Aarti Israni is a postdoctoral researcher, technologist, and community advocate dedicated to advancing equitable access to technology. Her research explores how digital tools can support small business owners in low-income communities, with a focus on trust, psychological safety, and inclusive access to capital. With over nine years of experience in mixed-methods research across academia and industry, Aarti works at the intersection of community development, digital equity, and human-centered design. 

Alexander Hessinger is a sustainability strategist, project director, and entrepreneur with a career built at the intersection of climate innovation, community empowerment, and international development. Raised in Ecuador near the edge of the Amazon rainforest, Alexander developed an early respect for the natural world and a lifelong commitment to community-driven solutions.

He currently leads TerraDAC Technologies, where he oversees the commercialization of TerraStinger — a modular geophysical monitoring system for carbon capture and storage (CCUS). His work integrates field-ready hardware with cutting-edge MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification) strategies, helping advance regulatory compliance and safety in U.S. carbon markets. Under his leadership, TerraDAC has secured competitive DOE SBIR/STTR funding and built strategic partnerships with universities, tribal nations, and energy operators.

Alexander also co-founded Tribuquent, a technical assistance firm that has helped tribal nations secure over $60 million in clean energy, broadband, and climate resilience funding. His portfolio spans solar, geothermal, EV infrastructure, carbon credit transactions, and digital equity initiatives, all grounded in equitable access and community self-determination.

Internationally, Alexander co-leads Roots and Peaks, a regenerative tourism venture connecting global travelers to local climate and culture projects in Tanzania. His leadership reflects a systems-based approach — bridging federal agencies, tribal governments, and grassroots innovators — while advancing environmental technologies and inclusive economic models.

He holds a Master’s in Sustainability and Project Management from the School for International Training, a Bachelor’s in International Relations and Law from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and certifications in solar development and sustainable tourism. A Greenpeace Climate Fellow and former trustee of Pawnee Nation College, Alexander works fluently across Spanish- and English-speaking worlds, with a deepcommitment to climate justice, cultural memory, and resilient infrastructure.

Allen Gutierrez is a Fulbright alumnus and PhD student in Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He holds an MS in Information Technology, an MBA in Strategic Management, and a BA in Bilingual Executive Communication. Before moving to the U.S., he taught business and IT in bilingual schools in Panama, leading initiatives that brought real-world entrepreneurship into the classroom. At WPI’s i3Lab (Ideate, Innovate, Incubate), he mentors student startups from concept to commercialization. His research focuses on how entrepreneurial ecosystems can adopt technologies like AI to develop scalable, experiential entrepreneurship programs that support student founders through key startup processes. His goal is to create scalable incubators and make entrepreneurship education more accessible, practical, and culturally relevant, especially for underserved communities and developing countries. 

Dr. Andreya Williams is a cultural strategist and researcher whose work explores Black mobility, belonging, and the architecture of rootedness. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies and leads Kohere, a consultancy partnering with institutions like J.P. Morgan and Tulsa Remote to strengthen community integration and retention. Her initiative, The Listening Lab™, extends her dissertation research and has sparked collaboration with Headspace. She also hosts KIN, a curated dinner series that brings people together from across the country to connect, reflect, and anchor in new places. Her work reveals what it truly means to stay. 

Alexis Nicole Washington is an Assistant Professor in the Management Department at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include gender, status, and influence, as well as diversity and bias at work.

Dr. Washington is a member of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychologists, and the Southern Management Association. She has publications in Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Research in Organization Behavior and others. 

As Fund Manager for Resource Invests at Village Capital, Brahm Rhodes is designing and launching an innovative fund model to address systemic inequities in the innovation ecosystem and venture capital. He leads fundraising and partners with Entrepreneur Support Organizations. He oversees the entire investment lifecycle—from sourcing and due diligence to strategic post-investment support—while managing fund operations, financial oversight, and regulatory compliance.

He’s passionate about leveraging AI, data, technology, and his cross-disciplinary expertise to drive positive change and value creation across startups and ecosystems, uncover new insights, and develop solutions that create real, positive impact.

Before joining Village Capital, Brahm was a venture-backed founder, advisor, mentor, teacher, and investor in climate tech, climate justice, responsible AI, fintech, entertainment, defense, and autonomous vehicles.

Outside of work, Brahm is an avid photographer, having worked as a professional street, music, and documentary photographer in New York City and Paris and at the Newport Jazz Festival. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University.

