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. She has worked at UK since 1999, where her previous positions have been assistant vice president for Commercialization & Economic Development, chief financial officer for Kentucky Technology, Incorporated, College of Engineering lecturer, and Minority Engineering program director.

Before UK, Taunya worked at Milliken & Company, a chemical and textile manufacturer. Positions there included production manager, process engineer, technical salesperson, and marketing analyst & planner. Taunya is a National Academy of Inventors (NAI) honorary member, a member of the College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, a Midwest University Research Network (MRUN) board member, and past president of the UK Alumni Association board of directors. She was the 2014-2015 board chair for Opportunity for Work and Learning Incorporated and is a past president of the UK College of Engineering Alumni Association Board. Taunya has a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering and a Master of Business Administration, both from the University of Kentucky. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

DR. ALMESHA CAMPBELL

Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development, Jackson State University

Almesha L. Campbell, PhD., RTTP, is the Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Jackson State University (JSU). In this capacity, she supports the Vice President with overall responsibility for the Division of Research and Economic Development, which oversees the units of Grants and Contracts, Sponsored Programs, Research Compliance, Technology Transfer and Commercialization, Federal Relations, and the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development.

She designs and manages programs around innovation, technology transfer, and commercialization to broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities in these areas. Dr. Campbell co-led the development of the JSU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and created the JSU Innovation Fellows Program. She is the principal investigator or co-principal investigator for several federally funded programs at JSU including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Mid-South I-Corps Hub, the National Institutes of Health REACH Hub, the NSF Enabling SBE Science via the Network for Transformative Research program, the NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing Food Security and Climate Resilience (MS), and the recently awarded NSF ART program led by the University of Southern Mississippi. 

She is the 2023 - 2024 Chair of the Board of Directors of AUTM. In addition to AUTM, she holds membership in professional organizations such as the Licensing Executives Society, Society of Research Administrators (SRA) International, and the American Society of Public Administration, and is an honorary member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). 

PANEL MODERATOR:

DR. KENDRA HARGIS-STENZEL

Commercialization Manager, Office of Technology Commercialization

Kendra Stenzel, Ph.D., is the Commercialization Manager for Medical Devices for the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) at the University of Kentucky (UK) serving the College of Pharmacy and the College of Medicine. She works with UK Innovators to develop business models and commercialization plans for the technologies and to direct UK OTC's resources to maximize the long-term impact of each UK intellectual property (IP) asset. 

Previously, Kendra was the XOR Program Manager for XLeratorNetwork after serving as the Project Manager for the Kentucky Network for Innovation and Commercialization (KYNETIC) where she worked with innovators to develop proposals to obtain proof of concept funding, as well as educate innovators on the commercialization process. She earned her bachelor's degree in forensic science from Eastern Kentucky University and her Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on her Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship from UK.

PANELIST:

JANINE BARNETT

Perinatal Research Assistant Director, College of Nursing

Janine received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2000 and her Master of Science in Nursing as a perinatal/neonatal clinical nurse specialist in 2007. Her experience includes working as a labor and delivery nurse, childbirth educator, obstetric clinical instructor, prenatal lecturer, maternal-fetal medicine clinic nurse, and perinatal research nurse coordinator. Currently, she serves as the Assistant Director of the Perinatal Research and Wellness Center, developing, implementing, and overseeing research programs/protocols in a variety of clinical, community, and academic settings. 

Janine is a Tobacco Treatment Specialist, an ACE-certified Group Fitness Instructor, a Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Coach, a SCRIPT® Tobacco Treatment Counselor, an American Heart Association Freedom from Smoking® Facilitator, and a CenteringPregnancy® Facilitator. She combines her knowledge and experience to support her passion of improving the health and wellness of women and families across Kentucky.

PANELIST:

DR. APRIL FERNANDO

Associate Director, Center for Innovation in Population Health

April Fernando, PhD, is the Associate Director at the Center for Innovation in Population Health (IPH Center). She oversees the Workforce Development team, which provides training for and implementation of the Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) approach and TCOM tools to different jurisdictions, states, counties, regions, and organizations.

She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from California School of Professional Psychology/Alliant International University, where she focused on Psychodynamic/Child and Family areas of study. Early in her career, she became involved in training psychologists. She discovered her love of helping others through mentoring and supporting young clinicians, and helping them to connect to the mission driven part of their work.

PANELIST:

MICHELLE FERNANDO, MA

Operations Director, College of Public Health

Michelle Fernando is the Operations Director at the Center for Innovation in Population Health (IPH Center), where she spearheads the promotion of person-centered approaches to population health. At the forefront of their initiatives is Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM), pioneered by the center's founding director, Dr. John S. Lyons. The TCOM framework uses communimetric assessments to organize information and operationalize TCOM. The most widely known of the TCOM tools is the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment (CANS).

Since relocating TCOM from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago to the IPH Center at the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky in 2020, Michelle has overseen a remarkable tenfold increase in TCOM implementations, with awarded funds skyrocketing from $2.5 million to $22 million, and an additional $14 million pending. 

Michelle works remotely from Chicago, Illinois, balancing her professional commitments with family life. Michelle has been collaborating closely with Dr. Lyons and the TCOM team since 2016, driving innovation in the population health space.

PANELIST:

DR. ANGELA GUTIERREZ ECHEVERRI

UK SRC Liason, Postdoctoral Trainee, BAM

Angela Gutierrez, Ph. D., is the Director of the Sustainability and Analytics Equipment Facility (SAEF), which serves the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky. In this capacity, she supports faculty and graduate students with analytical expertise to advance engineering research. As part of the University of Kentucky’s Superfund Research Center and Research Engineer in the Civil Engineering Department, her research focuses on developing remediation technologies for water and wastewater treatment, addressing emerging contaminants in industrial point sources.

Angela received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky, where she focused on nanotechnology and polymeric platforms for water treatment. Her research resulted in an NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant to develop polymeric flocculant platforms for water treatment through Bluegrass Advanced Materials, LLC.