Sunil Iyengar directs the Office of Research & Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Under his leadership, the office has produced dozens of research reports, hosted periodic research events and webinars, led strategic plan development for the agency, and established research and data partnerships with the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. His office also conducts program evaluations and performance measurement for the Arts Endowment. Working with his team, Iyengar has created and pursued a long-term research agenda (based partly on an arts “system map” his office helped to design), founded a national data repository for the arts, and launched two awards programs for arts researchers, including the NEA Research Labs initiative. He chairs a federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development. For nearly a decade, he has contributed a monthly research post (titled “Taking Note”) to the agency’s official blog.
Iyengar and his team have collaborated with organizations such as the Brookings Institution, the National Academy of Sciences, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore the arts in relation to such topics as health and well-being, economic development, and STEM and medicine. His office provides research consultative support to Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network. Most recently, he has led a research funding partnership with NIH as part of Sound Health, an initiative of the Kennedy Center and NIH in association with the Arts Endowment.
Prior to joining the agency as research director, Iyengar worked as a reporter, managing editor and senior editor for a host of news publications covering the biomedical research, medical device and pharmaceutical industries. He writes poems, book reviews and literary essays. Iyengar has a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Doug Noonan is a professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis. His research focuses on a variety of policy and economics issues related to cultural affairs, the built environment and quality of life. Recently, his work has focused on economic impacts of arts and culture, financial support for the arts workforce, inequities in the cultural sector, crowdfunding platforms, and artistic labor in a gig economy. Noonan has written extensively on the value of cultural resources, historic preservation and entrepreneurship in the arts. He is currently the coeditor in chief of the Journal of Cultural Economics, cofounder and faculty director of the Indiana University Center for Cultural Affairs, and codirector of the Arts, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Lab. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Ryan Stubbs directs NASAA’s research team to provide high-quality information for the benefit of state arts agencies and the arts and culture field. His areas of expertise include public funding for the arts, state policy and the creative economy as well as state arts agency funding, services, operations and grant making. He oversees a research portfolio that includes dynamic data visualization tools, field surveys and research customized to the needs of state arts agencies. Stubbs also represents state arts agencies and NASAA at state, regional and NASAA research forums and serves as NASAA’s primary research liaison to federal agencies, foundations, consultants and scholars conducting research on public support for the arts.
Stubbs has more than 10 years of professional experience in the field of arts research. Prior to joining NASAA, he served as the director of research for the Western States Arts Federation, where he specialized in analyzing state and local creative economy data, implemented web based research technology and launched an initiative aimed at supporting independent music. Stubbs has experience in state government as a capital construction analyst for the Colorado Department of Higher Education and in economic development as a business manager for Adams County, Colorado. He holds master’s degrees in public administration and urban and regional planning with an emphasis in economic development planning from the University of Colorado, Denver.
Mohja Rhoads plays an important role in building evidence supporting the arts and state arts agencies through the collection, analysis and communication of data. Rhoads has extensive experience in planning research and policy. Prior to joining NASAA, she worked as a researcher studying telework and big data applications for transportation in partnership with California State Dominguez Hills, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Southern California (USC). As the senior research associate for The South Bay Cities Council of Governments, Rhoads developed a South Bay greenhouse gas emissions tool and climate action plan for the South Bay using 10 years of data from several large-scale electric vehicle programs and local surveys. She has an M.A. in urban planning from UCLA and a Ph.D. in planning, policy and development from USC.
Sarah Newman is director of art & education at metaLAB at Harvard University, a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Her work explores the social, ethical and pedagogical dimensions of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies through research, art and teaching. Newman leads the AI Pedagogy Project, a resource to provide educators materials for responsible engagement with AI technologies. Newman’s research focuses on data transparency. She cofounded and serves as research lead of the Data Nutrition Project, which aims to mitigate bias in data-driven systems through tools and educational practices.
Newman is an installation artist who has exhibited work in New York, Miami, Berlin and London, and has attended artist residencies in Germany, Italy and Sweden. Previous honors include: AI Grant, Harvard Assembly Fellow, Harvard Berkman Klein Fellow, a Rockefeller AI Resident, Artist-in-Residence at Northeastern School of Law, a grantee of the Notre Dame Tech Ethics Lab, a grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts and winner of the 2022 Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity.