Innovation Hubs – Their Impact and Importance

Join us for our August event where we will discuss Innovation Hubs and how they can impact an organization, partnerships, and a tech community. Speakers will include Craig Dickman with Titletown Tech, Justin Smith with the Direct Supply Innovation and Technology Center, and Nyra Jordan with the American Family Institute for Corporate and Social Impact. Moderated by Kathy Henrich, with the MKE Tech Hub Coalition.

Speaker Bios

Craig Dickman is the Managing Director of TitletownTech, which was formed out of the partnership between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft, with a focus on building and funding early-stage, high-growth startups.

He is an experienced entrepreneur who has successful founded, led, and exited multiple businesses.

He is currently a member of the UW-Green Bay Council of Trustees and the Board of Directors for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League.

 

Justin Smith is an engineer and manager of the Innovation and Technology group at the Direct Supply Innovation & Technology Center @ MSOE. Justin started his career in product development at GE Healthcare, working in design, usability, and validation of new medical devices. Justin leads the Innovation and Advanced Technologies programs including a focus on emerging healthcare tech, including medical IoT, AI, Computer Vision, Robotics and Voice Control applications within the industry. He also works with technology startups across the US and overseas to develop and test their products and move them to alpha and beta pilots with healthcare customers. Justin holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Marquette University.

 

 

Nyra Jordan is one of the founding directors of the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, a Madison, Wisconsin-based innovation hub that leverages venture capital investment and transformative public and private partnerships to address major challenges facing the US. These challenges include diminished family economic security, an uncertain national economy, educational disparities, mass incarceration, climate change, systemic racism and other social determinants of health, along with and the void in effective leadership around these issues. As social impact investment director, Jordan’s goal is to engage with innovative initiatives, investments and partnerships that allow more families to gain wealth and enjoy their American Dream.

In addition to leading and implementing initiatives to assess whether internal operations and practices are consistent with social justice values, Jordan amplifies community experts and founders focused on people-centered technology solutions for those impacted by the justice system. She believes that tech can create opportunities and help reduce inequities in the criminal and civil justice system — but only if it is designed by, with and for people with direct experience in the system or those who have dedicated their lives to criminal and civil justice change. She is also co-creating a coalition to bring funding to underrepresented founders by convening entrepreneurs and investors within the justice tech sector.

Jordan launched her career in the nonprofit space and currently serves on several boards and task forces that include community members, elected officials, and law enforcement to drive systemic change. She is committed to transformation that will bring equality to America by increasing access to opportunity and establishing social equity.

Jordan is a TED speaker and her talk: 4 steps to hiring fairly – – and supporting criminal justice reform is available for viewing. She also authored an article: Second-chance hiring could help solve the labor shortage- and address racial inequality that was featured in Fast Company.

 

Kathy is the CEO of the MKE Tech Hub Coalition – a non-profit focused on inclusively doubling tech talent in the Milwaukee region with over 90 members. Kathy is a long-term tech executive, leading sales and partnerships for $500M+ businesses in hardware, software, and services. After receiving her master’s degree in Workforce and Talent Development, specifically in response to AI and automation, Kathy helped large multi-national organizations transform their talent in alignment with their digital transformation. Kathy also serves on multiple non-profit boards in the Milwaukee region.