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N2TEC Core Team
Kathleen R. Allen Ph.D. is a professor in the Greif Entrepreneurship Center of the Marshall School of Business at the  University of Southern California and the author of numerous text and trade books including Launching New Ventures, 4th Edition, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, 3rd Ed., and Bringing New Technology to Market. She is the Director of the Center for Technology Commercialization at USC where she works to commercialize technologies developed at USC, and she is the Executive Director and founder of N2TEC. As an entrepreneur, Allen was active in commercial real estate development for 10 years, owning two businesses, is cofounder of two technology ventures, and is a director of a NYSE company. She holds a Masters Degree in Romance Languages, an MBA, and a Ph.D. with an emphasis in entrepreneurship.
David Barbe Ph.D. received B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering from West Virginia University in 1962 and  1964, respectively. In 1969 he received the Ph.D. degree from The Johns Hopkins University in Electrical Engineering. After positions at Westinghouse, the Naval Research Laboratory and the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, he joined the University of Maryland in 1985 where he is currently Executive Director of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Barbe was awarded the rank of Fellow of the IEEE in 1978 for his pioneering work on charge coupled device imagers, now used in digital cameras, camcorders, fax machines and numerous defense and medical applications. He has published and presented over 100 technical papers in the area of electronics and electro-optics and was an IEEE Electron Devices Society National Lecturer in 1988. He is currently president of the American Society of Engineering Education Entrepreneurship Division. The Hinman CEOs Program, for which he is the Faculty Director, received the Stanford University Innovative Entrepreneurship Educators Award in 2002, and Dr. Barbe received the American Society of Engineering Education Outstanding Entrepreneurship Educators Award in 2003.
Edward Caner is a Project Manager-Business Development for the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Programs at Case  Western Reserve University. His duties include course and program development, mentoring numerous cross-disciplinary E-Teams, advisory board building, and fundraising. He is also President of EFC & Associates, a consulting and coaching firm that specializes in commercialization, innovation, and entrepreneurship. In this capacity, he has been closely involved in the development of business plans in several diverse industries, and as has recently assisted a billion-dollar company with its IPO. He has also held the position as the inaugural Director of the Student Educational Entrepreneurship Development Center (SEED) at Case. Mr. Caner has a Master’s Degree in Physics Entrepreneurship from Case, a master's degree in violin performance from Cleveland State University and undergraduate degrees with honors in physics and engineering from Miami University. He has published articles in the New York Times, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, and The Ohio Music Educator's Association Triad, and is an avid sailor in the Star, Laser, and Tartan-10 classes.
Monica Dumitriu is a Research Assistant in the Department of Economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, where she is managing and co-implementing an inter-departmental, multidisciplinary (economics, law, technology) research project analyzing intellectual property (IP) management issues focusing on industry IP donations to universities and non-profits. Monica is conducting national research and helping to raise funds for the next study phases. Monica graduated summa cum laude with two undergraduate degrees in business management with a Major in Accounting, and French at Case Western Reserve University, as well as a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Weatherhead School of Management. As an entrepreneur, Monica has experience in consulting on innovative projects for financial services, economic development, manufacturing, consumer products, information technology, and healthcare industries, where she has helped create new products and programs, as well as margin enhancement opportunities.
Ron Foster holds B.A. Physics (1977) and M.S. Physics (1980) degrees from the University of Arkansas. Mr. Foster was employed at Texas Instruments from 1980 to 1983, and with Honeywell  International from 1983 to 2001. During this time, he worked in semiconductor design and fabrication, first as an individual contributor and later as an engineering manager. In 2001, Mr. Foster joined the University of Arkansas (UA) as Director of the Innovation Incubator, a newly created position funded by the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for Innovation (NSF-PFI) program. In October 2004 a new Innovation to Commercialization Incubator (ICI) was additionally funded by NSF-PFI, with Mr. Foster as Director and Co-PI. In addition, Mr. Foster acts as a consultant to the Technology Transfer Office at UA and participates in campus patent committee activities. These various activities are highly synergistic with the aims of the incubator program, bringing Mr. Foster into close contact with students, professors, research projects and the innovations that result from the research.
Kent Glasscock is Executive Vice President of the National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization (NISTAC), where he is responsible for  developing strategies to create sustainable technology based business and wealth creation in rural and underserved urban America through the acquisition of market grade technologies that are made available on a national basis in conjunction with supportive entrepreneurial services. Coming himself from a long entrepreneurial career, Glasscock still serves as Chairman and CEO of the family retail lumber and construction businesses operating in Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas. Previous to joining NISTAC, Mr. Glasscock enjoyed sixteen years in public service, including twelve years as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives. While in the legislature, was elected House Majority Leader in 1998 and Speaker of the House in 2000. Mr. Glasscock retired from public office in January of 2003 to join NISTAC.
Scott Laughlin directs the VentureAccelerator Program that the University of Maryland 's A. James Clark School of Engineering. VentureAccelerator helps form new faculty- and student-led  technology ventures. At the university, Mr. Laughlin is also Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the Hinman CEOs Program and a member of the Advisory Board for the Technology Advancement Program (TAP). A graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Laughlin started his career at International Data Group (IDG), publisher of 130 different computing magazines around the world. Following IDG, Mr. Laughlin was the earliest senior manager of LinkExchange, a technology company in online marketing. Microsoft acquired LinkExchange in 1998, following which Mr. Laughlin worked as a Group Program Manager overseeing the creation of various web-delivered applications. Following Microsoft, Mr. Laughlin returned to IDG as a Partner in their Silicon Valley venture capital group. Mr. Laughlin has served as an advisor to, or investor in several early stage technology companies, including Zappos.com, TellMe, AirTegrity, Eurekster, and TruGamerz. Outside of technology, Mr. Laughlin is also a Director of LM&O Advertising and College Parents Services, Inc.
