Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee

Philip Gaskin is  Executive Fellow and strategic advisor to the Office of the President and CEO where he is responsible for advising on the Kauffman Foundation’s local and national efforts to build an economy that works for all people by making entrepreneurship an integral component of economic mobility and development policies, practices, and programs.

As a leader with deep expertise in working cross-sector to implement strategies that change conditions in communities of all types, Gaskin provides the vision, strategic thinking, and thought leadership to support the impact of the Foundation’s work. The overall focus is to promote pragmatic strategies that bring about authentic systems change to realize the fullest form of economic inclusion, interdependence, and open prosperity to motivate economic mobility for all.

Gaskin previously served as Vice President, Entrepreneurship,  where he led the Foundation’s Kansas City and national entrepreneurship portfolio and $50M+ budget – including grantmaking, operating programs, community engagement, research, policy, entrepreneur learning and support, and capital access.

Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, Gaskin was chief operating officer for Impact Hub in the U.S., where he led organization-wide initiatives to develop and scale a social innovation marketplace to support entrepreneurs and impact investors to build sustainable businesses that drive long-term social and environmental change.

Gaskin led grassroots operations for national campaigns and built, scaled, and activated teams who delivered historic results by aligning community, city, state, and federal leaders to support policy initiatives.

A native of Los Angeles, Gaskin is the son of an entrepreneur father who overcame many barriers to open a small business. Gaskin’s uses his life and career experience to advocate for all entrepreneurs, realizing the specific challenges  of entrepreneurs from underrepresented or marginalized populations and geographies. He attended Pennsylvania State University and graduated from California State University with a Bachelor of Science in business administration and marketing.

Serial entrepreneur and ecosystem builder, Julie Lenzer, is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), part of the Manufacturing USA network, is a member-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the bioeconomy of the U.S. Julie is charged with building the ecosystem and resources for startups with cell-, tissue-, and organ- based therapies as well as enabling technologies across the supply chain. Through the City of Manchester’s winning $44M EDA’s Build Back Better grant, she helped launch the BioFab Startup Lab among other ecosystem-building and workforce diversity initiatives.

Prior to joining ARMI, Julie served as Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Maryland where she was responsible for the technology transfer office, Small Business Development Center, and was Founding Director of the Quantum Startup Foundry. She helped launch the Innovation Extension University Center and was on the investment committees for the Maryland Momentum and Discovery funds.

Julie was appointed Director of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. There, she drove programs and policies that support innovative economic development such as innovation-based entrepreneurship and regional innovation clusters. As a Senior Advisor to the Secretary, she led the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) and was tapped to represent the U.S. as the innovation lead at the G20 in China.

She also served as Executive Director of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, the co-chair of Startup Maryland and co-founder of the Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit helping women launch tech-based businesses.

Julie is founding board member of the Center for American Entrepreneurship. Passionate about empowering the next generation of women leaders, she is also Chair of the Board of the Girls Scouts of Central Maryland.

Andrew McCandless is a proven business leader with extensive experience with both start-ups and large companies. His experience includes business development, product development, engineering, and operations. Mr. McCandless is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Bascom Hunter.  Headquartered in Baton Rouge, Bascom Hunter supplies aerospace and defense products of the highest performance, engineered for resilience while meeting extreme requirements. Bascom Hunter has two distinct divisions: one supplying environmental control systems and components through Xcelaero brand, and advanced defense electronics through BH Tech brand. The company was founded in 2010 and has grown rapidly since its start.

Mr. McCandless is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of SBIR Consortium a trade organization standing for and supporting SBIR companies. He has previously served as a commissioner and Chairman of the Baton Rouge Airport Commission. Prior to Bascom Hunter, Mr. McCandless was Director of Business Develop at a US division of Airbus and the President and Co-Founder of Mezzo Technologies, which successfully used the SBIR program to develop multiple commercial products.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University. 