In his role as Vice Provost for Faculty Engagement, Pathways & Public Interest Technology, Charlton McIlwain advances NYU’s academic excellence by supporting faculty recruitment, retention, and career advancement. McIlwain leads NYU's Center for Faculty Advancement, which provides programming, resources, and special recognitions and awards that promote faculty research, teaching, mentorship, community engagement, and academic leadership development for NYU faculty, as well as those faculty with whom we collaborate through our Faculty Resource Network. As part of the Center’s recruitment work, McIlwain oversees signature programs at the University that develop critical pathways for diverse individuals to prepare for and succeed in both academic careers and careers beyond academic. These range from College & Career Lab, which helps to nurture the career ambitions of underserved middle school students, to Faculty First Look, which prepares doctoral students for success on the academic job market, and others.

McIlwain oversees the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology, which brings together NYU’s faculty experts to collaborate with each other and with partners in the public and private sectors on the ethical creation, use, and governance of technology in society, and is NYU’s Designee to the New America/Ford Foundation sponsored Public Interest Technology-University Network. In addition to these specific duties, McIlwain works closely with the Vice Provost’s team and the offices of Research, Work Life, Teaching & Learning, Academic Appointments, Human Resources, Equal Opportunity, Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation, NYU Libraries, and others to ensure that our faculty have access to all available resources at NYU to advance their professional goals.

Dr. McIlwain has been at NYU since 2001. As Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, his scholarly work focuses on the intersections of race, digital media, and racial justice activism. He is the founder of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies and the author of the new book, Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, From the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter, by Oxford University Press. He also co-authored the award-winning book, Race Appeal: How Political Candidates Invoke Race In U.S. Political Campaigns. He received his Ph.D. in Communication and a Master's of Human Relations, both from the University of Oklahoma, and a B.A. in Family Psychology from Oklahoma Baptist University.

Desiree Frieson is a seasoned program designer and business strategist with over a decade of experience supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, community development, housing,  and innovation-focused organizations. She currently serves as Director of Programming at Build in Tulsa, where she leads entrepreneurship initiatives that have supported over 650 overlooked and underestimated founders in launching, validating, and scaling their ventures. Desiree has built out Build in Tulsa's early programs including Female Founders Pitch Night, BUILD Up, Coaching, the W.E. Build Accelerator Program, 1921, BOOST Awards, and a host of other programs and resources at Build in Tulsa. Her work has supported the acceleration of 120 companies, investment of $14 Million in capital invested into founders, 269 jobs created, and $28M in capital raised by founders in the Build in Tulsa network. 

She previously held leadership roles at NYDesigns, where she launched New York City’s first hardware accelerator, and at NYU’s Blackstone LaunchPad, where she created coaching and fellowship programs that assisted over 1,500 student and faculty-led startups, and spearheaded innovation initiatives for Female Founders. She has led regional communication and community building activities, and grant making, for NeighborWorks America - Northeast Region supporting 83 nonprofit affordable housing developers. From 2010 - 2013 in NYC's emerging Tech Alley, Desiree also founded Competeable, a tech-based matchmaking marketplace for early-stage entrepreneurs and national media to discover, collaborate, and publish impactful stories for public consumption. 

Desiree specializes in building equity-centered, results-driven programs that blend business strategy, technology, and financial empowerment. Her expertise includes strategic partnerships, founder coaching, and venture readiness. She is passionate about helping communities build multi-generational wealth through entrepreneurship and ensuring that underestimated founders have the tools to succeed.

With a strong background in business development, operational design, and curriculum creation, Desiree brings a thoughtful, collaborative, and systems-level approach to innovation. She is an adjunct lecturer with Brooklyn College and has previously worked with LaGuardia Community College and Iona College.  Her work sits at the intersection of social impact, economic justice, education, and entrepreneurial growth.

Dev Dutta is  Professor of Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in the Management & Entrepreneurship department at Peter T Paul College of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire. His research and teaching interests are at the intersection of strategy and entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on entrepreneurial ecosystems, technology entrepreneurship, and gender, race, and minority-related issues in high-tech entrepreneurship. Before academia, Dev worked for 15 years as a strategy consultant with several multinational companies in India. 

