Center for Entrepreneurship expands, becomes University’s first Engagement & Impact Center

The Office of the Provost has approved a major expansion of the Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE). Three new programs will serve faculty, alumni and the broader Wake Forest community. The CFE will also become the first center to carry a new Provost’s Office designation: Engagement & Impact Center.

A new category of center

Provost-sponsored Centers and Institutes are the University’s primary engines for cross-school inquiry. They connect six schools — College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Business, Divinity, Law, Medicine and Professional Studies — around challenges no single discipline can solve alone.

Until now, Provost-sponsored centers at Wake Forest have belonged to one category: Interdisciplinary Research & Scholarship Centers. These are defined by knowledge creation, intellectual merit and interdisciplinary inquiry.

Going forward, Centers and Institutes will fall into one of two designations:

• Interdisciplinary Research & Scholarship Centers, which remain focused on generating new knowledge across disciplines.
• Engagement & Impact Centers, a new category defined by translating knowledge and university resources into community, economic and cultural outcomes.

Two pillars, three new initiatives

The CFE’s work is organized around two pillars:

• The Faculty Startup Accelerator, supporting research- and IP-based ventures
• High-Profile Entrepreneurial Culture Events, including TEDxWakeForestU and alumni engagement

This year, the Center is launching three new initiatives across those two pillars.

Faculty Startup Accelerator

Wake Forest faculty regularly produce research with real commercial and social potential, but many lack the time or support to build a venture around it. Building on two established student accelerators — Deacon Springboard and Startup Lab — the CFE is extending that same hands-on support to faculty, with Louis Foreman serving as faculty director of the new program.

“Faculty have incredible ideas born out of years of research, but very few of us are trained to think like founders,” said Foreman. This accelerator gives faculty the tools, mentorship and confidence to take that next step, without stepping away from the classroom or the lab.”

High-Profile Entrepreneurial Culture Events

This pillar builds a campus-wide culture of entrepreneurship through signature events and alumni engagement. Two new initiatives fall under it this year.

New networks for alumni entrepreneurs. The Center is launching two new alumni networks — WAVE (Wake Alumni in Ventures and Entrepreneurship) and WAN (Wake Angel Network). Both will host events connecting Wake Foresters pursuing entrepreneurship and venture capital careers across the country.

Expanded entrepreneurial events on campus. The Center is also expanding its campus events, including TEDxWakeForestU, which it now co-sponsors with the Center for Regenerative Medicine under the leadership of Rebecca Gill, Larry J. and LeeAnn E. Merlo presidential chair for Communication and Entrepreneurship and faculty director for TEDxWakeForestU.

“TEDxWakeForestU has always been about making big ideas accessible,” said Gill. “This expansion lets us do that at an even greater scale, and partnering with the Center for Regenerative Medicine means we can bring even more of Wake Forest’s brightest thinkers to the stage.”

“This is a game-changing moment for the Center for Entrepreneurship, and it wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of the Provost’s Office.,” said Dan Cohen, John C. Whitaker, Jr. executive director and professor of Entrepreneurship. “For the first time, we can bring the same hands-on support we’ve built for student entrepreneurs to faculty, while also growing the alumni networks and campus events that keep our entrepreneurial culture thriving. The entire Wake Forest community stands to benefit.”

“The Center for Entrepreneurship’s new designation reflects something the Provost’s Office wants to make visible: that translating our research and expertise into real-world impact is as vital to Wake Forest’s mission as the knowledge creation itself,” said Kimberley McAllister, vice provost for Research, Scholarly Inquiry and Creative Activity. “As our first Engagement & Impact Center, the CFE will show what’s possible when we give faculty, staff and alumni the resources to turn ideas into ventures that serve our community and beyond.”