Forough is Assistant Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Sponsored Programs for New Jersey Edge (Edge). As chief advocate for research and discovery, Forough serves as an advisor and counsel to senior higher education leaders to help translate vision for supporting research collaborations and innovation into actionable strategy leveraging regional and national advanced technology resources. Forough was previously at Rutgers University providing executive management for the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute (RDI2), working with Dr. Manish Parashar (Director). Forough's experience in higher education also includes previously serving as associate dean and department chair. Prior to joining academia, she held senior level engineering and management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and Hewlett Packard (HP), also consulted to Fortune 500 companies in high performance computing environments.
Forough is consulted on the state, national, and international levels related to STEM workforce development strategies and evaluating the policies and programs that shape vibrant inclusive innovation ecosystems. Forough’s research interest areas include: fostering diversity and inclusion in the university innovation ecosystem, and broadening the reach through models for federated data sharing infrastructure for advancing discovery. Forough’s research has resulted in numerous publications. Forough is co-PI on several NSF-funded projects including the NSF CC* OAC: Planning “Advanced Cyberinfrastructure for Teaching and Research at Rowan University and the Southern New Jersey Region”; the NSF CCRI: Planning “A Community Research Infrastructure for Integrated AI-Enabled Malware and Network Data Analysis”; the NSF ADVANCE Partnership: “New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collective.”
Forough is a Senior Member of IEEE, Vice President for NJBDA's Research Collaboration committee, serves on the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub and the Ecosystem for Research Computing Steering committees (ERN). She is an active member of the Association of University Technology Managers Women Inventors SIG, Chair of IEEE Women in Engineering Princeton, and has served in leadership roles in Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Association of Women in Science (AWIS), and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).
Forough has a doctorate in Higher Education Management from University of Pennsylvania, an MBA in Marketing from DePaul University, MS in Computer Science from Villanova University, and BS in Mathematics with a minor in Biology from Pennsylvania State University.