Whitney Tallarico

ETR Fellow

Whitney has built public-private partnerships and led innovation programs for the Navy, universities, and private industry for the last decade. Five of those years were spent at the Office of Naval Research, where she invested in emerging technology while building the Navy's innovation arm, NavalX. In this role, Under the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisitions, she launched and led the Navy's international network of innovation hubs (Tech Bridges).

After leaving the Navy in 2022, Whitney launched GRIT LLC to continue building emerging tech partnerships. GRIT specializes in deploying emerging technology solutions paired with organizational process innovations to fill capability gaps. The firm focuses primarily on the blue economy, energy resilience, and national security. GRIT works directly with startups, universities, and government agencies like NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator for NATO Allies (DIANA).

Whitney also serves as the Emerging Technology Readiness Fellow for the Silicon Valley Defense Group. There she engages with military, private capital providers, private companies and congressional stakeholders to uncover the barriers to emerging technology development and adoption for national security purposes and drafts policy recommendations to address them.

Whitney has a master’s degree in International Development Studies from George Washington University and spends most of her time in DC, Rhode Island, and Silicon Valley where she enjoys fishing, hiking, and cooking.