Deputy Innovation Officer, City and County of San Francisco
As an IFTF Fellow, Shannon Spanhake aims to understand the power of not asking permission to disrupt and create political and economic structures within innovation ecosystems. During the day, she serves as the Deputy Innovation Officer for the City and County of San Francisco in the Office of Mayor Edwin M. Lee. This work is an effort to drive economic growth and government efficiency with innovation. Prior to this role, she was at a startup founded with her patented civic technology for which she was recognized in “100 Women Innovating Science and Technology” by the Grace Hopper Foundation and was a semifinalist in the Buckminster Fuller Inventor competition. Before her current position, she held a dual-appointment as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and also as a Sr. Researcher at the Center for Development Finance in Chennai, India.