Adrienne Edisis

Adrienne Edisis is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Public Administration and Policy in Virginia Tech’s SPIA. She is the author of occupational regulation and work policy research publications, including Remote Work Disrupts State Occupational Licensing: The $1.6 Trillion Regulatory Federalism Challenge (2025) and How Can States Regulate De-Spatialized Phenomena? The Case of Occupational Licensing (2025). She is a Fellow of the Center for the Future of Work Places and Practices at Virginia Tech. She has served as a U.S. Department of Labor Scholar conducting research on the differential impacts of unemployment insurance and workers compensation on temporary help services workers.

She teaches quantitative methods and public policy courses to MPA and PhD students from the Washington Metro area campus in Arlington.

Before joining Virginia Tech, and before completing a mid-career PhD in Public Policy at The George Washington University, she worked as trade and investment specialist for the World Bank, director of the International Business Council of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and director of the GWU Governing in the Global Age program for U.S. state elected and senior officials. She has experience advising elected and Cabinet-level officials in U.S. city, state, and federal agencies, and in Latin American national governments; conducting data analysis using internal agency administrative data and public data; developing blueprints for major reforms; building support; and supporting implementation.

Areas of Expertise

• State Occupational Licensing
• Trade and Regulation of Services
• Paradiplomacy
• Governance of De-Spatialized Economic Activity