Dominick “Dom” Ard’is is a founder, funder, and facilitator on a mission to reduce the number of dreams that die unrealized—including his own. He is the Founder and CEO of ACT House, a B-Corp helping innovators discover their entrepreneurial identity, build aligned teams, and launch scalable ventures. Through ACT, he’s invested in over 45 high-impact startups, fueling innovation across the globe. Dom is also the inventor of the ACT Model—a proprietary team matching model used across accelerators and companies to supercharge collaboration and innovation. Whether on stage, in a strategy session, or leading retreats in the desert, he brings vision, clarity, and fire to every room he enters.

Ebony McGee, PhD, is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Innovation and Inclusion in the STEM Ecosystem at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education. McGee is an electrical engineer by training and a 13-time NSF investigator awardee. She is the leading expert on both race and structural racism within the traditional STEM ecosystem and the resistance to this paradigm. Her research includes the experiences and mental/physical health consequences of STEM education and occupations for Black and other minoritized students and professionals. She also investigates the limits of resiliency, wellness, and job embeddedness in the STEM ecosystem. She founded Racial Revolutionary and Inclusive Guidance for Health Throughout STEM (R-RIGHTS) and co-founded the Explorations in Diversifying Engineering Faculty Initiative (EDEFI), as well as the Institute in Critical Quantitative and Mixed Methodologies Training for Underrepresented Scholars (ICQCM), with support from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the WT Grant Foundation.

Her latest research explores the relationship between STEM innovation and entrepreneurship. Her work focuses on the infrastructure enhancements required to support a diverse population of founders and business owners in STEM. She served as a member of the research team for the Inclusion in Innovation Initiative (i4), a $3.5 million cooperative partnership between the NSF and the National GEM Consortium, providing scholarships for graduate students in engineering and science, to develop a national diversity and inclusion infrastructure for the NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program for STEM entrepreneurship.

A key concept in McGee’s work is equity ethics. In articles in the Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Engineering Education, American Journal of Education, and Teacher College Record, she has demonstrated that racially minoritized people in STEM gravitate toward empathetic social causes and racial justice efforts within and beyond their STEM pursuits. Their racial and ethnic marginalization—and the way they themselves have suffered—translates into concerns, efforts, and actions toward ending local and global disparities.

McGee conducted 319 interviews with high-achieving, underrepresented STEM undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty of color to write her first sole-authored book, Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation (Harvard Education Press, 2020). She found that key motivators for persistence in STEM were catalyzing change, improving communities, and being the STEM professor of color that many of the students and faculty she interviewed never had. Her book has received positive reviews in Teacher’s College Record, University World News, Science Education Review, Chemistry World Review, and the Journal of Intersectionality.

She has written numerous op-eds published by Science, The Washington Post, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Nature Human Behaviour and Cancer, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Higher Education Today, Education Week, and the British Broadcasting Company. Her research has appeared in Science, US News & World Report, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, The Hechinger Report, NPR Codeswitch, The Tennessean, and the Washington Monthly.

Learn more about McGee’s work:

• Personal website

• R-RIGHTS website

• ICQCM website

Speaker, writer, and specialist in the psychology of bias and discrimination, Emily Wright is a Bias and Digital Wellness Coach and a powerful voice in their generation. Emily has aided in the establishment and growth of multiple small businesses, and figureheads their own business, It’ll be alwright®.

It'll be alwright® offers customizable workshops and seminars, and individual and group coaching. Our signature sessions focus on mitigating bias and cultivating digital wellness. Mental and emotional wellbeing is a key theme to all our services as we recognise that we can combat negative repercussions of bias by improving clarity of headspace and thus decision-making. These levels of self-reflection are also key to the internal decolonization process, and we offer programs that facilitate the deconstruction of limiting beliefs and negative self-talk. 

Emily has written multiple books, including 'Mind Bites', which presents simple techniques to reprogram the mind, and 'The 100 Days of Colour: Celebrating Frequetic Beauty', which explores the relationship between subconscious and algorithmic bias. The research behind ‘The 100 Days of Colour’ is crucial to the conversation of ethics, psychology, and technology, and it involved monitoring the recommendations on the Spotify program by race to see how they changed with input. As a result of this experiment, Emily was able to backtrack the music recommendations provided by Spotify to isolate the demographic of the Spotify team, which is evidence of the inescapable link between psychology and technology. 

Emily offers unique insight on the intersection of Humanity and Technology, Psychology and Ethics, and how it relates to our evolution as a conscious species.

