Senior Fellow, University Design Institute, Arizona State University

Professor of Practice, Watts College, Arizona State University

Dr. Shangraw is an entrepreneur and academic who has dedicated his career to thoughtfully scaling organizations and revolutionizing the landscape of global higher education. He currently serves as the President of Cintana Education and holds several positions within Arizona State University (ASU). At Cintana, Dr. Shangraw collaborates with Arizona State University and other academic institutions around the globe designing next generation universities. He oversees Cintana’s professional services teams and is the executive sponsor for partnerships in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and India. As an extension of Cintana’s partnership with American University Kyiv, Dr. Shangraw served as their founding president from November 2021 to May 2023. He also served as the founding president of American University of Technology in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from August 2024 to November 2025.

After 15 years as a senior executive at ASU, named the most innovative university in the country by U.S. News and World Report 11 years in a row, Dr. Shangraw has addressed the unique challenges that come with growing a large university enterprise. He helped ASU establish itself as one of the fastest-growing research enterprises in the United States during his time as senior vice president for research and innovation. Under his leadership, nearly 5,000 distinct research projects were awarded over $1.2 billion in funding.

In 2011, Dr. Shangraw became the chief executive officer of the ASU Foundation and from 2016 to 2019 transitioned his role into the founding CEO of ASU Enterprise Partners. During his nine-year tenure, ASU Enterprise Partners grew its assets from $500 million to $1.5 billion, spanning five subsidiaries raising resources through philanthropy, real estate, technology commercialization, applied research, and venture partnerships. Dr. Shangraw currently serves as a Professor of Practice in the School of Public Affairs within the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions and as a senior fellow with ASU’s University Design Institute.

Prior to his tenure at ASU, Dr. Shangraw was the founder and CEO of Project Performance Corporation, a Washington, D.C.-based research and technology consulting firm specializing in environmental, energy, and information management challenges. He advised the U.S. Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Energy, as well as Fortune 100 companies.

Dr. Shangraw began his career in academia as a tenure-track faculty member at Syracuse University where he received a Ph.D. in public administration with a specialization in technology and information policy and organization design from the Maxwell School. He also sits on the Board of Trustees for his undergraduate alma mater, Dickinson College.