Carol Dahl has over three decades of experience cultivating science and technology-based discovery and innovation, innovation ecosystems, and innovation talent in support of addressing critical challenges such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), fostering economic growth, and creating high quality jobs. She currently chairs the Program Advisory Council of Grand Challenges Canada and the Nomination Evaluation Committee for the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

As the Executive Director of The Lemelson Foundation from 2011 to 2021, Dr. Dahl led the Foundation’s work to use the power of invention to improve lives, by cultivating inclusive programs and systems to inspire and educate the next generation of inventors and innovators to solve crucial challenges and thrive in the innovation economy, and providing inclusive support for inventors and entrepreneurs to create value from their ideas in the form of products and businesses. While there, she paved the way for the launch of the Invention Education and Engineering for One Planet movements, with large and growing communities of researchers focused on innovation talent for a sustainable future.

Prior to joining The Lemelson Foundation, Dr. Dahl served as founding Director of the Global Health Discovery Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and led development of the Grand Challenges in Global Health and Grand Challenges Explorations programs, innovation programs which have been replicated in countries around the world.

Previously, Dr. Dahl worked at the NIH National Cancer Institute, at the National Center for Human Genome Research, at a start-up diagnostics company, the Advanced Technology Program at NIST, and was on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin, and postdoctoral training at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the University of Minnesota.

Colleen D. Egan is the President & CEO of the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC)  a member-driven 501(c)(6) non-profit, nonpartisan organization that cultivates technology-based economic development across the state through data, policy, innovation programming, and advocacy. She also leads the Coalition’s STEM education 501(c)(3) Institute supporting impactful real-world learning programs for K-12 students.

Colleen is the first woman and first LGBTQ person to lead the organization, starting the role in 2020. A former Registered Nurse, turned serial entrepreneur, she has been a founder, co-founder and C-Level executive leading six companies across multiple sectors; three being aquired.
She’s a founding member of The Women In Entrepreneurship Institute at DePaul University (WEI) and serves on multiple boards, councils, and mentoring organizations including Chicago Tech Academy, Chicago:Blend, P33, gener8tor, 1871 Talent Advisory Board, GET Cities Tech Equity Working Group, Current Blue Economy Advisory Council, The Innovators Council, Illinois Technology Council, Innovative Executives League, States Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) and U.S. Congresswoman Robin Kelly’s (IL-02) LGBTQ task force.

Colleen is a Managing Partner at Migrate Ventures and the American Dream Fund (ADF) investing in Immigrant and refugee founders and an angel and private equity investor, investing in funds or companies created by women, non-binary, and BIPOC founders. She speaks regularly on economic development, entrepreneurship, DEIA, women’s economic empowerment, STEM education, and LGTQIA issues and has been recognized for her work receiving the 2018 Illinois Technology Association Prominent Woman in Tech award,  2018 Connected World Woman of IoT award,  Crain’s Chicago Business Notable LGBTQ Executive in 2018, 2019 and 2021 and the Irish Echo Community Champion award in 2022.

She is a first generation American and dual citizen of the United States and Ireland. Colleen and her wife live in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood and have three grown children, three amazing grandchildren and two really lovely dogs.

Mr. McFeeters-Krone is an experienced executive with over 25 years consulting on various aspects of commercialization. After various roles at MIT, NASA, and Intel, he started his own firm in 2001 to facilitate R&D business development between the US government and private industry. His clientele includes Sharp Technology Ventures, P&G, Deloitte, DoD, NASA, several Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, many smaller firms, and the National Technology Transfer Center.  He is the co-founder of the MEP Advanced Tech Team, a NIST funded effort to engage small manufacturers with Manufacturing USA and other federal resources to solve technical challenges.

He has leveraged his knowledge of technology, business processes, and relationships to establish dozens of strategic R&D partnerships with US government agencies, including DOD, USDA, DHS, NASA, NIST, and DoE. His work on technology commercialization and his tireless efforts with the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) earned him the 2011 Outstanding Service Award from the FLC, where he remains a long time member of the programming committee.  His other government related work includes serving as a NSF SBIR reviewer, a DOE NREL Connector, and a NSF I-Corps industrial mentor.

Prior to forming his firm, he served as Vice President, Strategic Planning at CenterSpan (NASDAQ: CSCC), an early social communication and marketing platform. At Intel Corporation, he managed business development for Internet communication technologies, seeking outside (and internal) partners to commercialize Intel Labs’ products. He has founded several firms, including Scribe-X and RUTE Foundation Systems.

