About

Olivia M. Blackmon has more than 20 years of executive leadership focused on designing collaborative public-private partnerships to provide innovative solutions for complex problems in energy, critical infrastructure, security, health, and emerging technology.  She earned her doctoral and master’s degrees in sociology with a concentration in education and statistics from George Mason University and was an Education Writers Association fellow for education policy at Harvard University.    

Blackmon was the former director for Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) STEM Accelerator and Partnership for Nuclear Energy (PNE), a national initiative to strengthen America’s global leadership in STEM by unifying and mobilizing a comprehensive body of leaders from various sectors to address the critical challenges in nuclear energy education, training, and workforce development issues across the United States.  She built the first framework and model for state/local nuclear energy infrastructure, which was used in seven states and funded to establish the first Tennessee Nuclear Energy Workforce Center.Prior to joining ORAU, Blackmon directed a $30 million United States Agency of International Development (USAID) program for DAI, Inc., to enable the digital transformation of the Western Balkans, Black Sea Region, and South Caucasus by working with national governments, critical infrastructure operators, private sector partners, academia, and oversight bodies to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure sectors. Her work included developing partnerships to address legal, workforce, and investment gaps, supporting critical infrastructure resilience, and documenting lessons learned.   
 
Blackmon led the mobilization of over 1,000 partnerships to support MITRE’s COVID-19 Coalition, a major initiative supported by more than 20 U.S. federal agencies and the White House.  This private sector-led response gathered healthcare organizations, technology firms, nonprofits, and academic institutions impacting over 19 programs including vaccine distribution, contact tracing, digital health innovation, access to health in rural areas, and other programs.    
 
Over the last decade Blackmon has successfully built and managed programs totaling more than $200 million with multiple federal agencies including the Department of Defense, Department of State, National Science Foundation, USAID, Department of Health and Human Services, and National Institute of Standards and Technology.