From Quantum to Biotech: Public-Private Partnerships for the New American Frontier

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Lina Bankert, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group; Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO at Lumina Foundation; Rachel Lipson, Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School; Zoe Weintraub Barrett, Vice President of Public Sector Partnerships at Guild; and Phyllis Lockett, CEO at LEAP-X LLC.The speakers explored how the United States was making historic investments in emerging technology industries including quantum computing, biotech, semiconductors, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and data infrastructure—fields essential to national security and global competitiveness. They examined how, despite this momentum, talent pipelines for these sectors were lagging far behind demand.This session focused on how many of these roles did not require traditional four-year degrees, but did demand specialized training, new credential pathways, and faster routes from classroom to career. Panelists discussed how state governments, employers, and education innovators were building next-generation public–private partnerships to develop credentialed pathways into emerging technology sectors through community colleges, apprenticeships, and short-term programs.At its core, this conversation examined how America could sustainably and at scale grow its emerging-tech workforce by aligning policy, education, and industry. By leveraging innovative partnerships and more agile learning pathways, the session highlighted what it would take to build the workforce infrastructure necessary for the new American frontier.