Learn more about NCIIA's Board, Advisors, and Staff.
BOARD
Abigail Barrow | Director, Massachusetts Technology Center
Abigail Barrow is the Founding Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC). The MTTC is state funded and supports technology transfer activities from public and private research institutions to companies in Massachusetts. The Center works with technology transfer offices at all research institutions; faculty, researchers, and students who have commercially promising ideas; and companies across the Commonwealth.
Prior to joining the MTTC, Dr. Barrow served as managing director of William J. von Liebig Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). The von Liebig Center was created in 2001 to support the commercialization of research being performed in the Jacobs School of Engineering. Dr. Barrow worked in a variety of roles at UCSD CONNECT from 1990 to 2001. CONNECT’s programs focused on supporting early stage high-tech and biotech companies and in particular helping them raise funding from venture capitalists and corporate partners. Dr. Barrow has also worked with other regions where the CONNECT program has been successfully replicated, including Scotland and Scandinavia. Dr. Barrow is a Fellow of UCSD’s Beyster Institute and an Xconomist for Xconomy.com.
David Chen | Founder and Managing Director, Equilibrium Capital Group
Dave’s focus on sustainability is a result of his work in venture capital, regional economic development and energy policy. In 2007, he was a visiting executive at the Meyer Memorial Trust developing a investing thesis on mission related investing (MRI); this tool has since been adopted by several institutions. In late 2007, he formed Equilibrium Capital Group; an investment firm focused on growth equity investment opportunities in the area of sustainability.
Most recently Dave was a general partner at OVP Venture Partners, joining the firm in 2001. His investments at OVP include @once (acquired by InfoUSA), Ambric, Intelligent Results (acquired by First Data), Net6 (acquired by Citrix), Tzero, and UXComm. He served on the board of @mobile prior to its acquisition by software.com. Until 2002 he served on the board of HNC Software when it was merged with FICO (NASDAQ:HNCS, now NYSE:FIC).
Prior to OVP, Dave founded GeoTrust (acquired by Verisign 2006) & The Ascent Group; was Vice President Marketing Mentor Graphics; was an associate at McKinsey & Co; and was an early team member in 1978 at Solectron.
Equilibrium Capital Group portfolio board of directors:
• GEDi
• Biological Capital
Dave serves as Board Member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Portland Branch, Governor-Appointed Chairman of the Oregon Innovation Council, Chairman of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), Advisory Board Member of the Oregon Investment Fund (OIF), Advisory Board of the X Prize for Energy & Environment, Board member of National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), Past Chairman of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum (2006).
Jerry Engel | Adjunct Professor, Haas School of Business; Founding Executive Director Emeritus, and Senior Fellow, Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, University of California at Berkeley
Jerome Engel is a veteran of Silicon Valley. After a successful career advising and founding entrepreneurial ventures, he joined the University of California at Berkeley in 1991 to found the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. Mr. Engel is an adjunct professor at the Haas School of Business and instructs in both the School's MBA and Executive Education programs specializing in Entrepreneurship, New Venture Finance, Corporate Innovation, Venture Capital and Private Equity. Professor Engel is also co-founder and General Partner of Monitor Venture Partners, a venture capital firm organized in collaboration with the Monitor Group, investing in early stage technology ventures.
In Professor Engel’s broad background in entrepreneurship and innovation, he has founded successful entrepreneurial firms, taken several publics and sold others to major corporations. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of several high potential venture capital-backed and privately held firms. Previously he was the Managing Partner of Entrepreneurial Services for Ernst & Young, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the firm’s National Director of Capital Resources, a practice specializing in new venture financing. Professor Engel is experienced in building programs to develop entrepreneurship faculty, with a specialty of working with business executives, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to develop them into highly effective college instructors. Since 2005 he has helped to create and lead the Intel Entrepreneurship Initiative, which has trained hundreds of faculty in more than 40 sessions conducted throughout the world. The Initiative has included five global symposiums held at the University of California-Berkeley that have brought together leading alumni of the program for intensive “train-the-trainer” instruction. Professor Engel’s most recent research and publications focus on the nature of innovation processes in firms, communities and global networks. Professor Engel is the 2010 recipient of the NCIIA - Olympus Corporation Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award.
