Rose Maria Li, PhD, MBA, is the president and CEO of Rose Li and Associates, Inc. and co-principal investigator of the a2 Collective Coordinating Center. The U.S. Small Business Administration named Dr. Li the 2024 Small Business Person of the Year for Maryland. She was also honored in 2024 to receive small business leadership awards from the International Leadership Foundation and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. Since 2016, she has served by appointment of the governor as chairperson of the Maryland Commission on Aging. By appointment of the governor, she also served on the Maryland State Board of Education (2016–2021).

Prior to founding RLA, Dr. Li served the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in leadership roles, including as senior policy advisor to the NIH Office of Extramural Research, special assistant for policy development with the NIH Office of Communication and Public Liaison, chief of the Population and Social Processes Branch within the National Institute on Aging Division of Behavioral and Social Research, and health scientist administrator with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She earned her BA in economics and MBA in finance and international business, both from the University of Chicago, and her PhD from Princeton University in public and international affairs, with a concentration in population policy. She completed postdoctoral research in demography, epidemiology, and economics of aging in Asia at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.