Center for Entrepreneurship

Leadership:

 

Samir Parikh

Director and Kenneth H. Pierce Faculty Fellow, Center for Entrepreneurship
Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School

Before joining the law school, Samir practiced complex financial restructuring in Los Angeles, California. He played a significant role in the bankruptcy cases of Lehman Brothers, Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts, Aloha Airlines, Station Casinos, and Adelphia Communications.  He has been privy to business lifecycles at the highest levels.  His experience and current research drew him to the Center for Entrepreneurship, where he teaches Implementing Innovation (EINV 241) and serves on the Center’s steering committee.

Many young people have transformative business ideas, but few understand how to implement them. Samir is excited about guiding students through the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and teaching them finance, operations, and revenue models used by for- and not-for-profit enterprises. 

 

Chrys Hutchings 

Associate Director, Programming & Partnerships, Center for Entrepreneurship

Chrys is a recovering attorney who now uses her advocacy skills to connect employers and entrepreneurs to talented and passionate Lewis & Clark students. As part of her mission to connect the liberal arts to problem solving in the workplace, Chrys engages professionals to speak directly with students about career path, industry trends and entrepreneurship via Lunch with a Leader, Winterim, workshops and evening events. Based on their interests, she connects students to resources on and off-campus including venture competitions, networking and informational interviews. Chrys is helping spearhead Lewis & Clark’s Work Study Pilot and is the Campus Partner to the Entrepreneurship Living Learning Community (LLC). Prior to coming to the Center for Entrepreneurship, she worked in the Career Center as the Employer Relations Coordinator, where she executed much of the programming for the Center for Entrepreneurship and resurrected the on-campus Career Fair. She graduated from Smith College and Boston University School of Law, after which she practiced medical malpractice and insurance defense litigation in California. She moved with her family to Portland 12 years ago and is an unapologetic snob about Massachusetts pizza.

 

Faculty/Staff:

 

Kellar Autumn

Professor of Biology; Faculty Fellow, Center for Entrepreneurship

Kellar received worldwide acclaim for his research on adhesion in geckos and the discovery of the world’s first dry self-cleaning adhesive. Kellar’s research has grown into a new field of study at the interface between biology, physics, and materials science. He has authored over 70 publications  and Thompson/ISI lists him as a highly cited author in the field of Materials Science and Engineering. Kellar is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award  He holds the fundamental patents for synthetic adhesive nanostructures (“gecko glue”), and has helped to develop legged robots that can run up walls. Kellar serves as a consultant for the development and application of biologically inspired technology. His research is featured textbooks, encyclopedias, and popular books including The Nanotech Pioneers: Where Are They Taking Us? Every major television network has covered his work, as have hundreds of newspaper, magazine, and internet articles worldwide. He appeared recently on the NOVA television show, Making Stuff Smarter.

Kellar received his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1988, and his Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley in 1995. He was an Office of Naval Research Postdoctoral Fellow until 1998, when he joined the faculty of Biology at Lewis & Clark College. Kellar teaches Technologies of the Future (EINV 290), in which teams of students from the Arts, Humanities, and Social and Natural Sciences invent, prototype, test and market novel technologies.

 

Rocky Campbell

Director, Career Center

Rocky has more than 10 years of experience in management and corporate strategies, and has recently returned to Portland to direct Lewis & Clark’s Career Center.

As chief operating officer of Relocation Coordinates International, he developed and managed global service supply chains, information technology and digital initiatives, and employee training, while serving as a subject matter expert on global mobility and recruitment assistance for corporate clients. Rocky has additional experience in publishing, sports and nonprofit management. He has a master’s degree in sport studies from Miami University and a graduate certificate in strategic management from the University of California, San Diego.

 

 

Steve Goebel

Assistant Dean and Director, Business Law Program, Lewis and Clark Law School,
Faculty Fellow, Center for Entrepreneurship

Steve has extensive business management and leadership experience in Fortune 500, mid-market and small business environments, as well as assignments in the public sector, and non-profit organizations.

Steve worked twelve years with The Mead Corporation where he served as marketing director, manufacturing manager and VP of sales for a consumer products division. As an entrepreneur, Steve operated a microbrewery in the Northwest as co-owner and chief operating officer. Steve has experience representing both sellers and purchasers of small and mid-size companies.

Among other activities, Steve has served on the board of directors of DePaul Treatment Centers, and has worked closely on strategy development with Mercy Corps and SOLV, as well as serving as a consultant to the mayor and the Portland Development Commission on economic development initiatives in the 1990s. Steve’s non-profit sector experience includes spearheading an international development project for Mercy Corps in Guatemala and serving as Chief Operating Officer of De Paul Treatment Centers.

