Our Team

Leadership

Van Truskett, Executive Director

Dr. Van N. Truskett has a track record of innovation, leadership and attainment of business results in nanoimprint lithography addressing its introduction and use in the semiconductor, hard disk drive and emerging market (bio, solar, LED, display) applications. She has over 14 years of technical, operations and strategic leadership experience related to semiconductor equipment manufacturing and inkjet printhead R&D and product release. Her work has taken jetting technology from scholarship to practice in the U.S. and Asia, enabling a novel path for lower production costs for the semiconductor industry. Read more

Ashley Jennings, Managing Director

Ashley Jennings is an award-winning entrepreneur and skilled operator with 10+ years of experience in project management, investor relations, portfolio operations, media, fundraising, sales, event management, community engagement, strategic partnerships, and curriculum creation. She currently sits on the new venture and technology commercialization team at The University of Texas at Austin, where she manages day-to-day operations and supports strategic goals of the Texas Innovation Center, helping researchers navigate their commercialization journey; taking their discoveries from the lab and classroom into the market. Read more

Executive-in-Residence

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. He is currently Chief Product Officer at Lansinoh Laboratories, a women’s health company, and also 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. Read more

Founding Director

Bob Metcalfe

Robert M. Metcalfe will soon complete his 10th year as Professor of Innovation in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Metcalfe is the Founding Director of the Innovation Center, launched in 2011. He is also UT Austin’s Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise and Professor of Entrepreneurship in UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business. He serves as Principal Investigator of TexasGEO, which aims to solve energy with Texas startups. GEO is funded by the DOE to encourage startups to advance technologies delivering cheap, safe, clean, abundant, ubiquitous, deep, closed-loop, baseload geothermal energy. Prior to his roles in higher education, Metcalfe was an Internet pioneer beginning 1970 at MIT, Harvard, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Stanford, and 3Com. He invented Ethernet at Xerox Parc on May 22, 1973. Read more

Texas Innovation Center Staff

Nicole Jones

Marketing Manager

Nicole Jones

Administrative 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.