Meredith Adkins is an Assistant Research Professor at the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I3R), a translational research institute at the University of Arkansas that fosters collaboration to address grand challenges. In this role, Adkins works on public policy, community development, and health (including Food is Medicine and maternal health) and use-inspired convergence research projects, employing human centered design and innovation processes. Adkins is the Principal Investigator for Phase 1 and 2 of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator Track J Food & Nutrition Security award, where the team is building an AI data analytics technology that will empower more resilient regional food systems. She was an inaugural VentureWell Ecosystem Futures Fellow in 2025, and the recipient of a VentureWell Course & Program grant that has supported the development of a course in food and nutrition entrepreneurship at UA Pine Bluff, a land-grant HBCU.

Adkins has worked at the University of Arkansas for over a decade, previously leading Northwest Arkansas corporate and community engagement in the Division of Economic Development and corporate and employer relations at the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Adkins holds a doctorate in public policy with a specialization in community development from the UA (’22), and B.A. (’06) and M.A. (’10) degrees in political science from the University of Colorado and Colorado State University. Her research interests are maternal health, poverty alleviation, community reinvestment and development, capital access and impact investing, technology development for rural communities, and innovation and entrepreneurship more broadly.