Pierrette Renée Dagg | Director of Research
Merit Network Inc

Dr. Pierrette Renée Dagg is the Director of Research for Merit Network at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She oversees Technology Impact Research, Network and Cybersecurity Research, and R&D. She serves as a Research Associate at the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State University and is an Adjunct Professor at Oakland Community College. Pierrette is also the Area Chair, Intellectual Property and Copyright, at the Pop Culture Association, and a member of the AI Policy Subcommittee at the University of Toledo. She chairs the AI Innovations Working Group at Merit Network. She has recently completed her work as a Digital Opportunities Fund Fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society where she is published case studies on broadband community champions.

She joined Merit from Crain’s Detroit Business, where she held the position of Creative Director. She has been the recipient of multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, PRism, the National Academy of Television Officers and Advisors and was also an Emmy nominee.

For her BA, Pierrette graduated from the University of Toledo in Interdisciplinary Studies and earned the Magna Cum Laude distinction. She was also a member of Phi Kappa Phi and was named the Distinguished Graduating Scholar by the College of Adult and Lifelong Learning. Pierrette completed her Executive MBA from the University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation in September 2018. Pierrette earned her Ph.D. at UT in the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education and Education Technology in 2023. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the Michigan Council for Women in Technology, and the Pop Culture/American Culture Association, among others.