Phil Emer

Director of Technology Planning and Policy
The William & Ida Friday Institute for Education Innovation, NC State University

Phil has spent over 25 years working at the intersections of information technology, research, academia and business – splitting time between the public and private sectors. In the private sector Phil worked as an engineer with IBM, as a technology executive with venture-backed Carolina Broadband and with not-for-profit MCNC. In the public sector Phil directed voice, video, and data communications at NC State University and served as Director of Technology with the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. He is currently Director of Technology Planning and Policy at the Friday Institute, where he has been a leader on the School Connectivity Initiative, the NC Education Cloud, and the NC Digital Learning Plan. Phil focuses on the development of implementation and operating plans for complex systems, organizations and processes.

Phil has served on the NC eLearning Commission, the advisory board of the Institute for Next Generation IT Systems, the Governor’s Innovation Council, and the architecture review board of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Currently, he serves on the Board of the Wireless Research Center of NC.

Phil earned a B.S. in electrical engineering at Virginia Tech and an M.S. in computer engineering at NC State University.