In 2006, Steve co-founded the Small Business Legal Clinic and served as chair of its board of advisers. He is a member of the Oregon State Bar. Steve teaches Business Principles for Lawyers at Lewis & Clark Law School, Entrepreneurship at Lewis & Clark College of Arts & Sciences and has taught Business Strategy at Portland State University where he was previously responsible for the undergraduate Senior Capstone Program for the School of Business Administration.

Steve teaches Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EINV 201), where students are introduced to key entrepreneurial skills, including business modeling and market analysis.

 

Andrea Hibbard

Assistant Professor with Term of English

Andrea Hibbard teaches in the English Department and the Gender Studies Program.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. She has published on law and literature, the Romantic novel, Victorian exhibition culture, and the New Woman.  Her current research explores how literary and legal narratives converged in the spectacular Victorian trial of Dudley and Stephens. She joined the committee for the Entrepreneurship Center because she is interested in intersections between the humanities and entrepreneurship.  She believes students trained in the humanities have immense untapped potential. Their creativity and aptitude for interpreting narratives, elaborating arguments, and solving problems make them natural entrepreneurs.

 

Blythe Knott

Associate Director of Overseas and Off-Campus Programs

Blythe is a 1991 graduate of Lewis and Clark with a degree in biology. She studied abroad in Kenya her junior year; an experience that inspired her to change her intended career path from biology to international education. She then earned a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has since worked in study abroad at Naropa University in Boulder and, most recently, at Portland State University. She has traveled to over 50 countries and greatly enjoys working with students and faculty on planning their overseas educational experiences.

Blythe is excited to join forces with the Center for Entrepreneurship in our work to support students in their entrepreneurial ventures overseas.

 

William Newman

Managing Director, NW Technology Ventures, LP

Leaving a career as university researcher to found a start-up, and from that position gaining 5 years of investment experience in a venture fund, Bill Newman brings a business perspective to the academic and research environment. Bill earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics prior to joining the research faculty at MIT, where he served for more than a decade as a principal investigator on NIH-funded research and directed a joint program at MIT and the Harvard Medical School to develop and evaluate technology for the treatment of cancer. His discoveries led to four patents, and he left MIT to found a medical instrumentation start-up based on this research. After earning an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, he entered the venture industry to focus on early-stage investments, ultimately launching NTV in 2002. He serves on numerous corporate boards within the NTV portfolio, and on various academic and civic boards including past chair of the Oregon Bioscience Association, and as founding member of Oregon’s Innovation Council, the state’s advisory board on knowledge and innovation based economic development.

Bill teaches Implementing Innovation (EINV 241) with Samir Parikh. Together they guide students through the fundamentals of entrepreneurial activity including finance, operations, and revenue models, used by for-profit and nonprofit enterprises.

 

Michael Olich

Associate Professor of Theatre and Resident Designer, Department of Theatre, 
Faculty Fellow, Center for Entrepreneurship

As a member of the College faculty for the last decade, Michael’s interest in Entrepreneurship comes from his 20+ years as a freelance theatre artist prior to transitioning into teaching.  Alongside Steve Goebel, Michael launched the first introductory course in the Center’s academic offerings.  Michael has served on the Center’s Steering Committee since its inception in 2013.

As a beneficiary of a liberal arts education himself, Michael needed the same skills in problem-solving that he explores in his coursework.  His 40+year career in the theatre, requiring a continual ‘invention’ of himself for producing organizations and collaborators alike, inspired his interest in offering these problem-solving techniques for students looking forward to their own ‘self-invention’.  The skills, creative perseverance and self-confidence necessary for thriving in the 21^st century will challenge everyone to ‘design’ themselves!

Michael teaches Design Thinking (EINV 270) where students develop problem solving strategies in real-world settings.

 

Bryan Sebok

Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Media Studies,
Faculty Fellow, Center for Entrepreneurship

 

Amelia Wilcox

Assistant Professor with Term of Psychology,
Former Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship

Amelia Wilcox has served on the Entrepreneurship Committee since it was convened five years ago. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in Berkeley, and teaches abnormal psychology, introductory psychology and psychiatric health courses at Lewis and Clark. Amelia previously was an assistant professor in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where she taught on the clinical faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at San Francisco General Hospital. AT SFGH she was primary consultant to the medical trauma services, served on the bio-ethics committee and taught on the faculties of the Consultation and Liaison, and Neuropsychology services.

Amelia is an applied psychologist with an interest in innovative and ethical delivery systems for mental health care. She was part of a research team that studied frequent visitors to the medical emergency room at SFGH. She has published on personality disorders in the medical setting, and on suicide. She maintained a private practice in the Bay Area for 15 years, and is a clinical psychologist with a practice in the Lair Hill neighborhood of Portland.