Joyce Ward

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Joyce is the Director of the Office of Education and Outreach for the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She is tasked with expanding the reach of the USPTO’s outreach offerings to provide educators and students with unique USPTO learning experiences and resources designed to integrate knowledge of invention, innovation, entrepreneurship, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Her office encourages both the creation as well as the protection of intellectual property. Under Joyce’s leadership the USPTO has launched several projects for educators and students such as the Science of Innovation series, a collaboration between the USPTO, the National Science Foundation, and NBC Learn; a national summer institute for teachers with a focus on intellectual property and the resources of the USPTO; intellectual property and STEM/STEAM professional development workshops for K-12 educators, an Intellectual Property patch with the Girl Scouts organization, and the first USPTO Inventor Trading Card series. Prior to her current position Joyce served as the Director of Program Support and Intellectual Property for the National Inventors Hall of Fame. From 1994 to 2002, she worked for the USPTO as a Trademark Examining Attorney and later as an Education Specialist in the Office of Public Affairs. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.