Erika Rissi

Erika Rissi is Chief Evaluation Officer and Section Head of the Evaluation and Assessment Capability Section at the National Science Foundation. She previously led policy analyses to study and develop evidence-based recommendations for enhancing the NSF merit review process and was responsible for development of the agency’s Learning Agenda and annual evaluation plan. Ms. Rissi has had numerous NSF positions that brought together her experience in strategy design, strategy execution, and operations. She oversaw the strategy for modernizing NSF's legacy proposal and award management processes and systems and was the business lead for Research.gov. She designed and led a process for creating an agency reform plan, Renewing NSF, that incorporated ideas generated through agency-wide brainstorming sessions. Ms. Rissi developed surveys administered to 100,000 NSF customers to measure satisfaction, identify end-user critical IT needs, and evaluate changes to NSF’s process for the merit review of proposals. Prior to joining NSF, she held positions as a strategy management consultant with firms focused on public sector clients, including Grant Thornton, SRA International, and Touchstone Consulting Group, where she advised C-level executives on grants management and policy, human capital, financial management, and agency management and operations. Ms. Rissi earned a B.A. in music from Yale University.<<