Michael Malone | Ronnie & Eugene Isenberg Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Vice Chancellor for Research & Engagement, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Mike was educated in chemical engineering at Penn State University and at UMass Amherst where he joined the faculty in 1980. At UMass he was Director of the Process Design and Control Center for nine years, Head of Chemical Engineering for six years, and then Dean of Engineering for five years until 2009. He has been a Visiting Scientist in Central Science & Engineering at the DuPont Company and has done extensive consulting and teaching for industry in the US and internationally. He is the author of numerous technical articles, a textbook, and holds two patents on catalytic distillation. He has won several awards for his research on process design and for his teaching. Currently, he team-teaches an interdisciplinary course on Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the Isenberg Program at UMass Amherst.
Paul Yock | Weiland Professor of Medicine and the founding co-chair of the Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University
Dr. Yock is internationally known for his work in inventing, developing and testing new medical devices, including the Rapid Exchange (tm) balloon angioplasty and stent system, now the primary system in use worldwide, and the Doppler-guided hypodermic needle system, P-D Access (tm). Dr. Yock also authored the fundamental patents for intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging and founded Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, now a division of Boston Scientific. Dr. Yock’s research focuses on preclinical development and clinical trials of catheter devices, most recently in the area of stem cell delivery to the heart. Dr. Yock also founded and directs the Program in Biodesign, which is a teaching and mentoring initiative focusing on the process of needs finding, invention and technology translation in the biomedical field.
Todd Warren | Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, Northwestern University and advisor to and an investor in Divergent Ventures
Todd Warren divides his time between the technology industry and entrepreneurial educational ventures. He is an advisor to and an investor in Divergent Ventures, focusing on early-stage companies. In addition to advising Divergent and their investments, Todd is an adjunct professor in computer science at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. He also serves on the board of Pcubed, a global consulting firm focused on large scale program and project management.
Todd worked for Microsoft for over 21 years in a variety of product management, general management, and product development roles. He was a corporate vice president from 2003 to 2009. From 2005 until 2009, Todd was responsible for the development and technical product strategy for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system and related products. Todd retired from Microsoft in February 2009.
Todd joined Microsoft after completing a BA with Honors in Computer Science and Economics at Northwestern University. At Northwestern he serves on the board of trustees as well as a number of advisory boards in the university.
ADVISORS
Judith Giordan | Senior Advisor
Dr. Giordan has enjoyed a career as a technology and corporate executive for several Fortune 500 companies, including Vice President of Global R&D for Pepsicola and International Flavors and Fragrances, and VP R&D Henkel Corporation. She has held adjunct and visiting academic positions and is currently Professor of Practice at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is active in professional societies and organizations including the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Intangible Asset Finance Society, and the Industrial Research Institute. She is a member of the Board of Directors for startup companies, is a serial entrepreneur and is former Member of the Board of Directors both the Industrial Research Institute and the ACS. Dr. Giordan is also Managing Director – Intangible Asset Finance for Steel City Re, LLC and Vice President of Visions in Education, Inc. Dr. Giordan received her BS from Rutgers University, her PhD from the University of Maryland, and was an Alexander von Humboldt post-doctoral fellow at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.