Gregory N. Price, Ph.D is the JP Morgan Chase Professor, Minority and Emerging Business II, in the Department of Economics and Finance, University of New Orleans. His previous appointments include Charles E. Merrill Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, Morehouse College, Director of the Mississippi Urban Research Center, Professor of Economics, Jackson State University, and Economics Program Director, National Science Foundation. He is currently the editor of the Review of Black Political Economy, and past President of the National Economic Association. An applied econometrician and theorist, his current research efforts are in economic stratification, African economic development, the causes and consequences of Entrepreneurship/Slavery. His research has been published in a wide variety of journals such as Economics and Human Biology, Review of Black Political Economy, Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Review, Industrial and Labor Relations, Social Science Quarterly, and African Development Review.

H. Dennis Park is an Associate Professor at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research considers how external resource acquisition strategy of technology-based ventures influence their development and performance. He has published his research findings in the Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Product and Innovation Management, Organization Science, Research Policy, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Strategy Science among others. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Venturing and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Dr. Park graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Sciences, Economics, and Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in Technology Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management from the University of Washington. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., he worked as a corporate venture capitalist, business development manager, and management consultant in the wireless telecommunications sector in the US and Asia. 

Dr. Howard Jean-Denis is a professor at Morehouse College as well as an entrepreneur, researcher, and activist in the areas of social justice within the African Diaspora. He holds a PhD in strategy and entrepreneurship from UMASS Amherst and has published academic research in several high-quality outlets across the world. Additionally, he holds an MBA in International business and a BS in economics and finance. His projects, research and mentoring have been featured on national television through ABC News Good Morning America, Diversity Inc. and the Academy of Management.

A native of Haiti, Dr. Jean-Denis blends his cultural heritage with business experience while in the classroom, conducting corporate workshops, or serving his clients. An award- winning entrepreneur, Dr. Jean-Denis has started several firms in the last decade. In 2023, he created Lakou Capital to invest in early-stage ventures in healthcare, energy and fintech spaces.

His entrepreneurial initiatives have received funding and recognition from the Obama Administration, Pfizer, and Environmental Defense fund.

Jake Cronin is a dedicated researcher and leader with more than thirteen years of professional experience in data analysis, project management, research methods, program evaluation, and dataset management. Driven by a passion for leveraging research and data, he strives to create innovative solutions that foster job creation and upward mobility.

In addition to his B.S. in Economics and Masters of Public Affairs, he has also completed all of the necessary coursework for a Ph.D. at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri (ABD). His research interests include economic mobility, education policy, workforce development, innovation, entrepreneurship, talent development, and regional competitiveness. 

He currently serves as the Director of Research & Analysis at Tulsa for You and Me, where he leads the Research, Analytics, and Data (RAD) team, supporting strategic decision-making through insightful analysis and research-based solutions to social and economic challenges. He oversees key research activities, including the development of a Labor Market Observatory, to align programs with labor market insights and foster an evidence-based approach to public problem-solving. Additionally, he manages the internal data architecture, ensuring it is accessible, standardized, and enriched to empower automation and analytics for informed decisions and continuous improvement. Through interactive reports and advanced analytics, Tulsa for You and Me transforms complex data into actionable insights, guiding effective and efficient program decisions. 

Jeneba Wint is an Innovation and Digital Storytelling Strategist specializing in empowering nonprofit and corporate leaders to harness the power of storytelling, identity, and AI literacy. With a focus on communities of color, she advocates for narrative sovereignty and digital fluency to counteract cultural erasure in the digital age. Through the development of frameworks like the O.R.I.G.I.N. Framework™, which provide actionable strategies for individuals and organizations to own and amplify their narratives, ensuring authentic representation and lasting impact in an AI-driven world. Jeneba's work bridges the gap between technology, personal branding intelligence, and culture, offering insights that influence AI ethics and promote equitable digital preservation practices. 

Kee Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of Black Girl Ai, the CoFounder of Including Us in Tech, and the Founder/CEO of RESET. At Black Girl Ai, she empower and inspire girls to become future leaders in the tech industry, equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and opportunities needed to excel in AI. Her passion lies in helping women and young girls learn all things tech-related, fueling their aspirations in the field. As CoFounder of Including Us in Tech, she further extends her mission to promote diversity and inclusion in the technology sector. In her role as Founder/CEO of RESET, Kee helps women conquer and defeat trauma, combining her tech expertise with a deep commitment to emotional healing and empowerment.

