{"id":19128,"date":"2016-04-08T14:30:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T19:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/?p=19128"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:33:08","slug":"white-house-assistant-director-for-open-innovation-honored-as-uf-outstanding-young-alumna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/alumni-spotlight\/white-house-assistant-director-for-open-innovation-honored-as-uf-outstanding-young-alumna\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Assistant Director for Open Innovation honored as UF Outstanding Young Alumna"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her job at the White House, Jenn Gustetic helps find solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the planet. As the Assistant Director for Open Innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Gustetic organizes prizes and competitions to inspire innovation and collaboration within the scientific community. She recently helped the White House update President Obama\u2019s Strategy for American Innovation<\/a>. Prior to her job at the White House Gustetic was at NASA, where she pioneered a new position as its first-ever Prizes and Challenges Program Executive.<\/p>\n

A graduate of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, Gustetic was an obvious choice for this year\u2019s Outstanding Young Alumni award, presented by the University of Florida Alumni Association. She is visiting the UF campus this week to receive her award.<\/p>\n

\u201cUF prepared me with the knowledge and skills that have been the foundation of my career progression from consulting to NASA to the White House,\u201d Gustetic said.<\/p>\n

In coordinating the celebration of the 5th anniversary of Challenge.gov \u2013 Gustetic launched more than 20 high-impact challenges supported by the Federal government and philanthropists. These challenges address nutrient pollution, combat illegal fishing, accelerate the commercialization of NASA-funded technologies, improve cancer screening from mammography and lung CT imaging, and help students make better decisions about their education and career options.<\/p>\n

\u201cJenn Gustetic has played a critical role in encouraging federal agencies to embrace open innovation,\u201d said Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. \u201cThis is allowing the federal government to engage more citizens in solving some of the most important challenges of the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate at UF, Gustetic studied aerospace engineering and was involved in student government, Florida Blue Key and Tau Beta Pi. She was the 4-year scholar award winner for Gator Engineering in 2005. She later earned her master\u2019s degree in Technology Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology \u2013 where Cammy Abernathy, dean of Engineering, received her Bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cJenn is an incredibly dynamic example of what we call the New Engineer,\u201d Abernathy said. \u201cShe uses her leadership ability to bring people together to collaborate for the express purpose of bettering the world through innovation. We are so incredibly proud of her and the ways she has grown her talents to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Engineers must be technically competent, have high emotional intelligence, and be excellent communicators and leaders,\u201d Gustetic said. \u201cUF prepared me exceptionally well with all those skills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jenn Gustetic (MAE ’05) has played a key role in fostering innovation at NASA and the White House<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-templates\/single-sidebar-none.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,23,35,43,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","category-mae","category-featured","category-honors-awards","category-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhite House Assistant Director for Open Innovation honored as UF Outstanding Young Alumna - News from Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/alumni-spotlight\/white-house-assistant-director-for-open-innovation-honored-as-uf-outstanding-young-alumna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"White House Assistant Director for Open Innovation honored as UF Outstanding Young Alumna - 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