Lisa Garcia

Lisa Garcia is an instructor for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program the mission of which is to commercialize technology developed inside universities. She is also a Program Manager at Virginia Tech where she works to empower the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in its role as a partner of the I-Corps’ D.C. Node which includes Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland and George Washington University.

Lisa also consults with both domestic and international clients to reduce the risk of commercializing technology. Her clients include the regional business accelerator RAMP in Roanoke, Va. and government entities such as South Korea’s Korea Innovation Center (KIC) with offices in Vienna, Va. and Seoul, South Korea, and the U.S. State Department’s GIST organization (Global Innovation through Science and Technology).

Focused on the fuzzy frond end of innovation and business development, Lisa has worked with startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises to expand client companies’ business development and business intelligence. Lisa’s professional experience goes beyond business development. After graduating from Virginia Tech, she started her professional life as a daily newspaper crime reporter and later spent eight years in development work for the Community Foundation of the New River Valley before diving into entrepreneurial pursuits.

She is involved in community and economic development efforts and has been a member of the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council since the early 2000s. She has served on the board of several nonprofit organizations including the Estate Planning Council, Dialogue on Race, Montgomery County, Va.; Northside Presbyterian Church, Town of Blacksburg Recreation Advisory Board and the New River Valley TimeBank Advisory Board.

Lisa’s next career steps are focused on broadening the economic impact her work has in her community by increasing the collective skills of startup entrepreneurs to accelerate their personal and professional development as well as their company’s growth.