Date: Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Time: 3:30 - 5:30 pm ET

Location: Ballroom 212B, Gatton Student Center

160 Avenue of Champions, Lexington KY


Join us for our UK Women Innovator's Network (UKWIN) event featuring a panel discussion on the book Funded Female Founders: How to traverse the uneven playing field and secure funding to grow your business.


Online registration is closed. If you would like to attend the event and have not registered, you can register onsite beginning at 3:00 pm.

MEET THE SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS

HOST:

TAUNYA PHILLIPS

Director, Office of Technology Commercialization,

University of Kentucky

Taunya is the director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the University of Kentucky where she oversees a team of 16 staff managing the University’s intellectual property, licensing and startup portfolios. Previously, she was the senior associate director of New Ventures & Alliances, where she was focused on overseeing key alliances for OTC and managing support and services for UK and Lexington entrepreneurs and startups.

OPENING REMARKS:

LINDA DWOSKIN, Ph.D.

Senior Associate Vice President for Research, Special Projects, University of Kentucky

Dr. Dwoskin is a Professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department in the College of Pharmacy and is a Senior Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Kentucky (UK). For the past 33 years, Dr. Dwoskin has researched neuropharmacology and stimulant use disorders, including nicotine and methamphetamine, and the discovery and development of novel pharmacotherapies to treat these disorders.

CLOSING REMARKS:

LISA CASSIS, Ph.D.

Vice President for Research, University of Kentucky



Dr. Cassis has served as the University of Kentucky's Vice President for Research since June 2015. As VP for Research, she leads the university’s research enterprise and oversees research proposal development, grants and contracts administration, human subjects protection, 13 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes, and seven service core facilities. She has provided leadership on the UK Strategic Plan and for the new $265 million research building—which focuses UK research efforts on Kentucky’s most pressing health challenges in the areas of cancer, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and substance abuse.

PANEL MODERATOR:

MANDY WILSON DECKER

Registered Patent Attorney and member of the

Intellectual Property & Technology Services Group, Stites and Harbison

Mandy Wilson Decker is a Registered Patent Attorney and member of the Intellectual Property & Technology Service Group at Stites & Harbison. Her practice focuses on intellectual property protection strategy, including counseling clients on infringement, validity and patentability, transfer of intellectual property, patent drafting, and patent prosecution. Ms Decker has been named one of the Global Top 250 Women in IP by Managing Intellectual Property, she is rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell, she is listed in Chambers USA, and she has been named by Best Lawyers in America and Kentucky Super Lawyers. She has also been honored by Business First of Louisville, 20 People to Know in Law, Partners in Health Care, and Forty Under 40. She currently serves on the Kentucky Intellectual Property Alliance (KYIPA), Executive Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

PANELIST:

BRIT FITZPATRICK

Entrepreneur, Ecosystem Builder and Operator



Brit has more than ten years of experience as an entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, and operator. Most notably, she served as Founder & CEO of MentorMe, a SaaS edtech company. She's a current Venture Partner at REFASHIOND Ventures, an early-stage venture fund investing in startups shaping the future of sustainable global supply chains. Her entrepreneurial ventures have raised $2.5MM in equity-based and non-dilutive funding. She is a former Techstars Entrepreneur in Residence and Black Venture Institute Fellow. Most recently, she led inclusive ecosystem strategy and entrepreneurship programming for a national organization serving Black and Brown women-led small businesses. Before that, she launched and led a regional entrepreneurship hub in the Greater Cincinnati region and helped form an incubator and coworking space for Black-owned small businesses in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. In 2022, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo appointed Brit to the U.S. Economic Development Administration's National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship (NACIE). She is a proud graduate of Howard University.

PANELIST:

MONIQUE KUYKENDOLL QUARTERMAN

Executive Director for the Office of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Kentucky Cabinet of Economic Development

Monique Kuykendoll Quarterman is the Executive Director for the Office of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, also known as KY Innovation, at the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. A globally recognized expert in inclusive innovation, she is a co-founder of the Kentucky Intellectual Property Alliance, a co-founder of the NIH Proof of Concept Network Action Committee on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, the former Executive Director of Kentucky Commercialization Ventures, a multi-institutional reviewer of higher education and small business innovation programs, and a Louisville-based entrepreneur. Her efforts have contributed to more than a quarter billion dollars in equitable access to capital dollars coming into Kentucky over the past 10 years.

PANELIST:

PHOEBE A. WOOD

Principal, CompaniesWood




Phoebe Wood is Principal of CompaniesWood, a firm that specializes in advising and investing in early-stage companies. She retired as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Brown-Forman Corporation following 24 years at Atlantic Richfield (now BP). Ms. Wood is a director of several large publicly traded companies, all members of the NYSE and S&P500: Invesco, Ltd., Leggett & Platt, Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co., and PPL Corporation (the parent company of LG&E). Ms. Wood is a director of several large publicly traded companies, all members of the NYSE and S&P500: Invesco, Ltd., Leggett & Platt, Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co., and PPL Corporation (the parent company of LG&E). She previously served on the boards of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. and OshKosh B’Gosh, Inc.

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