Courtney Silverthorn M.S. Ph.D.

Dr. Courtney Silverthorn is the Acting Director of the Technology Partnerships Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). With over a decade of experience in Federal technology transfer, she is currently responsible for providing leadership for TPO’s responsibilities in advancing NIST technology transfer and commercialization and the NIST SBIR program, and leading implementation of interagency technology transfer policy efforts via NIST's Return on Investment Initiative. She also oversees NIST-centric and agency-wide economic analysis on the impact of federal technology transfer.

Courtney is a Co-Chair of the National Science and Technology Council’s Lab-to-Market subcommittee and coordinates several Interagency working groups for tech transfer and intellectual property issues. She served as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Office of Science and Technology Policy through a detail assignment in 2018, supporting both Lab-to-Market and Citizen Science.

Courtney is a member of the Board of Directors of the Innovation Research Interchange, a world-wide network of thought leaders from large corporations, small businesses, and federal labs focusing on researching, developing and sharing best practices in innovation management, and serves as the Finance Officer on the Executive Board of the Federal Laboratory Consortium, a nationwide network of over 300 Federal laboratories focused on enabling commercialization of federally-funded technological developments.

Dr. Silverthorn earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a M.S. in Leadership and Public Policy from Washington University in St. Louis, and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Sweet Briar College. She has also earned certificates in Biotechnology Enterprise from Johns Hopkins and in Policy Strategy from the Brookings Institution.