Our Team

About

Leadership

Ashley Jennings, managing director of Innovation Center, smiling while sitting outside among some bushes

Ashley Jennings, Managing Director

Ashley Jennings is the managing director of the Texas Innovation Center, a University of Texas at Austin venture studio that helps researchers across campus navigate the process of translating their work into companies for the global market. She currently helps run a technology commercialization portfolio of 35+ deep tech startups spanning 10 industries, including alternative energy, advanced materials, biotech, CPG, data analytics, AI/ML, agribusiness, healthcare, robotics and SaaS. Combined, these companies have raised $164M+.

Prior to academia, Jennings helped co-found Texas’ first diversity-focused technology accelerator, which has since created 75 companies and 500+ jobs for the state. As a 2X entrepreneur, she also co-owned a video production agency, championing content for clients of all sizes, from local startups to Fortune 100 companies. Jennings started her career in network news, where she was a trained field producer based out of New York, working for ABC News and Al Jazeera America. Her time in news earned her five Emmy nominations along with a Peabody Award and two Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Operations

Kyle Lilly, smiling while sitting in an office lounge chair

Kyle Lilly, Venture Associate

Kyle Lilly is an experienced professional with a talent for driving business growth and success. He has a proven track record of accomplishment in corporate planning, financial technology and startup design thinking. Kyle currently serves as a venture associate for the Texas Innovation Center, where he assists with Center events and programming and the development of startups within the portfolio.

Prior to this role, Kyle served as a business development representative in a fast-growing startup (Kinly Financial, acquired by Greenwood), where he played a key part in developing the company into a thriving organization. At Kinly, Kyle sourced and negotiated strategic partnerships while managing and closing numerous contracts with national brands, including Self, Freeman Capital and Tally. He also assisted heavily in customer discovery and user feedback of Kinly products by finding product market fit for the creation of new features. In addition to this, Kyle has a deep knowledge of CRM systems, including HubSpot software.

Matt Sorenson Smiling

Matt Sorenson, Ph.D.

Matt Sorenson, Ph.D., has spent his career navigating the exciting waters of university research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Currently at the University of Texas at Austin he serves as an Innovation Program Manager and enjoys enabling the movement of inventions and ideas from the laboratory to the market where they can create jobs, drive economic impact, and directly change lives.

Prior to UT Austin, Matt had a similar role at The University of Texas System, managing innovation, entrepreneurship, and talent programs across all 13 University of Texas institutions, while previously serving as an investment analyst for a venture capital fund with UT System. Matt’s Ph.D. research at UT Austin involved developing a novel technology to study gene expression in relation to cancer biology. He also holds a B.S. in Biology from North Central College. He is also the founder of Flight Ice Creams, a craft ice cream operation in Dripping Springs, TX.

Drew Worden with a slight smile while sitting at a desk

Drew Worden, Entrepreneurship Program Manager

Drew Worden is Entrepreneurship Program Manager at UT Austin, where he develops programming to support faculty startups and entrepreneurs.

Before moving to Austin, Drew served as Assistant Dean of Entrepreneurship at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he expanded the college’s venture funding opportunities into a full-service organization. As a faculty member, he designed and taught two new courses for NEC’s curriculum and frequently guest teaches workshops on Grant Writing & Fundraising for Creatives. Projects he advised have secured funding from the MIT Creative Arts Competition and MassChallenge, and been featured by the Boston Globe, WBUR, and USA Today.

Drew’s previous roles include Managing Director at the University of Missouri and a post-graduate fellowship at the University of Rochester. In Rochester, he helped develop a new Center for Performing Arts Medicine in collaboration with the University of Rochester Medical Center and Eastman School of Music.

Outside academia, Drew is a classically trained musician and composer. His music has been performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, La Scala Paris, and the Louvre. Drew is also an enthusiast of specialty coffee and is always eager to hear about your favorite roaster or latest brew method.

Executive-in-Residence

Rush Bartlett, executive in residence of Innovation Center

Rush Bartlett

Rush Bartlett is a serial entrepreneur who has previously started multiple healthcare technology companies; two have been acquired, one failed and one is growing with 20-plus employees. For the past three years, Rush has led the Texas Biodesign program as an instructor, teaching graduate students and clinicians across the UT system needs-driven innovation methodology. He was previously chief product officer at Lansinoh Laboratories, a women’s health company, and serves as the associate director for corporate education at Stanford’s Byers Center for Biodesign. He was a recipient of the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award in 2019 and Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 40 under 40 in 2017.

Texas Innovation Center Staff

Tracy Hatfield
Administrative Manager

Nicole Jones
Marketing Manager

Innovation Fellows

The Texas Innovation Center Fellows program gives undergraduate, graduate and MBA students an immersive introduction to technology commercialization, providing hands-on experience to translate research into viable opportunities for the market.

Current Innovation Fellows