system, as well as the first established. It is also a member of the Five College Consortium, along with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and Hampshire College.
The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses, a satellite campus in Springfield and also 25 campuses throughout California and Washington with the University of Massachusetts Global.
The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Massachusetts system and has been regionally accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) since 1975. With 1,110 faculty members and over 18,000 students, it is the largest university in the Merrimack Valley and the second-largest public institution in the state. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Marina von Neumann Whitman is an American economist, writer and former automobile executive. She is a professor of business administration and public policy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business as well as The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
National Center for Digital Government is a research center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The center is directed by Jane Fountain, professor of political science and public policy. Charles Schweik, associate professor of natural resources conservation and public policy, is the associate director of NCDG. The center, established with support from the National Science Foundation, focuses on the interface between technology, government and institutions.
Alex Paul "Sandy" Pentland is an American computer scientist, the Toshiba Professor at MIT, and serial entrepreneur.
Jack M. Wilson is an American educator, entrepreneur and the President-Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, Emerging Technologies, and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. During his career, he has served various institutions as professor of physics, department chair, research center director, dean, provost, vice president, and president, and has served with multiple professional societies and government committees.
Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) is a research centre based at University of Sussex in Falmer, near Brighton, UK. It focuses on long term transformative change, science policy and innovation across different sectors, societies and structures. It was one of the first interdisciplinary research centres in the field of science and technology policy and at the forefront of the development of innovation as an academic discipline. Alongside internationally renowned research, SPRU also offers a range of MSc courses, as well as PhD research degrees.
Beth Simone Noveck is New Jersey's first chief innovation officer, at Northeastern University where she directs the Burnes Center for Social Change, the Governance Lab and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. She is also affiliated faculty with the Institute for Experiential AI. She is the author of Solving Public Problems: How to Fix our Government and Change Our World, Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Government, Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, and co-editor of the State of Play: Law and Virtual Worlds.
Alondra Nelson is an American policymaker, writer, and academic. She is the Harold F. Linder Chair and Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independent research center in Princeton, New Jersey. She is Deputy Assistant to the President, and currently serving as acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). From 2017-2021, she was President and CEO of the Social Science Research Council, an independent, nonpartisan international nonprofit organization. She was previously professor of sociology at Columbia University, where she served as the inaugural Dean of Social Science, as well as director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She began her academic career on the faculty of Yale University.
Anna Nagurney is a Ukrainian-American mathematician, economist, educator and author in the field of Operations Management. Nagurney is the Eugene M. Isenberg Chair in Integrative Studies in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts. Previously, she held the John F. Smith Memorial Professorship of Operations Management at the Isenberg School of Management from 1998 to 2021.
The Center for International Education (CIE) is a program within the Department of Education Policy, Research and Administration (EPRA) in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. CIE is closely integrated with the academic program in International education offered by EPRA. Center members consist of faculty, staff, current students, and graduates.
R. Erdem Erkul is founder and chairman of Cerebrum Tech and vice president at the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies. He was a public sector and investment director at Microsoft Turkey between 2018-2020. He was also vice president and executive board member at Informatics Association of Turkey between 2011-2015. He has worked at Samsung Electronics Turkey as Director of Public Sector and External Affairs between 2014-2018. He was also the spokesperson of Samsung Electronics Turkey during these years. He is known for his work on e- government, New Public Administration, informatics, entrepreneurship and social media.
Nilanjana Dasgupta is a social psychologist whose work focuses on the effects of social contexts on implicit stereotypes - particularly on factors that insulate women in STEM fields from harmful stereotypes which suggest that females perform poorly in such areas. Dasgupta is a Professor of Psychology and is the Director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences is a college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Computer Science at University of Massachusetts Amherst began as a department in 1964. In 2012, the Department of Computer Science became a school, and in 2015 it became the College of Information and Computer Sciences.
Oswald Tippo was an American botanist and educator. Tippo became the first chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1970.
Banu Subramaniam is a professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Originally trained as a plant evolutionary biologist, she writes about social and cultural aspects of science as they relate to experimental biology. She advocates for activist science that creates knowledge about the natural world while being aware of its embeddedness in society and culture. She co-edited Making Threats: Biofears and Environmental Anxieties (2005) and Feminist Science Studies: A New Generation (2001). Her book Ghost Stories for Darwin: The Science of Variation and the Politics of Diversity (2014) was chosen as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2015 and won the Society for Social Studies of Science Ludwik Fleck Prize for science and technology studies in 2016. Her most recent book, Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (2019), won the Michelle Kendrick Prize for the best book from the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts in 2020.
Marcellette ("Marci") Gaillard-Gay Williams is an American retired academic administrator who served as interim chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst from July 2001 until July 2002. She was the university's eighth chancellor and the first woman to serve in the position.
