Profile: Stacy Strauss

Meet Stacy Strauss. Director, Ohio University Innovation Center.

Name: Stacy Strauss

Job: Director, Ohio University Innovation Center

City: Athens

Hometown: Bay Village

Q: What do you do at Ohio University?
The Ohio University Innovation Center provides valuable business incubation resources to fuel the economy in Athens, Ohio and the surrounding Southeast Ohio region. The Innovation Center is a business incubation program for viable early-stage, technology-based, and technology-enabled companies that want to scale. We provide professional space, onsite coaching, access to a network of experts, a community of support, a virtual membership option, and much more.

Q: What’s a problem you're working to solve?
Among many other problems which we are working to solve, we are currently focused on providing more sector-specialized space, equipment, and services to build upon the micro-cluster of biotechnology and life science companies in the Southeast Ohio region. This focus includes an on-going $1.5 million dollar renovation of the Innovation Center to increase laboratory spaces and equipment as well as our work in partnership with the Athens County Port Authority to build speculative buildings in the Bill Theisen Industrial Park in Athens County.

Q: What’s a lesson you’ve learned that's shaped your work?
I have learned the importance of remaining laser focused on the needs – both emerging and current – of our clients and prospective clients to drive our mission and work. It's easy to fall victim to mission-drift when considering best practices of peers in incubation, business development, and economic development. However, what works for others in a different region may very likely not work nor be needed in Southeast Ohio.

Q: What’s a trend in technology or innovation that doesn’t get enough attention?
The use, importance, and influence of Ohio’s talented higher-ed students working within emerging technology companies does not receive enough attention.

In 2015, the Innovation Center worked with university partners to launch a student experiential learning program. Students are embedded with client companies to gain valuable skills and experience to benefit future job placement; uncover the potential for employment in the region upon graduation; and earn income without leaving Athens which serves to increase retention and progress toward graduation. This program has frequently enabled startups to make their first hire and has also enabled regional companies to retain the students after their graduation mitigating the brain drain that plagues rural regions.

The State of Ohio also funds student internships in tech companies through state-funded initiatives. The talent of Ohio’s students on the state’s economy and startups’ successes cannot be understated.

Q: What’s one moonshot idea that could help make Ohio a world leader in technology and innovation?
If Ohio could setup a better, more streamlined, and responsive mechanism to fund the most promising R&D in drug and medical device development in collaboration with the Tier 1 Research Universities across the state, I believe that would have a dramatic long-term impact on the state’s competitiveness to attract existing global corporations, its economic vitality, its ability to grow new global companies, and its ability to attract talent.

Q: What’s a recent book, podcast or news story that you found interesting?
Wow. It is so very hard to choose one! I recently learned a great deal from a podcast featuring Eric Lander (linked here). Eric Lander is a geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician. He was a principal leader of the Human Genome Project and is the president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. In the episode, Eric did an excellent job of explaining very technical advances in terms easily understood and with excellent examples.

Q: What's your favorite place in Ohio?
Another difficult question. I simply cannot choose just one. So, tied for first are three places in no particular order.

1) The upper rim trail of Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve in the Hocking Hills. Such a spectacular view!

2) The top of The Ridges – also known as Radar Hill – here in Athens. This is a spot I find myself in at least three times a month to recenter and quiet my thoughts. It has also been the place with the best vantage point to view the growth and development of Athens since I moved here in 2000.

3) Huntington Beach in Bay Village is a mere 1-mile jog from my childhood home and holds many memories of time spent there with family and friends. It also has a beautiful view of downtown Cleveland on a clear day!

A final favorite would be Municipal Stadium where I worked in concessions in high school and enjoyed many Indians and Browns games. But, alas, the classic “mistake by the lake” is no more. I, for one, enjoyed the obstructed views and $4 ticket prices!

Q: What makes Ohio special to you?
Ohio boasts a great quality of life, pride of place, and (as a lifelong Brown’s fan) maintains tremendous resiliency and dogged determination in its residents. Additionally, I enjoy how diverse and varied the state is as compared to its Midwest peers in its ethnicity, history, topography, culture, and points of pride. Finally, I am proud of the way that Ohio has, in so many ways, continued to reinvent itself as the steel and extraction industries have dwindled.

Connect with Stacy on LinkedIn.