WASHINGTON–Today, Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice for America’s 33 million small businesses and startups in President Biden’s Cabinet, announced the appointment of 15 members to the newly established Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee (IIEAC). The advisory committee’s main objective is to promote, expand, and strengthen the innovation ecosystem, including innovation commercialization, lab-to-market translation, and constructing a more equitable, inclusive federal innovation ecosystem.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is working to ensure America’s entrepreneurs get the support they need to innovate and commercialize to create the industries of the future and solve global problems,” said Administrator Guzman. “The distinguished members of this newly launched advisory committee will serve as an important resource with insights and recommendations to help us build policies and programs that foster American ingenuity, innovation, and economic competitiveness.”
The IIEAC consists of members with a diverse set of perspectives, experiences, and occupational backgrounds across America that will help accelerate support for startups and small businesses.
“The members of the advisory committee will inform how the SBA, and the federal government more broadly, think about addressing persistent gaps in support for entrepreneurs inventing, commercializing, and scaling breakthrough innovations that are critical to our country’s global economic competitiveness and national security,” said Associate Administrator for Investment and Innovation Bailey DeVries.
Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee Members
- IIEAC Chair: Philip Gaskin, Executive Fellow and Strategic Advisor to the CEO, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Mo.)
- IIEAC Vice Chair: Julie Lenzer, Chief Innovation Officer, Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (N.H.)
- Eric Adolphe, CEO & Founder, Forward Edge-AI, Inc. (Texas)
- Dr. Ramon Barquin III, Chairman of the Board, Atlantic University (Puerto Rico)
- Richard Carroll, Chairman, Innovative Defense Enterprises (Fla.)
- Dr. Dedric Carter, Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Chief Commercialization Officer, Washington University in Saint Louis (Mo.)
- Dr. Carol Dahl, Board Member, VentureWell, VertueLab, and Washington Research Foundation; Trustee, Wisys (Wash.)
- Colleen D. Egan, President and CEO, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (Ill.)
- ML Mackey, CEO, Beacon Interactive Systems (Mass.)
- Andrew McCandless, Chairman and CEO, Bascom Hunter (La.)
- David McFeeters-Krone, Principal, Intellectual Assets (Ore.)
- Dr. Sally Morton, Executive Vice President, Arizona State University’s Knowledge Enterprise (Ariz.)
- Dr. Jake Reder, CEO, Celdara Medical (N.H.)
- Dr. Jenny Servo, President, Dawnbreaker (N.Y.)
- Timothy Tiemann, Managing Director of Innovation Programs, California State University Northridge (Calif.)
