Rise-Up program
Innovation Faculty Fellows
Innovation Faculty Fellows is a year-long program focused on enhancing faculty involvement in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at URI to establish an active, collaborative network of cross disciplinary and skilled faculty/post docs who are motivated to integrate an entrepreneurial mindset into their teaching, research and development. With a rigorous structure of teaching, mentoring, participation in curricula design, and networking, Innovation Faculty Fellows are positioned as a vital part of the URI campus and tri-state RISE UP entrepreneurial ecosystem. Innovation Faculty Fellows learn key techniques on how to incorporate the Lean Startup Methodology into the design of their courses and effectively teach multidisciplinary teams on tackling real world challenges through research.
Nancy Forster-Holt, Ph.D., C.M.A., M.B.A., R.F.G.
Clinical Associate Professor
Program Lead
Lead Faculty Fellow in Innovation Nancy Forster-Holt, PhD, MBA, CMA, RFG, is Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Business. At URI, she developed the interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship major, minor, and certificate programs. Her teaching interests include Lean Startup, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Intrepreneurship, Acquisition Entrepreneurship, and small and new venture accounting and finance. She is an advocate of real-world learning through ‘stimulation, not simulation’ and in her award-winning INE149 course, every student starts a side-hustle business. Her research interests include: gerontology and aging of business owners, innovation in existing (and family) businesses (‘intrepreneurship’), gendered investigations of business owner retirement (“ENDrepreneurship”), and entrepreneurial and small firm exit and acquisition strategies. Dr. Forster-Holt has presented her research nationally and internationally, including on the TEDx stage. Prior to academia, she had a 25-year career in public accounting and tax (Ernst and Young, NYC and Sacramento, CA), and as CFO of the second largest credit union in Maine. She was CFO of a tech startup and co-owner of a family business, the manufacturing company Shaw & Tenney, which was a finalist for the Maine Family Business of the year.
Meet the 2024 – 2025 Cohort
Kirtley Fisher
Assistant Teaching Professor | College of Business
Luis Viquez
Assistant Professor in Orchestral Conducting, Director of Orchestral Studies, Instructor in Clarinet | College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Music
Wenchao Ge
Assistant Professor | College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Physics
Saleh Allababidi
Associate Teaching Professor | College of Pharmacy
Marta Gomez-Chiarri
Professor | College of Environment and Life Sciences – Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Meet the 2023 – 2024 Cohort
Brennan T. Phillips
Associate Professor of Engineering | Graduate School of Oceanography
Brice Loose
Associate Professor of Oceanography | Graduate School of Oceanography
Cynthia Taylor
Lecturer in Honors | College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Izabela Ciesielska-Wrobel
Assistant Professor | College of Business
Megan Echevarria
Professor of Spanish and Film/Media | College of Arts & Sciences
Saheli Goswami
Associate Professor | College of Business
Thaís São João
Assistant Professor | College of Nursing
Victor Fay-Wolfe
Professor | College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Computer Science and Statistics
Virginia Lemay
Clinical Professor | College of Pharmacy
Yuwen Chen
Professor and MS Healthcare Management Director | College of Business