Stacey Schmidt currently serves as Program Manager for the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology Commercialization at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Schmidt is part of UCF’s Office of Research and Commercialization team working to help UCF become a leading metropolitan research university and America’s leading Partnership University. In her current role she develops and implements initiatives to support entrepreneurs and university technologies emerging from the lab into the marketplace. Schmidt has launched several innovative entrepreneurship initiatives at the university, including the annual Invention to Venture Workshop with NCIIA, the UCF Venture Lab, and The Joust ™ business plan competition which she founded in 2003 and continues to Co-Chair. Prior to UCF, Stacey successfully launched her own startup company. She has held management positions in Marketing, Product Management and Business Development at VC-funded startups and established high tech companies, including Color Kinetics and ADE Corporation. Schmidt received her Master of Engineering Management from Dartmouth College and her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida.
Timothy M. Stearns Ph.D. is the holder of the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies and Director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California  State University, Fresno www.lylescenter.com. Professor Stearns received his MBA degree in management and a doctorate in management/sociology from Indiana University. He previously was a member of the Management faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Marquette University. He has served on the editorial board of the Academy of Management Journal, and currently services on the editorial boards of the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Small Business Management. He has taught and lectured on entrepreneurship and innovation to students and executives in Thailand, Poland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macau, and the Peoples Republic of China. He currently serves as Chair for the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management and Vice-President of Research for the United States Association of Small Business www.usasbe.org. In addition, he is President of the Central Valley Business Incubator www.cvbi.org.
Cyrus Taylor Ph.D. is the author of more than 60 scientific papers and has given more than 70 invited talks in recent years. As a physicist, he has worked in both theoretical and experimental  high energy physics, serving as co-spokesman of the MiniMax collaboration (FNAL T-864) at Fermilab (1993 - present) and as co-spokesman of the FELIX collaboration at CERN (1996-present). Prof. Taylor has also been a leader in creating new programs aimed at empowering scientists as entrepreneurs. He is Director of the Physics Entrepreneurship Program at Case Western Reserve University, Coordinator of Case's Science Entrepreneurship Programs and Co-Director of InTICE, the Institute for Technology Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship. Prof. Taylor was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society for providing a new paradigm for graduate education in Physics through the creation of an innovative Physics Entrepreneurship Master's Program, and was awarded the prestigous 2003 Price Institute Innovative Entrepreneurship Educators Award for pioneering the innovative Physics Entrepreneurship Program.
Karen S. Thornton is the Program Director of the Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities (CEOs) Program at the University of Maryland where she provides strategic direction and program development for the nationally acclaimed residential undergraduate entrepreneurship program that was established in Fall of 2000. Ms. Thornton has also helped develop and is responsible for the execution of new entrepreneurship initiatives including the annually held New Venture Challenge business plan competition and Technology Start-up Boot Camp. Before joining the Hinman CEOs Program, Ms. Thornton held campus and corporate positions in human resources and external relations. Ms. Thornton previously spent 25 years as a concert soloist, chamber player and orchestral musician. She was a Fulbright Scholar and has performed and toured nationally and internationally. She also spent 15 years teaching at Towson University ( Baltimore) and Jacksonville University ( Florida). Ms. Thornton earned the BM and MM in performance (’71, ’72) from Florida State University, the ARCM in Horn Teaching from the Royal College of Music, and the MBA (’98) from the University of Maryland.
Melvin Ustad Ph.D. is, Director of the South Dakota Office of Commercialization and has extensive experience leading  collaborative interdisciplinary public private research and economic development projects. Dr. Ustad also served as Acting and Interim Vice President for Research at the University of South Dakota, Director of the South Dakota SBIR Center, and worked for US Senator Larry Pressler. He has served or currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Small Business High Technology Institute, National Network for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (N2TEC) Executive Committee, Genesis of Innovation, Enterprise Institute, South Dakota Science and Technology Council, Forward Sioux Falls Technology Accelerator, and several technology based business boards. Dr. Ustad has led a $1.6 million National Science Foundation Information Technology Research project and a $600,000 National Science Foundation statewide Partnership for Innovation project. Dr. Ustad has also lead a four state regional US Department of Commerce EPSCoT project, Project SBIR West projects supported by the US West Foundation, a Coleman Foundation Entrepreneurship project and two National Collegiate Innovators and Inventors Alliance projects.
Delore Zimmerman, Ph.D. is the President of CEO Praxis, Inc., a growth strategy company that works with entrepreneurial leaders to build communities and regions that are more competitive and livable. Delore's career has focused on the connections between community and enterprise development, including 10 years developing and deploying the High-Performance Community initiative. CEO Praxis has received eight Small Business Innovation Research awards from USDA that have resulted in innovative techniques, practices and tools to help economic developers and community leaders in urbanized rural areas create an entrepreneurial culture and work more effectively with entrepreneurs in technology and information industries. Delore also currently serves as the Director of the Coordinating Center of the Red River Valley Research Corridor, named to the position by U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan in March 2004. The Research Corridor is an initiative to bring ideas, talent and capital together to build and attract new science and technology-based ventures in North Dakota and the Upper Great Plains.
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