Julie Lenzer - Chief Innovation Officer - Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute / BioFabUSA

Julie Lenzer is the Chief Innovation Officer of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute ( ARMI - https://www.armiusa.org ) and BioFabUSA ( https://www.armiusa.org/biofabusa ).

Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), is one of 14 institutes of the Manufacturing USA network and is a member-driven, non-profit organization, whose mission is to make practical the large-scale manufacturing of engineered tissues and tissue-related technologies.

BioFabUSA, created by ARMI, was established to lead the charge in large-scale manufacturing of engineered tissues and regenerative medicine research, turning foundational breakthroughs in the manufacture of engineered tissues and tissue-related technologies into life-changing possibilities for everyone.

Prior to this role, Julie served as Commissioner of the Maryland Economic Development Commission, as well as Chief Innovation Officer at University of Maryland (UMD) fostering and supporting UMD’s innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology commercialization enterprise, including the development of the UMD’s Research Park, the Discovery District, and the Greater College Park initiative. She was also involved in promoting and facilitating university-wide collaboration to launch startup ventures based upon University intellectual property, as well as providing support for entrepreneurs and small business across the state through Mixed/Augmented/Virtual Reality Innovation Center (MAVRIC), the Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the TechPort incubator in St. Mary’s County.

Prior to that role, Julie lead the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) where she drove programs and policies that support innovative economic development such as innovation-based entrepreneurship and regional innovation clusters.

Prior to that appointment, Julie was the Executive Director of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship (MCE), the co-chair of Startup, as well as co-founder and former CEO of the Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a non-profit that helped women expand economic opportunity by starting and building growth-oriented businesses using technology transfer.

Julie has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M and a Masters in Machine Learning from University of Maryland.