Mr. McFeeters-Krone is an NSF SBIR phase 2 reviewer, and has served on the advisory board of several firms (Oregon, Inc., Innovation Assets Group, Kerstech, and RUTE Foundations). He speaks regularly on Open Innovation and Technology Commercialization and holds a Physics degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Dedric A. Carter serves as the Vice Chancellor for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and Chief Innovation Officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as of November 1, 2023. Dr. Carter has cabinet level responsibility for the entrepreneurship, innovation, economic development, and commercialization portfolios at the University through Innovate Carolina and the Innovate Carolina Junction (a new Hub for catalyzing innovation and accelerating entrepreneurial intention located in Chapel Hill, NC) among other oversight and engagement roles. He teaches courses in systems applications to technical, business, and policy issues with an emphasis on the entrepreneurial process, innovation, and new venture creation.

Prior to his appointment, he was the Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Chief Commercialization Officer at Washington University in St. Louis with faculty appointments as professor of engineering practice at the McKelvey School of Engineering and professor of practice in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the John M. Olin School of Business. Dr. Carter had responsibility for the entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialization portfolios at Washington University. Dr. Carter was the founding Co-principal investigator of NSF Missouri Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in STEM program ($5M) and principal investigator on one of 44 inaugural Type 1 NSF Engine awards ($1M, NEURO360). During his time at Washington University, Dr. Carter launched the Needleman Program for Commercialization for advancing drug development.

Prior to joining Washington University, he served as the senior advisor for strategic initiatives in the Office of the Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in addition to serving as the executive secretary to the U.S. National Science Board executive committee. At NSF, Dr. Carter launched and oversaw the NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program to impact the speed of basic research commercialization.

Dr. Carter became chairman of the Missouri Technology Corporation in 2021. He is a member of the MIT Office of Sponsored Research Visiting Committee, and a Fellow of the Academy of Science-St. Louis. Additionally, he is a board member of the Center for American Entrepreneurship, the Lemelson Foundation International Advisory Board, and Junior Achievement.

Among other experiences, Dr. Carter has been a venture-backed entrepreneur. He has an undergraduate and graduate degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a Ph.D. in Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University.

Jake cofounded Celdara Medical with Dr. Michael Fanger to bridge academic innovation and the marketplace. He led Celdara from concept to the fastest growing company across all sectors in the state three years running and into the top ten for six consecutive years. Jake also serves as Principal Investigator of the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub which has resulted in follow-on funding (exceeding $100M) for 67% of participants, seven clinical trials, and three products to market. In 2008 he founded the New Ventures Office at Dartmouth Medical School where he continues to serve as director. Previously, Jake led new business, external innovation, and knowledge management at Cabot Corporation, after beginning his career at PolyTechnos Venture-Partners.

Jake has studied, worked, and taught in Canada, Germany, and the United States. He is currently a director of CairnSurgical, Virtici, MBV, Aclys, and the New Hampshire Academy of Science. Jake supports the entrepreneurial ecosystem through advisory roles at Dartmouth and the University of Vermont, and is cofounder of NIH’s Proof of Concept Network Action Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (PACE). He has testified before Congress on entrepreneurship, serves on the Small Business Advisory Committee for Senator Shaheen, and was appointed by Governors Hassan and then Sununu to the New Hampshire Innovation Research Center’s Board. In 2017 Jake was selected by the US SBA as New Hampshire Small Business Person of the Year. NH Business Review has counted him among their “Most Influential Business Leaders” annually since the list began.

Jake earned a BSc with First Class Honors at the University of Waterloo, and a PhD in Chemistry as a Brown-Wetherill Fellow at Purdue University and Ludwig Maximilians Universität. He has studied at the Business and Law Schools at Harvard, the Sloan School at MIT, and the Tuck School at Dartmouth.

Dr. Servo is the founder and president of Dawnbreaker, a leading provider of training, market research and commercialization support to the Small Business Innovation (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) communities. Jenny has developed and managed programs for the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Transportation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation and the Small Business Administration. Since 1990 Dawnbreaker has provided commercialization mentoring and support to over 10,000 SBIR and STTR awardees. Cumulatively these firms have received more than $2.5B in Phase III funding.

Dr. Servo developed train-the-trainer services and for five years provided training to other service providers affiliated with the Small Business Development Centers and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (now referred to as the APEX Centers). The goal of the train-the-trainer programs was to increase the ability of service providers to assist clients that had an interest in the SBIR and STTR programs.

