Christopher Currens (Fed)

Chris Currens is the Senior Advisor for the Engineering Laboratory’s (EL) Materials and Structural Systems Division.  In this role, he develops, improves, and coordinates processes necessary to execute NIST responsibilities under various statutory authorities, including the NCST Act, the NWIR Act, and the NEHR Act; develops and oversees communications and outreach strategies; performs economic analysis in support of division objectives, including recommendations from investigations; and coordinates and tracks information and decision making between division staff and executive branch, congressional, departmental, and NIST leadership.

Before coming to EL, Chris spent 4 years as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Associate Director for Management Resources (MR), who is the executive responsible for all NIST-wide institutional support and administrative offices and their functions. Chris came to MR after serving as the Deputy Director of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace in the NIST Information Technology Laboratory. Prior to that, he spent 4 years as Associate Director for Program Development in EL. During his time in EL, he accepted a 1-year detail to the White House Council on Environmental Quality in the role of Deputy Associate Director of Green Technology. Before joining EL, Chris worked for 7 years in the NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) as a program manager and economist. He also served as the Senior Advisor to the ATP Director. While at ATP, he was detailed to the NIST Office of Technology Partnerships to assist with various programmatic efforts, including leading the Interagency Working Group on Technology Transfer.

Chris also supports the NIST Leadership, Management and Organizational Development Program in providing organizational and professional development advice to NIST leaders, training and matching coaches with current and aspiring NIST leaders, facilitating continuous improvement initiatives and interventions, and developing and delivering a comprehensive leadership development curriculum. He is a Senior Fellow and former coach at the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C., whose mission is to inspire a new generation of civil servants and transform the way government works.

Chris has extensive professional experience beyond NIST. He worked as a senior auditor in the Office of Inspector General at both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, and at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as well as at Salomon Brothers Inc., in New York.