EFA Accomplishments in Year 1 — A Review

“We’ve established a tangible, direct connection between university faculty and the general public that is in-line with our Land-Grant mission.” ~Joe Harding, Professor of Physiology and founding EFA member.

The Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors (EFA) were established as a WSU Presidential Level Taskforce in the fall of 2017, following the ERIE report released in the spring of that year. In our inaugural year the EFA has an extensive list of accomplishments:

  1. Established the Innovation and Outreach Speaker Series to bring in high-level entrepreneurial minded speakers.
  2. Established a partnership with the non-profit Palouse Discovery Science Center’s Science-Pub Fundraiser to find innovative speaker events.
  3. The Promotion and Tenure Committee worked with the Provost Office and Deans to develop recommendations for encouraging entrepreneurial activities within the context of tenure and promotion.
  4. The Community and Resource Committee (CRC) adopted an advisory group model for EFA in line with the Association for Faculty Women by-laws and framework in addition to identifying initial officers. To engage the community the CRC developed this website, and created the EFA Social Media Presence.
  5. Began hosting the Translational Medicine Symposium
  6. Took over facilitating the Spokane Innovator Networking Event (SINE)
  7. Created and awarded the first WSU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award for Faculty which was presented to Professor Juming Tang at the 2018 Showcase Dinner.
  8. We planned the inaugural Fall EFA retreat.

It was a year for establishing the framework for awesome progress to come!