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 also co-owner of a family business, the manufacturing company Shaw & Tenney, which was a finalist for the Maine Family Business of the year.