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Team
Founder of DPI and Professor of Law, The University of California, Berkeley
Professor Colleen Chien (she/her) is the founder and director of the DPI and co-organizer, with Professor Margo Bagley of the bi-annual Innovator Diversity Pilots conference. As a child of immigrant parents whose stable jobs in innovation and IT supported her upbringing, she believes that every person deserves an equal opportunity to participate in innovation and access its benefits. Professor Chien has served in both the Obama and Biden administrations as a senior advisor in intellectual property and innovation and she is the founder of the Paper Prisons initiative, which aims to support the dignity and economic mobility of the 1 in 3 adult Americans that lives with a criminal record.
Relevant writings:
Rigorous Policy Pilots (Iowa L. Rev. 2019)
Redefining Progress and the Case for Diversity in Innovation and Inventing (UCLA L. Rev. 2024)The University of California, Berkeley
DPI Principal and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
Professor Margo Bagley (she/her) is a principal of DPI and co-organizer, with Professor Colleen Chien, of the bi-annual Innovator Diversity Pilots conference, and one of the foremost experts on international patent law issues. As an African American female, she has interacted with the patent system in myriad ways, including as an R&D engineer, co-inventor on two patents, patent attorney, patent law professor, author of numerous articles, book chapters, and two books on patent law, and advisor on patent issues to governments and international organizations. And yet, it is her firsthand experience, as a member of groups that have been systematically underrepresented and overlooked in the innovation ecosystem that gives her a deep understanding, experience, and resolve to champion diversity and inclusion in innovation.
Watch Professor Bagley’s Video for Invent Together:Margo A. Bagley: Challenges Encountered as a Diverse Inventor
DPI Principal and Associate Professor at the Haas School of Business (Berkeley)
Professor Jillian Grennan (she/her) is a principal of the Diversity Pilots Initiative (DPI). As a professor with a background in researching corporate culture and emerging technologies, Dr. Grennan has often witnessed how championing an inclusive culture that empowers all workers is vital to unlocking groundbreaking ideas and increasing firm value. With DPI, she continues her mission to ensure equal opportunities for everyone to contribute to and benefit from inventive ideas.
Relevant writings:
Corporate Culture: Evidence from the Field (Journal of Financial Economics 2022)
Do Diverse Directors Influence DEI Outcomes? (working paper)
DPI Researcher and Deane F. Johnson (she/her), Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Professor Lisa Ouellette (she/her) studies evidence-based policymaking in intellectual property and innovation law. She was one of the few women in her physics Ph.D. program, and she is interested in reducing inequalities among innovators as well as inequalities in who innovations are made for and who has access to those innovations. She has conducted a randomized controlled trial involving patent applications submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and she has written about the need to increase the use of rigorous policy experiments.
Relevant writings:
Patent Experimentalism (Va. L. Rev. 2015)
Improving Scientific Judgments in Law and Government: A Field Experiment of Patent Peer Review (J. Empirical Legal Stud. 2020)
DPI Researcher and Assistant Professor of Management, Lehigh University College of Business
Professor Gauri Subramani (she/her), studies the nexus of innovation and representation. In her work, she evaluates the magnitude of gender and resource inequalities in innovation contexts and identifies the mechanisms by which these arise, along with opportunities for interventions to reduce performance gaps.
She works closely with innovative organizations along with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where she holds an appointment as an Economist.
Relevant writings:
Attrition and the Gender Innovation Gap: Evidence from Patent Applications
Gender and Application Dynamics in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Applications
DPI Researcher and Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Arizona
Professor Jason Sandvik (he/they) has years of experience helping organizations implement and measure the effects of programs that are aimed at improving employee satisfaction and productivity. Whether with a Fortune 100 company, a niche nonprofit, a sales workforce, or a biotechnology startup, Sandvik uses experimental methods to help employers cultivate environments that allow their employees to thrive. With DPI, he aims to help organizations set themselves apart from their competitors by being known as industry leaders in their commitment and development of their employees.
Relevant writings:
Workplace Knowledge Flows (Quarterly J. Econ. 2020)
Creativity Contests: An Experimental Investigation of Eliciting Employee (Journ. Acc. Rsch 2022)
Should Workplace Programs Be Voluntary or Mandatory? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Mentorship
DPI Researcher and Assistant Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law
Professor Aneja ((he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He studies how legal institutions shape social and economic inequality, from domestic and comparative perspectives. His recent work considers how a range of administrative processes – including the patent application process – affect socioeconomic inequality. Other projects identify inequalities related to the law of democracy and criminal justice.
Relevant writings:
Costs of Employment Segregation: Evidence from the Federal Government under Woodrow Wilson (Quarterly J. Econ. 2022)
“Attrition and the Gender Innovation Gap: Evidence from Patent Applications” (working paper, 2023)
If you work for an organization that is interested in diversity in innovation, whether as a patent filer or someone who helps file patents, and are interested in piloting with us, or you are interested in having your innovator diversity practice highlighted, use the contact form or email us at diversitypilots@gmail.com