Mayra M. Tirado is an Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Professional Studies. Her research interests include science and technology policy, emerging technologies, governance, mentoring, collaborative behaviors and inclusion.
Before pursuing her doctorate, she was a program coordinator and evaluator for the government of the State of Guanajuato, where she led several programs to improve access to STEM education and to develop innovation capacities in the region. Also, during this time, she taught as a part-time lecturer at the University of Guanajuato. She was awarded the Conacyt's Fellowship twice. After earning her Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, where she explored the governance of science and policy impact using a particle physics field from the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN-LHC). Tirado then joined Arizona State University as a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Organization Research and Design and the MLF Teachers College, co-leading the efforts of the STEM Program Evaluation Lab.
Tirado uses organizations as critical sites to drive her research and to understand how these can function better. She's particularly interested in the forces that shape behaviors, structures, and incentives. Her research focuses on the relationships governing organizational behavior, policy, technologies, and society to help scholars and practitioners understand and address pressing social issues.
Through her work, Dr. Tirado has engaged with NGOs, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the European Commission (EC), and the Mexican and Chilean governments.