STAFF
Phil Weilerstein | Executive Director
Phil began his career as an entrepreneur as a student at the University of Massachusetts. He and a team including his advisor launched a start-up biotech company which ultimately went public. This experience, coupled with a lifelong passion for entrepreneurship, led to his work with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. Phil’s tenure at the NCIIA is marked by his skill for network-building and expert leverage of resources. He has a special talent for seeking out gifted educators and other important contributors and putting them to work for the betterment of invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship education in the U.S. and worldwide. As an entrepreneur in a not-for-profit organization, he has grown the NCIIA from a grassroots group of enthusiastic faculty to a nationally known and in-demand knowledge base and resource center. Phil also serves as the Chair of the Entrepreneurship Division of the American Society of Engineering Education. pweilerstein@nciia.org
Rachel Agoglia | Grants Coordinator
Rachel works closely with Grants Manager Jennifer Keller Jackson on NCIIA's grants programs and competitions. She brings to NCIIA over twelve years of nonprofit management and direct service experience, primarily from her work in Portland, Oregon and Providence, Rhode Island in the areas of hunger, education reform, and nonprofit consultation and support services. She returned to her hometown in Western Massachusetts in 2007 to join the team at NCIIA. Rachel holds a BA in Women's Studies from Bates College. ragoglia@nciia.org
James Barlow | Training Consultant
James has worked in the University entrepreneurship space for 7 years and has been Commercial Advisor or Commercial Director for 16 start-ups as well as consulting internationally on start-up strategy, enterprise education and training. Prior to working in Higher Education, James has been a Performance Coach, Motivational Speaker and Strategy Consultant for FTSE listed companies and also worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry in Sales and Sales Management. He earned his BSc Honours Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Kent. jbarlow@nciia.org
Tim Binkert | Program Associate for Communications
Tim earned a bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy from Syracuse University in 2000 and a certificate in professional writing and technical communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2004. Tim joined NCIIA in 2004 as an intern and was later hired to the permanent staff. Tim's responsibilities at NCIIA include reviewing and summarizing grant proposals, writing and editing publications, generating web content, conducting grant performance reviews, and performing administrative and operational tasks. tbinkert@nciia.org
Patricia Boynton | Program Associate for Outreach
Patricia has worked for NCIIA since April 2008. She brings to the position many years of experience working for entrepreneurial companies, both technology and non-technology based. Most recently she provided marketing and sales support for MicroCal, a scientific instrumentation company based in Northampton, MA. Patricia has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. pboynton@nciia.org
Babs Carryer | Director of Training and Faculty Development
Babs is a serial entrepreneur and active in multiple entrepreneurial activities. She blogs about entrepreneurship on New Venturist. Babs taught entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for 15 years, where she maintains an adjunct position. Formerly, Babs was embedded entrepreneur for CMU’s Project Olympus and innovation advisor for CMU’s Institute for Social Innovation. For seven years at the University of Pittsburgh, Babs taught the Benchtop to Bedside new technology commercialization course. Babs is President of Carryer Consulting and co-founder of LaunchCyte, which has a portfolio of five companies. Babs has a Masters in Public Management (MPM) from Heinz College at CMU and a BA from Mills College in California. She joined the NCIIA in 2012. babs@nciia.org
Katie Collamore | Senior Accountant
Katie joined NCIIA in April 2013 and assists with bookkeeping and grants accounting. She graduated in 2009 from Assumption College with a B.A. in Accounting. Prior to joining NCIIA, she worked at a public accounting firm in Hartford for 3.5 years specializing in not-for-profit accounting including State Single Audit and Circular A-133 compliance testing. kcollamore@nciia.org
Chris Desrosiers | Controller
Chris joined NCIIA in 2007 and successfully executes the financial and accounting functions of the organization. He handles grants accounting, tax matters, financial reporting and budgeting. Chris gained his business and accounting experience as an entrepreneur primarily in the mortgage and real estate industries. He recently earned his MBA from American International College and is also a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a B.A. in sociology. cdesrosiers@nciia.org
Humera Fasihuddin | Manager of Student Programming