Dr. Laquita Blockson is the Associate Director for the Center for Black Entrepreneurship. A Cleveland native, Dr. Blockson is a scholar who specializes in organizational effectiveness, entrepreneurial ethics, minority women entrepreneurship and urban economic development. She has received prestigious grants from the National Science Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation and VentureWell, among others.

With a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business and an MBA from Florida A&M University, Dr. Blockson has held academic and leadership positions at several universities around the world and has worked for such major corporations as Taco Bell/YUM Brands and AT&T.

She is a former Director of the South Carolina Women’s Business Center and has served on the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program.

Dr. Lesley Robinson is the Founder & CEO of Embolden Education, where she empowers founders through entrepreneurial leadership. As Co-Founder of the ayana Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, she uplifts women founders globally through education, community, and enhanced access to funding.

With over two decades of experience in higher education, particularly in global education and entrepreneurship, Lesley teaches entrepreneurial leadership that inspires action, confident risk-taking, and purpose-driven growth. She equips students to navigate uncertainty, embrace ambiguity, and lead with their motivations, strengths, and values. As Associate Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship at Colorado State University, she champions a zero-barrier approach to innovation, aligning purpose with profit to drive #BusinessforaBetterWorld.

Lesley proudly partners with her alma mater, the University of Tulsa, to lead the UTulsa Cherokee Women’s AcceleratHER Fellowship, which has awarded over $250,000 in non-dilutive funding to Native American women founders.

Previously, as the Founding Director of the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute (KS WELI) at The University of Texas at Austin, she disbursed over $115,000 in grants, supported more than 66 startups, and championed over 95 FoundHERs. Under her leadership, KS WELI was named the 2023 Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Center by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) and earned the 2023 United Nations Global Purpose Award at World Logic Day.

A global citizen who has traveled to over 35 countries, Lesley is a U.S. State Department Professional Fellow and serves on the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. She shares her expertise as a Lehigh Iacocca Fellow, a board member of Blue Sky Partners, and an advisor to The University of Tulsa’s Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. She has been recognized as a 2024 Austin Woman Magazine Change Maker, a finalist in the Women in Business Category by the Austin Business Journal, and an Austin Under 40 Finalist.

Lesley holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership from Colorado State University, where her research focuses on gender and entrepreneurship education. She earned her master’s from Drexel University and her bachelor’s from the University of Tulsa.

Above all, Lesley is the proud mother of a 7-year-old daughter who loves wildcats, keeping her curious, brave, and inspired every day.

Mauricio Mercado is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Lender Center for Social Justice at Syracuse University. He earned his Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship from Iowa State University. His research examines how structural inequities shape entrepreneurial action and access, particularly among underrepresented racial minority founders. His work has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Perspectives and International Small Business Journal. Mauricio aims to advance inclusive theories of entrepreneurship and inform more equitable practices in funding and ecosystem design. 

Nada Hashmi is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at Babson College and a Research Affiliate at MIT. Her research explores the interface between technology and leadership, emphasizing the use of technological tools to enhance collective intelligence, collaboration, and equity in leadership and educational settings. Dr. Hashmi teaches courses in data science and information technology, drawing on her rich background in data analysis and management. Her academic contributions include a patent and several publications in respected journals. Beyond academia, she is actively involved in initiatives aimed at supporting women in technology and healthcare, reflecting her dedication to making a positive impact through her work. She received her PhD from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy as well as the Organizational Studies Group. Her Master degrees are in System Design and Management Department from MIT and Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. 

Nicolas Daniel Silva, LMSW, MS, "Nico" is an interdisciplinary artist, scientist, musician, and researcher with extensive experience in grant writing, consulting, and project development. His work spans small local businesses, start-ups, multi-million-dollar federal grants, and multinational corporations.

Currently, Nico serves as a Society for Neuroscience NSP Scholar, New York University Steinhardt Faculty First Look Scholar, UCL Global Arts in Medicine Fellow, Climate Fellow with the City of El Paso, and is pitching accessibility engineering interventions for people living with disabilities at the non profit, Pioneers 21 Pitch Competition. His upcoming co-written book chapters in the Palgrave Macmillan anthology, Fashioning the Borderlands and From Neuroarchitecture to Neurocities in Springer Nature highlight his varied and interdisciplinary curiosity.

