Serving Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the National Level

I’m delighted to announce that I have accepted two new opportunities to share my expertise in entrepreneurship and innovation at the national level.

This month, I begin a two-year appointment to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), a federal advisory committee managed by the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, has reestablished NACIE with the primary goal of developing a National Entrepreneurship Strategy that “strengthens America’s ability to compete and win as the world’s leading startup nation and as the world’s leading innovator in critical emerging technologies.”

NACIE is charged with identifying and recommending solutions to drive the innovation economy, including growing a skilled STEM workforce and removing barriers for entrepreneurs ushering innovative technologies into the market. The council also facilitates federal dialogue with the innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce development communities. I’m thrilled to be working again with co-chairs Steve Case (Chairman/CEO of Revolution, Chairman of the Case Foundation, and Chairman, Startup American Partnership) and Kristina Johnson, President of The Ohio State University.

I’m also thrilled to be joining the Advisory Board of the Center for American Entrepreneurship, a nonpartisan Washington, DC–based research, policy, and advocacy organization that “works with policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels across the country to build a policy environment that promotes new business formation, survival, and growth.” I have been following John Dearie’s policy work for the last 5 years. Through Ian Hathaway, who is a CAE Fellow, John and I were formally introduced. John and his team do great work on behalf of entrepreneurs across the U.S. It will be an honor to work with Joni Cobb (Chair of CAE), John and fellow Advisory and BOD members. 

As excited as I am to impart learnings from my ecosystem building work in Colorado and the Midwest in Ohio, I am eager to learn from others serving CAE and NACIE, including corporate innovators, entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, venture capitalists, university leaders (presidents and PhDs focused on commercialization) and other leading technology innovators and advocates.

As Abigail Adams said,  “Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” The continuous cycle of learning and contributing, along with the opportunity to build new relationships with like-minded professionals across the U.S., are my primary motivators for these two new engagements.