Humera oversees all things Student Ambassador, working closely with Stanford in the Epicenter. She launched the Student Ambassador program in 2010 with a dozen students; it has grown to more than double that number within two years. She plans to continue that growth, having just developed and completed the first online Student Ambassadors Candidates training, benchmarking Stanford's acclaimed Massive Open Online Courseware (MOOC) best practices. Prior to this, Humera led NCIIA's mentoring initiatives, launching NCIIA's first foray into advanced accelerator-like workshops for student and faculty teams. Humera also helped start up and grow BMEidea and BMEStart, NCIIA's biomedical engineering competitions. She joined the NCIIA staff in 2005, initially as a consultant, when she was tasked with scaling to scale the Invention to Venture workshop series, which she helped grow from 5 to 40 annually. Prior to joining NCIIA, Humera founded Edical May, a manufacturing and business development company enabling scale-up of new medical devices. From 2001 to 2005, Humera spearheaded the creation of the Regional Technology Corporation. Humera began her career at materials manufacturer Intelicoat, where she worked her way up from operations to technical support and finally to managing a $40 million business unit in the CAD arena and cultivating a new digital proofing business unit. Humera earned her MBA from UMass-Amherst in 2000 and her B.S. in Mathematics (minor in Economics) from Smith College in 1992. Outside of NCIIA, Humera has many interests including her work on the school committee, the family farm, and her own start-up efforts in materials manufacturing. humera@nciia.org
Ricardo Gomez | Assessment Specialist
Ricardo L. Gómez is a postdoctoral associate for research and evaluation at NCIIA. Ricardo has over 10 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, research design, and empirical analysis of public policies. His expertise includes design and implementation of large scale surveys, database design, data analysis and visualization. Ricardo has provided consulting services to international nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, research organizations and the private sector, including Mercy Corps, Verité, Columbia University, University of Massachusetts, and UNICEF. Ricardo received a Bachelor of Science degree from La Salle University , and master’s degree in education from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. In December 2012, Ricardo completed the requirements for his doctoral degree in Education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. In his doctoral dissertation, Ricardo investigated the impact of federal policies for increasing participation of underrepresented groups in academia and advanced research careers in science and engineering (STEM). rgomez@nciia.org
Allyson Greene | Accountant
Allyson joined NCIIA in May of 2009 and assists with bookkeeping and grants accounting and also with membership, human resources, and other related administrative activities. She graduated in 2008 from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where she received a B.A. in economics and she has plans to pursue a M.S. in accounting. She is a lifelong resident of the valley, having grown up in Montague, MA. While in school, Allyson swam competitively for Turners Falls High School and Roger Williams University and is currently an Assistant Coach for the Amherst Tritons Swim Team. agreene@nciia.org
Jennifer Holme | Director of Finance and Administration
Prior to joining NCIIA in June 2012, Jennifer served as Chief Financial Officer at the Lathrop Community. Prior to this, she worked in Boston as both the Asset Manager and Director of Administration for Urban Edge, a developer of affordable housing, and Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration for Associated Early Care and Education. Jennifer holds a BA from University of Massachusetts–Boston and a Master in Business Administration with a concentration in public and non-profit management from Boston University. jholme@nciia.org
Jennifer Keller Jackson | Grants Manager
Jennifer Keller Jackson oversees NCIIA’s grants programs, totaling about $2M annually. Her experience includes program development and management, technical proposal writing and business development. Jennifer spent 20 years in Washington, D.C.; she wrote a concept paper to start a nonprofit and worked to transform another organization into a for-profit company, both of which exist today. She grew up in Asia, Africa, and South America and is deeply interested in alternatives to the traditional aid model of development. She has a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and studied at the Université de Montpellier, France. jkjackson@nciia.org
Leann Leake | Data Coordinator
Leann first worked at NCIIA as a temp in the Grants Department in 2011 before joining the team in the fall of 2012. Leann supports general office operations. She graduated the fall of 2009 from UMass Amherst with a B.A. in English and a B.F.A. in visual art with a focus on painting. lleake@nciia.org
Kim Noble | I-Corps Program Manager
Kim manages program development, logistics and operations for the national I-Corps program. She brings extensive experience in the management of national programs relating to leadership and business management through her work for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) and Golden Key International Honour Society (GKIHS). Her past work focused on coordinating geographically dispersed training programs, applying evaluation data to curriculum development, and developing and maintaining training materials. She received her BS and MS from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. knoble@nciia.org
Eric Phelps | Director of Development
