Dr. JoAnn Rolle, PhD, is an economist, executive strategist, and former IBM executive whose work sits at the intersection of technology adoption and human potential. She is the CEO of J.D. Rolle & Associates LLC and a nationally recognized voice on AI workforce integration, the disciplined approach to adopting AI by building organizational readiness across skills, culture, leadership alignment, and intergenerational collaboration, not simply delivering AI training.

Across a career spanning higher education leadership, government service, and corporate innovation, Dr. Rolle has built a reputation for translating complex economic and technological change into actionable workforce strategy. Her academic leadership includes a decade as Dean of the School of Business at Medgar Evers College (CUNY), where her focus centered on expanding access for underserved students to experiential learning, entrepreneurship ecosystems, and future-of-work opportunity pathways. She has also contributed to public-sector priorities through roles with the U.S. Department of Defense and HUD, and she is widely respected for forging partnerships that expand capacity across institutions and communities.

A leading advocate for HBCU-centered innovation, Dr. Rolle is a Past President of the National HBCU Business Deans Roundtable and a consistent champion for strengthening institutional pipelines into high-growth technology fields. She currently serves as a Trustee of IE New York College, a Board Member of the Pierians Foundation, and a member of the CBER advisory board.

Dr. Rolle is the editor of three published volumes focused on the future of work and entrepreneurship for underserved communities, and she is the author of a recent book on Tech-Enabled Futures™, a strategic blueprint for aligning technology, education innovation, entrepreneurship, and empowerment.

Known for a voice that is academic yet accessible, Dr. Rolle brings economist discipline to workforce outcomes while maintaining a practitioner’s insistence on what works in the real world: technology should amplify heritage and capability—not erase them.