Dr. Michael Dunaway is the CEO of CIRRUS Group, where he leads efforts to advance smart cities and communities through digital transformation, public-private collaboration, and applied research. He brings more than a decade of experience guiding national initiatives focused on community resilience, emerging technologies, and the integration of digital systems into public infrastructure.

Prior to CIRRUS, Dr. Dunaway led the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Smart Cities and Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) programs, coordinating large-scale collaborations among cities, research institutions, and private-sector partners. His work helped shape national frameworks and real-world deployments in areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, smart infrastructure, and disaster resilience.

He has also served as director of research institutes focused on smart systems and community resilience at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Cincinnati, and has collaborated with leading universities across the United States on smart city initiatives.

Dr. Dunaway is active in international standards development for smart cities, contributing to organizations including the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), IEEE, and the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and holds a Master of Arts from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from The George Washington University.