NIST Appoints Pravina Raghavan as New Director of Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Pravina Raghavan has been named Director of the the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program. Raghavan recently served as executive vice president in the Division of Small Business and Technology Development for New York State’s economic development agency, where she managed the New York MEP. She has also served as deputy associate administrator of investment and innovation at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). ASME has been a long-time supporter of the MEP program.

MEP is a public-private partnership with centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. It provides small and medium-sized manufacturers with the support needed to reduce costs, improve efficiency, create new products, and find new markets. The program is dedicated to bolstering American manufacturing, which has become increasingly important as investment in research and development from a manufacturing perspective has decreased significantly.

ASME’s position paper on “Strengthening the U.S. Manufacturing Sector” asserts the Society’s support for continued MEP funding, stating that the MEP is a reliable program that fosters partnerships between small-sized manufacturers to promote collaboration that enables U.S. manufacturers to develop products, expand their markets, and adopt new technologies that help to strengthen the innovation pipeline in the U.S.

Additionally, ASME supports continued, sustained investment in MEP programs that work to promote workforce development to help build a skilled domestic workforce. Boosting the American workforce will help prevent companies from producing new products overseas and speed up the time it takes for innovations to travel from concept through commercialization.

For more information visit: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2021/12/nist-names-pravina-raghavan-new-director-manufacturing-extension.