The first federally funded Phase 0 program was designed for the Department of Energy in 2016. Through the DOE Phase 0 program, Dawnbreaker has assisted over 1,000 first time applicants learn how to prepare Phase I SBIR/STTR proposals to submit to the Department of Energy.  Companies that complete the program compete effectively with experienced companies in winning DOE SBIR and STTR awards.

Jenny is the author of Business Planning for Scientists and Engineers [4th edition] which has sold over 20,000 copies and has numerous publications on innovation in the workplace, the Futurist and Instructional Design. Most recently Dr. Servo led the team that developed the report entitled “Women’s Inclusion in Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Program” released by the National Women’s Business Council in August, 2020.

ML Mackey is the CEO and a Co-founder of Beacon Interactive Systems, a digital innovator and a non-traditional defense contractor headquartered in Waltham, MA. Beacon has successfully delivered multiple mission critical Programs of Record for the Department of Defense leveraging SBIR investments bringing commercial sector expertise to bear on national security needs.
Focused on the transformative effects of digitizing edge operations, Beacon’s award-winning technology streamlines performance and provides strategic insight into workforce, operational capacity and readiness.

Actively supporting operations across the DoD, Beacon’s digital products address Energy Management, Portfolio Management, Operations, Maintenance and Sustainment.
Ms. Mackey is an Executive Committee Member of the national board of NDIA, the National Defense Industrial Association, as well as the Chair of NDIA’s Small Business Division. She is a past Chair of NSBA, the National Small Business Association.  In 2022 Ms. Mackey was named the NSBA Small Business Advocate of the Year.

Ms. Mackey is a recognized thought leader on Small Business in the Defense Industrial Base and is frequently asked to contribute her expertise on innovation and entrepreneurship at both regional and national venues.  She has provided testimony at multiple Congressional Hearings, engaged with National Academies of Science studies as both a panelist and committee member and is a contributor to national media outlets including NDIA Magazine, the Washington Post, Politico and the Wall Street Journal.

Prior to co-founding Beacon, she worked at Digital Equipment Corporation where she began her career as a hardware engineer addressing both computing power and the evolution of rehabilitative devices. Ms. Mackey is a proud graduate of Lehigh University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

Dr. Ramón Barquin III is a highly reputed Senior Executive, Civic Leader, and Entrepreneur with more than 30 years of success spanning both the public and private sectors. Leveraging extensive experience in global leadership and civic advocacy, Barquin is a serial entrepreneur that founded and managed several IT, technology, and management consulting companies and has direct experience in all business cycles, including initial growth, capitalizing, and managing start-ups and multimillion-dollar enterprises. His broad areas of expertise include foreign markets, turnaround, M&A, government contracting, public affairs, sales and marketing, finance, information systems and technology, executive coaching, retail, arbitration, supply chain, and global expansion.

Barquin is President at Barquin International Corporation, working extensively with the US Federal Government, as well as managing major businesses, publications, and organizations around the world. He currently serves as the Chairman of Atlantic University; Chairman of Bluetide Puerto Rico; President of National Student Parent Mock Election, the largest civic education program in the US; Chairman of Instituto de Formacion Democratica; and President-Elect of Centro Unido de Detallistas de Puerto Rico, the territory’s oldest and largest chamber of commerce. Barquin is the former editor of Mercados & Tendencias, ComputerWorld and PC World in Spanish magazines. He was President of the Puerto Rico Institute for Public Policy, the territory’s first think tank, and advised state and local government leaders. He was President of the National Association of State Latino Chambers of Commerce.

Barquin holds a dual Ph.D. in Management and Organizational Leadership with Specialization in Information Systems & Technology, an MBA in Global Management, and a BS in Politics, Economics, and BA in Latin American Studies from Brandeis University, as well as numerous professional certifications and licenses. A true industry thought leader, he has published over 200 articles on IT, economics, politics, and business, and received numerous awards over the years.

