Kaye Husbands Fealing

Professor

Member Of:
  • School of Public Policy
  • Ivan Allen Dean's Office
  • ADVANCE IAC
  • Development Studies Program
  • Technology Policy and Assessment Center

Overview

Kaye Husbands Fealing is the Assistant Director of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and co-chair of the Subcommittee on Social and Behavioral Sciences of the Committee on Science of the National Science & Technology Council (NSTC). She is the former Dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a former Chair of the School of Public Policy Georgia Tech, where she currently holds the title professor. She specializes in science of science and innovation policy, the public value of research expenditures, and broadening participation in STEM fields and the workforce.

Prior to her positions at Georgia Tech, Husbands Fealing taught at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and she was a study director at the National Academy of Sciences. Prior to the Humphrey School, she was the William Brough professor of economics at Williams College, where she began her teaching career in 1989. She developed and was the inaugural program director for NSF's Science of Science and Innovation Policy program and co-chaired the Science of Science Policy Interagency Task Group, chartered by the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Subcommittee of the NSTC. At NSF, she also served as an Economics Program director. Husbands Fealing was a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Technology Policy and Industrial Development, where she conducted research on NAFTA’s impact on the Mexican and Canadian automotive industries, and research on strategic alliances between aircraft contractors and their subcontractors.

Husbands Fealing is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is an Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She was awarded the 2023 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, and the 2017 Trailblazer Award from the National Medical Association Council on Concerns of Women Physicians. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum-Georgia Chapter, and member of the YWCA's Academy of Women Achievers. She serves as a member on AAAS' Executive Board, the National Academy of Public Administration's board, the trustee board for the R. Howard Dobbs Jr. Foundation, and the Society for Economic Measurement's board. She has served on several committees and panels, including: AAAS committees; National Academies’ panels; Council of Canadian Academies panels; American Academy of Arts and Sciences working groups; NSF’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Advisory Committee, STEM Education Advisory Committee, and the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering; NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences Council; General Accountability Office’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics Polaris Council; and American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economic Profession. At Georgia Tech, she co-chaired the Arts@Tech Institute Strategic Planning committee, and she has served on the Institute for Data Engineering and Science Council, the Intellectual Property Advisory Board, and other committees.

Husbands Fealing holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, and a B.A. in mathematics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Education:
  • Ph.D. in economics, Harvard University
  • B.A. in mathematics and economics, University of Pennsylvania
Awards and
Distinctions:
  • 2023 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award, American Economic Association's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2021) Elected member.
  • National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) Elected Fellow.
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Elected Fellow.
  • AAAS Executive Board, 2017-2021.
  • National Science Foundation (NSF), Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering, 2018-2021; Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee, 2018-2021.
  • Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), Executive Council, 2018-2021; Data Policy Subcommittee, 2015-2018.
  • American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Challenges for International Scientific Partnerships, Large-Scale Science Working Group, 2019; Public Face of Science project, Data Advisory Group member, 2016.
  • Council of Canadian Academies, Towards an Alberta Science Policy, workshop steering committee member, 2016-2017; Subcommittee on Science and Technology Methods, 2019-2020.
  • National Academy of Sciences, Committee on SBIR/STTR at the Department of Energy, appointed for term 2017-2019.
  • National Medical Association Council on Concerns of Women Physicians, 2017 Trailblazer Award, July 2017.
  • NSF, 2017- 2018, Workshop for Broadening Participation in the Economics Profession: Proposal Writing and Grants Management, with co-investigator Angelino Viceisza (Spelman College).
  • NSF, 2017-2018. Science Policy Research Report: A Research Agenda for Science of Broadening Participation in STEM, Employment of People with Disabilities, with co-investigators Paul Baker (Georgia Tech) and Connie McNeely (George Mason University)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of General Medical Sciences Advisory Council, appointed for term 2017-2019.
  • National Academy of Sciences, Panel on Reengineering the Census Bureau’s Annual Economic Surveys, appointed for term 2015-2017.
  • National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Developing Indicators for Undergraduate STEM Education, appointed for term 2015-2017.
  • NSF grant, 2015, Science of Broadening Participation in STEM, with co-investigator Connie McNeely (George Mason University)
  • United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant, 2014: Assessing the Outputs of Government-Funded University Research: The Case of Food Safety and Security, with co-investigators Stan Johnson (National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy) and Julia Lane (New York University).
  • NSF grant 2012: Women in Science and Technology Policy project, collaborative project with co-investigators Susan Cozzens (Georgia Tech), Debra Fitzpatrick (University of Minnesota), and Laurel Smith-Doerr (University of Massachusetts-Amherst).
  • Teacher of the Year Award, 2009 – 2010 & 2014: Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
  • Council of Graduate Students Outstanding Faculty Award, 2014: University of Minnesota
  • NSF grant, 2013: Science of Science and Innovation Policy Principal Investigators Conference, convened at the National Academy of Sciences, September 2012.
  • NSF, Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences, 2008 - Distinguished recognition of leadership for developing the Science of Science and Innovation Program in 2006.
  • NSF POWRE Grant, 1998
  • MIT/Lean Aircraft Initiative Grant, 1993
  • Social Science Research Council, 1992
  • Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1992
  • MIT/International Motor Vehicle Program Grant, 1992
  • AT&T Bell Laboratories Corporate Research Fellowship Program award, 1981 (National Science Foundation Minority Fellowship award granted but declined to accept the fellowship Bell Labs).

Interests

Research Fields:
  • S&E Organizations, Education, Careers and Workforce
  • Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Courses

  • PUBP-4410: Science,Tech& Pub Policy
  • PUBP-6001: Intro to Public Policy
  • PUBP-6401: Sci,Tech & Public Policy

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

Recent Publications

Journal Articles

Chapters