Nico holds a BS in Microbiology with a concentration in Neuroscience, a Master of Social Work, a Master of Biological Sciences and Women’s and Gender Studies, and has PhD-level coursework in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences and Biosciences/Neurosciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Nico is applying to MD, PhD programs next cycle but is also interested in pursuing art and music schooll. His current research focuses on music and sound as interventions for mental health symptom alleviation in the Mexican-origin young adult community of El Paso. 

Ouafaa Hmaddi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Business at the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York. Her research focuses on entrepreneurial resource mobilization, with particular emphasis on understanding how underserved entrepreneurs acquire and leverage resources in contexts across the United States and North Africa. Ouafaa studies entrepreneurial spillovers from government programs, the role of capital in entrepreneurial persistence, place-based certifications, and social capital mobilization through mentor networks. Her work has been published in top-tier journals and she has secured grants to co-found the Alvares-Powell Lab for Entrepreneurship Policy Prototyping (LEPP), which conducts field experiments to pre-test policies enhancing resource accessibility for entrepreneurs.

Beswick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

I love teaching entrepreneurship because of the amazing innovations that students ideate and then create businesses around. I like the quote attributed to both Homer (the philosopher, not the father of Bart) and Steve Jobs, "The journey is the reward." I'm honored to be able to guide the WPI students through their journeys of not only learning about business ownership, but also actually building something - whether it’s a prototype, a minimally viable product (MVP) or a company. Being in a university setting provides students with a safety net to fail fast and pivot their ideas. No idea is too silly or too small to explore while in a learning mode.

I've also been fortunate to bring my love of mentoring students into my research. With a focus on under-represented populations in entrepreneurship, I study how society and educational institutions can foster a sense of curiosity for minority students to encourage ideation and business creation. A recent research focus on Benefit Corporations, companies that take a triple-bottom line approach (people, planet, and profit), provides insights on how these companies create value for society. Not surprisingly, many recent students have taken a 'business for good' perspective in building their companies focusing on social impact as well as making profits (which are necessary!)  This knowledge allows me to guide students through the unique hurdles of the social enterprise. Research on social entrepreneurship in Cuba, a country with high innovativeness but limited resources, provides great lessons of how to be successful even when faced with challenges. 

In addition to working with students, I enjoy mentoring community members of under-represented populations as they launch their own businesses. My experience co-founding a legal-tech company and past participation in a legal-tech accelerator gives me the insights on the challenges of entrepreneurship and how rewarding it is to start a business! My door is open to anyone interested in discussing a business idea, whether you're a student, alum, Worcester community member, staff, or faculty.

Education

PhD, Marketing - Michigan State University

MBA, University of Rochester

BS, Chemical Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara

BA, Business Economics, University of California at Santa Barbara

Sekou Bermiss’ research is in the area of strategic management and organizational theory. Specifically, he investigates how institutional factors shape the perception of firms by critical stakeholders. His research also explores the antecedents and consequences of human capital mobility and how different forms of employee movement impact a firm’s ability to compete with rivals.

Dr. Bermiss teaches courses in people analytics, managing human capital, leading for impact and organizational theory and design.

He is a Fellow at the Filene Institute where he leads the research efforts of the “War for Talent” Center of Excellence.

His award-winning research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal and Research in Organizational Behavior. His research has been highlighted by Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio.

He was honored as a Poets & Quants 2018 Top Undergraduate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served on the faculty before joining UNC Kenan-Flagler. Before entering academia, Dr. Bermiss worked for Deloitte Consulting in New York City.

He received his PhD and MS management and organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and his BS in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Shane Kelly has mobilized capital and community across technology and media ventures for 2 decades, leading venture funds, angel syndicates, startups, and media investments. He founded Cinematica Labs to build ecosystems for mission-driven entrepreneurs, partnering with organizations including Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition, Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, PledgeLA, BOMESI,  and New Media Ventures to deeply engage 800 founders and 100 mentors since 2022. By designing for founder well-being and minoritized communities, Cinematica Labs catalyzes economies centering people and the planet. 

Shane also serves as Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship for the Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business where he teaches the Venture Lab, guiding students to make $50k startup investments out of the USC Marshall Venture Fund, with investments including Adway and FedML. He previously  taught Venture Capital to emerging investors through his role as Investor in Residence for HBCU.vc, after which Fellows were placed into paid internships with top Venture Capital firms including Foundry, Slauson & Co, and Bloomberg Beta. An active member of the tech startup community, Shane serves on the investment committee for Cap Table Coalition, a community of over 1,000 angel investors and fund managers. 

