Lauren thrives on working with dreamers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses to drive innovation as the Director of Strategic Programs. In this role, she creates, implements, and manages training programs, like accelerators, focused on commercialization and the Federal Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR) program. Her background in accelerators prepared her for creating content, teaching, and overseeing the development of complex projects and programs from concept to completion and ultimately implementation. In her career, Lauren has trained and consulted with hundreds of companies, such as Ocean Accelerator and Startups.com

Lauren lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two young children. She is slightly obsessed with her dog, Finley, and loves hiking, reading, decorating, lattes, and anything covered in sprinkles. She is passionate about traveling and has visited 19 countries (and counting).

As a strategic adviser and manager, Travis works directly with small businesses to help them navigate successfully through a contractual process. He breaks it down for them to ensure they fully understand how they are being evaluated, the requirements, and what they are signing up for contractually. He reviews solicitations and provides feedback on small-business proposals. 

He has over fifteen years of government contracting experience. Prior to working at the Entrepreneurs’ Center, Travis was a Lead Contracts Specialist for the United States Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, where he spent more than eleven years managing contracts for Information Technology (IT) and Research & Development. Later, he was the Lead Contracts Specialist at The United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Other previous roles include Contract Manager at GE Aviation.