Researcher

Megan Clifford received her Bachelor of Engineering in Engineering Management with a minor in Engineering Economics from Stevens Institute of Technology.  Clifford sees great benefit to dialogues that encompass academic, industry and government perspectives — considering issues from multiple disciplinary points of view and incorporating complementary approaches to address common challenges while identifying best practices.  She witnessed the power of being immersed in both academia and industry during her first professional position with Mosto Technologies.  She incorporated classroom knowledge to real world issues as she progressed from an intern-level technical test engineer to an energy efficiency engineer.  She later held the engineering manager position, and eventually systems engineer.   While being immersed in a legacy system, she was able to apply thermodynamics, heat transfer, and circuitry in their own respective, but recognized how one part of a system can greatly affect the rest.

She subsequently utilized systems engineering principles in the fashion industry, applying systems thinking to this highly competitive and time-pressured industry.  Clifford brought the two rather different experiences to her responsibilities of helping to grow the Center for Complex Systems and Enterprises (CCSE) within Stevens Institute of Technology as the Director of Industry and Government Relations.  As apart of the leadership of the CCSE, Clifford played a vital role in ensuring research deliverables were executed efficiently, relationships were established, sustained, and maintained, and that every opportunity for growth was ceased.  Clifford’s passion of implementing systems engineering into the healthcare delivery system was only enhanced working within the CCSE and with her advisor Dr. William Rouse. From there, Clifford joined the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) as the Manager of Program Operations, enabling her to assess and connect innovative, systems-oriented research initiatives among the collaborating universities. Clifford has returned to a researcher role on various SERC research tasks.