Shane's work as a tech entrepreneur and investor has been featured by TenOneTen’s LA Venture podcast, AI on the Lot, Google Developers, and Forbes. As a tech investor, Shane founded Wolverine Angels, an angel syndicate for University of Michigan alumni where he invested in startups including FEM Prizma (Acquired by Nielsen Gracenote) and Neurable. He went on to run investments for Titan Fund, powered by CrowdSmart. The company’s proprietary platform combines human expertise and artificial intelligence to increase transparency and reduce bias for venture funds. Shane led 15 investments for the fund including Air and Syntiant.

Previously, Shane helped GreeneStreet Films raise several rounds of venture capital and build a slate of 20 motion pictures generating $250 million at the box office including Movie 43 and A Prairie Home Companion. 

Shane holds an MBA with distinction from University of Michigan where he was a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow. He earned a BS cum laude from Morehouse College where he studied Math and Physics.

Shonita Marie Black is a PhD student in Business Administration at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Her research examines how firm-owner identity and structural conditions shape financial decision-making under constraint, particularly among small and mid-sized enterprises. She investigates racial disparities in the use of bankruptcy as a survival-enhancing tool, introducing a theory of networked knowledge differentials alongside other mechanisms to explain how credit access, bureaucratic stigma, and institutional trust influence who leverages bankruptcy strategically—and who is locked out.

Her work reframes bankruptcy not as failure, but as a fail-safe—an underutilized, court-regulated resource that, if equitably accessed, could help close survival gaps across entrepreneurial ecosystems. She uses merged administrative data from the Kauffman Firm Survey and U.S. bankruptcy court records to conduct event history analysis, tracing identity-linked disparities among observationally equivalent firms.

Shonita brings a multidisciplinary lens to her research, bridging law, strategy, and economic sociology. She holds a JD from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, an MBA from the University of Cincinnati, and a BA in Political Science from The Ohio State University. Prior to academia, she was a litigator in the areas of antitrust, data privacy, and unfair competition, and taught business law at the University of Cincinnati. She currently serves as Research Chair of the PhD Forum at Michigan Ross, where she oversees competitive grant funding for doctoral researchers across disciplines.

Shu Deng is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Mississippi. Her research explores the intersection of technology and strategic decision-making in entrepreneurial and corporate contexts, with a focus on how firms adapt to dynamic and uncertain environments. She also investigates the drivers of innovation and entrepreneurship in creative industries, exploring the mechanisms that shape competitive advantage and industry evolution.

Dr. Steven W. Day is an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at North Carolina Central University. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and focuses on entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and strategic management. Dr. Day has developed award-winning programs, including the Faculty Entrepreneurship Certification Workshop and the Faculty-Student Research Fellowship, supporting faculty and students from over 10 HBCUs in impactful research and curriculum innovation.

A prolific scholar, Dr. Day has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and collaborates with institutions such as Duke University, Virginia Tech, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Pepperdine University. He frequently shares his work at national and international conferences.

Outside the classroom, Dr. Day is the founder of Blaxplore, a nonprofit connecting the African Diaspora through travel, culture, and media. He is also the founder of Spanish U, an online language school designed to help individuals from underserved communities acquire a second language and improve their job marketability. Dr. Day is committed to community engagement in Durham, supporting local businesses and fostering economic growth through education and mentorship.

Tamika Money is a rising scholar whose journey bridges executive-level business practice and rigorous academic inquiry. With over a decade of experience leading high-impact strategic initiatives at companies such as Porsche, Harley-Davidson and PwC, Tamika developed a reputation for translating complex problems into strategic solutions that deliver measurable results—securing tens of millions in savings, improving operational efficiency, and building equity-centered organizational cultures.

After earning her B.A. in Economics from Spelman College and her MBA from Cornell University, and given her corporate experience, Tamika has now pivoted to pursue a new mission: to interrogate and redesign the systems that perpetuate economic inequality. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Georgia, where her research explores how power, identity, and perceived merit shape entrepreneurial outcomes, particularly for systemically marginalized communities.