Eric is responsible for resource development for NCIIA, including foundation, corporate, public and individual funding. He brings more than 20 years experience in nonprofit management encompassing executive leadership, fundraising, human resources, program development, conference planning and strategic oversight. Eric was most recently Director of the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. He has also served as Executive Director of the New Art Center in Newton, MA and of VSA arts of Georgia in Atlanta. Eric also worked as Development Director of IMAGE Film & Video Center Community Events Coordinator of Special Audiences, both in Atlanta. Eric holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts and a degree in American Sign Language from Georgia Perimeter College. ephelps@nciia.org
Laura Sampath | Global Training Programs Manager
Laura is NCIIA’s Global Training Programs manager, overseeing the planning and development of global venture development workshops. From 2007 - 2012, Laura ran the MIT International Development Initiative (IDI) where she worked with students, faculty and alumni to develop and deploy appropriate technologies and models of engagement to address the needs of the world’s poorest people. Previously, Laura worked with USAID's Regional Conflict Management and Governance office in Nairobi, and she has been a Fulbright Scholar as well as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Her areas of technical skill and expertise include strategic planning, program and project management, participatory approaches to community development and analytical writing. Her international experiences have spanned several countries in East Africa, as well as Morocco, India, and Peru. lsampath@nciia.org
Angela Shartrand | Research & Evaluation Manager
Angela oversees NCIIA's internal and external research and evaluation initiatives. Most recently, she has helped to build the organization's capacity to conduct research in areas that are closely aligned with NCIIA's mission, through developing collaborations with faculty researchers and developing successful research proposals to the National Science Foundation. She currently manages three NSF-funded research projects that examine innovation and entrepreneurship education in the STEM fields. Prior to NCIIA, she worked as a researcher and evaluator in several organizations, including the Young Sisters for Justice at the Boston Women's Fund and the Harvard Family Research Project. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology from Boston College, an Ed.M. from Harvard University and a B.A. from Williams College. ashartrand@nciia.org
Joseph Steig | Manager of Venture Development
Joseph leads the VentureWell program for the NCIIA. He has twenty years experience as an advisor and CFO to entrepreneurial companies and non-profits. He also advises Long River Ventures, a regional venture capital firm, in the role of consulting CFO. He grew up in Vancouver, Canada and graduated with a BA from Hampshire College. jsteig@nciia.org
Jennifer Taub | Development Associate/Grant Writer
Jennifer supports the Development Department through preparation of funding proposals, concept notes and communications with funders and potential supporters; conducts new prospect research; prepares stewardship reports to governmental and private funding sources; assists in coordinating the activities of the NCIIA Alumni network; and participates in the formulation of fundraising strategy with the Development Team. Jennifer comes to NCIIA from her former position as Deputy Director of Development at Western Center on Law and Poverty, which supports legal aids organizations throughout CA in health, housing and welfare. She managed the development of four Neighborhood Housing Services programs in Los Angeles and served as Regional Marketing Director for Datacom Systems Corporation. Jennifer has a B.A. in American History from Brown University and studied public policy at Claremont Graduate School. She is a recipient of the Coro Foundation Fellowship in Public Affairs. jtaub@nciia.org
Kate Tobin | Administrative/Accounting Associate
Kate Tobin has a Bachelor of Arts in Modern American History from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She worked as office and CSA manager at Enterprise Farm and at Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston, where she produced the 2011 Boston Local Food Festival. ktobin@nciia.org
Jo Ellen Warner | Communications Manager
Jo Ellen Warner joined the NCIIA team as the Communications Manager in March 2013. Prior to NCIIA, Ms. Warner served as a communications officer and consultant to the World Health Organization, Western Pacific Region Office, Communicable Disease, Surveillance and Response Team in the Asia-Pacific region, and for the Pacific Open Learning Health Network, a distance learning program for health care workers in 12 Pacific Island countries. Ms. Warner was the risk communications specialist for Public Health – Seattle & King County for three years and held communications director roles with the City of Seattle for nearly a decade. During this time, she also taught health communications as adjunct faculty to the University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health and Community Medicine and the UW Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. She is a recipient of the Gold Award for Excellence in Public Health Communication (New Media) from the National Public Health Information Coalition, and the Mayor's Champion of Diversity Award from the City of Seattle. Ms. Warner has a Master of Nonprofit Administration degree from the University of San Francisco. jwarner@nciia.org