Eric Adolphe has held CEO, President, or Founder positions at four (4) startup firms and successfully navigated the valley of death. Over a career that spans 30 years, Eric has raised over $25M from angel investors and served as a consultant on nine (9) Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) transactions. As an Adjunct Lecturer at American University, Eric taught Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise.  Eric has testified before four (4) House and Senate subcommittees related to Entrepreneurship, Small Business, and STEM Education. At all times, Eric’s work focused on enhancing economic opportunities for all Americans.

Eric is also a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Tibbett's Award-winning inventor and a National Inventors Hall of Fame Honoree. Eric’s Quality Assurance Data Collection SBIR product for NASA was cited as instrumental in the successful construction of the International Space Station. As a result, Eric received NASA’s Recognition for a Scientific Achievement that Significantly Advances Aerospace, one of NASA’s highest civilian honors. Eric is a 2022 Federal Computer Week (FCW)/Fed100 Award Winner, and Service to the Citizens Award Winner.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering Degree (B.E.E.E.) from the City College of New York; and a Juris Doctor Degree (Cum Laude) from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.  Eric is a member in good standing with the Maryland Bar. 

Mr. Carroll was the founder of Innovative Defense Technologies, LLC (IDT.  IDT provides innovative automated testing, analysis, and cyber defense of commercial aircraft, complex infrastructure, and defense software systems.

Under the Navy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and affirmed by the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in 2013, IDT demonstrated Automated Testing of Complex Weapon System Software which had proven to dramatically reduce the time, cost, and quality for adding new capabilities to the Navy’s Fleet of Surface, Subsurface and Air Assets. This game changing technology was recognized as an “unprecedented success for an SBIR Technology” by the Under Secretary of Defense in January 2016 showing an 85% efficiency improvement over current methods. Subsequently, IDT has been selected to provide ATRT inn several defense markets and the commercial aerospace market.

Prior to IDT, Mr. Carroll founded Digital System Resources, Inc. DSR was a system integration and software company specializing in technology critical to national security.  DSR became one of the top 100 largest prime Department of Defense contractors for Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation.  DSR introduced a new software model to Navy Combat Systems which grew to become a central element of the Navy’s Open Architecture Initiative. For just the submarine sonar information processing application, this initiative is credited with saving the Navy approximately $4.5B between 2000-2010. In addition, DSR provided information processing for electronic warfare, combat control, and computer-based training and simulation. In 2003, DSR was acquired by General Dynamics Corporation.

Mr. Carroll was a co-founder and Chairman of the Small Business Technology Council (SBTC), the high-tech arm of the National Small Business Association.
Mr. Carroll was a co-founder of Commonwealth Academy. Commonwealth Academy is a school for high school students with learning differences in Alexandria Virginia.

Dr. Sally C. Morton serves as executive vice president of Knowledge Enterprise at Arizona State University. In this role, she is responsible for the University’s research and economic development ecosystem. She advances research priorities, oversees the university’s institutes and initiatives, and leads expansion of corporate engagement and strategic partnerships, economic development, entrepreneurship and innovation, international development, and technology transfer. She is a professor of statistics in the College of Health Solutions and the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences.

Morton’s career has spanned both higher education and industry including being dean of the College of Science at Virginia Tech, chair of biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh, vice president for statistics and epidemiology at RTI International and head of the RAND Corporation’s Statistics Group. Her methodological work focuses on evidence synthesis, and she is internationally recognized in the use of statistics and data science to help patients, their families and providers make better health care decisions. She has been involved in health policy projects across a wide range of clinical and societal topics, such as back pain, health care quality, homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse.

Morton was the 2009 president of the American Statistical Association (ASA). She is a Fellow of the ASA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences. She currently serves on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Methodology Committee and the Research Advisory Committee of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research. Morton received a PhD in Statistics from Stanford University.

Tim is the Managing Director of Innovation Programs at CSUN.  Prior to this, he held leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies such as Bayer and Motorola, various biotechnology startup ventures, investment banking (Series 7 and 63), technology commercialization at the University of Southern California, and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UCLA.  He holds graduate degrees in Immunology from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and in Finance/Marketing from the Simon School of Business.  His undergraduate degree was from Valparaiso University in Chemistry and Biology.  He is the corresponding author of technical papers, patents, and conference presentations.  His current work focuses on practical training and resources for students from under-represented backgrounds to form value-creating ventures that fulfill unmet needs in the market.