Tamika’s scholarly aptitude reflect the same care and passion she brought to the corporate world. As a second-year student, her ideas have already afforded her the opportunity to present at the Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference, Stanford's MS&E Rising Stars Workshop, and in PDWs on race, entrepreneurship, and organizational stigmatization at the Academy of Management’s (AOM) Annual Conference. Her work has also been accepted into SMS and AOM for the second consecutive year-all while completing rigorous coursework and actively participating in other research communities focused on racial equity in economic systems and policy.

With a deep commitment to translational research, Tamika seeks to build bridges between academic theory, community practice, and policy impact. Her works in progress embody the qualities of an emerging scholar with great promise—visionary, rigorous, and resolutely committed to making both business and academia more inclusive, equitable, and impactful.

Tammy Charles is redefining the blueprint for equitable innovation. A proud Queens, NYC native with Haitian roots, she serves as the powerhouse Chief Revenue Officer at the Black Innovation Alliance (BIA), leading a $300 million capital campaign to transform opportunities for small business owners and entrepreneurs in cities across the US. Since joining BIA in 2021, she has helped secure over $20 million to advance economic mobility and inclusive entrepreneurship. 

Tammy's visionary leadership combines fundraising expertise with cutting-edge technology, leveraging AI, strategic coalitions, and compelling storytelling to drive systemic change and high-impact partnerships. 

Through her fundraising efforts, Tammy played a key role in the launch of BIA’s flagship program, TRUST—a national entrepreneurship initiative designed to align capital, markets, and communities to drive small business growth in local ecosystems while leveraging a cohesive national framework. The program launched with an initial $7.5 million multi-year investment from Ballmer Group, Truist Foundation, and Visa Foundation.

Beyond her work at BIA, Tammy founded Inovo Strategic Consulting, taught social entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa, and serves as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Social Impact Strategy, where she is also a proud graduate. She also launched Tampa Bay Spark, an ecosystem-building initiative designed to foster cross-sector collaboration among key stakeholders in Tampa’s entrepreneurial landscape.

Tammy has been recognized with numerous accolades, including the prestigious 2018 Deanne Dewey Roberts Emerging Leader Award and President Bill Clinton’s Commitment to Action Award. She continues to inspire action and empower the next generation of changemakers.

Tsedale M. Melaku, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, and the author of You Don't Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism, which reflects the emphasis of her scholarly interests on race, gender, class, workplace inequities, intersectionality, performative allyship and organizations. Dr. Melaku’s work has been featured in various outlets, including the Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Law, The Boston Globe, Inside Higher Ed, Fortune, Teen Vogue, The Today Show’s NBC Left Field, CBS News, and Fortune, as well as peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Business Ethics, Organization, and Ethnic and Racial Studies. Her interdisciplinary research on marginalized groups in organizations unites three strands of significant sociological and management inquiry: diversity in the workplace, women in leadership positions, and the impact of systemic racism on advancement opportunities. Currently Dr. Melaku is developing a scale for her inclusion tax theory, writing about the impact of labels on the trajectories of research subjects, performative allyship at the organizational level and within processes, and the DEI backlash.

Tyrance Billingsley II is a born and raised Tulsa entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, and community leader with a background in politics and community organizing. For the past 3 years he has worked to seed the narrative of the rebirth of Black Wall Street as the world's premiere Black Innovation Economy under the new moniker “Black Tech Street'' and founded the Black Tech Street organization to achieve that goal.

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Tyrance in an Inaugural Forbes the Culture 50 Champion, has given a TEDx Talk on "How the opportunity of the tech industry, powered by the story of Black Wall Street, can transform Black America", has chaired various statewide boards, worked with startups and VC's as well as brokered partnerships with fortune 100 companies. 

Wade Dunn Jr. is a PDP Certified Professional and strategic visionary shaping the future of entrepreneurship, workforce innovation, and community impact. As Director of Entrepreneurial Partnerships and Programs at Gradient, he leads initiatives that connect founders with resources, mentorship, and capital across Tulsa’s growing startup ecosystem. Throughout his career, he has partnered with Apple, Google, Meta, Twitter, Verily Life Sciences, and Williams to design data-driven talent and process strategies that boost diversity, efficiency, and performance. As a co-founder of Love Mobile, the cellphone company that gives back, he blends purpose-driven telecom with social impact, driving measurable benefits in education, the environment, and community health. His dynamic keynotes on agile leadership, inclusive economic development, and innovation captivate audiences worldwide, inspiring action and change.