Hollywood to Policy: Career Principles with Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Stephanie Wander

Stephanie Wander is a technology and innovation strategist with a successful track record of launching large-scale projects to solve global grand challenges. Ms. Wander’s approaches integrate innovation best practices and mindsets including design thinking, behavior change strategies, foresight techniques, and expert and public crowdsourcing. Previously, Stephanie Wander was a Lecturer at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work where she taught graduate Social Work professionals in Design, Innovation, and Disruptive Technology. She is also a former Senior Manager of Prize Development at the XPRIZE Foundation, where she led the design of IBM Watson AI XPRIZE and competitions for on-demand urban aviation and tissue engineering. Ms. Wander was also a contributing designer on the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE and the Global Learning XPRIZE competitions. Ms. Wander has written and spoken about disruptive technologies and processes, notably at NASA’s On-Demand Mobility Workshop, South by Southwest, and on CXOTalk. She co-authored the chapter “The Power of Prize Competitions” in the book What Matters: Investing in Results to Build Strong, Vibrant Communities. She has also been quoted by various publications including Sports Illustrated, Wired Germany, Vice, Engadget, Digitaltrends.com, Geekwire, Futurism, I Programmer, IFLscience, and The Verge. Ms. Wander is a graduate of the UCLA Anderson School of Management and Northwestern University. Ms. Wander is passionate about collaborating with experts and teams to identify disruptive change, create meaningful opportunities, and deliver high-impact results through innovation.