Paula Sorrell is the Associate Vice President of Innovation & Economic Development at George Mason University. She oversees the Office of Technology Transfer, the federal and state programs that support small business and lab-to-market activities, including the Small Business Development Center, the APEX Accelerator, Women’s Business Center, NSF I-Corps, NIH REACH, four business incubators, two maker spaces, a Community Development Finance Institution, entrepreneurship programming at Mason, and innovation corridor development across Mason’s Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William campuses – in response to the establishment of Amazon HQ2 in Northern Virginia. These activities had a $2.8 Billion impact on Virginia last year.
She joined after a position as Director of the Economic Growth Institute at the University of Michigan where she also taught technology commercialization at the U of M College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship. She was the Principal Investigator for research in economic development best practices, including entrepreneurial ecosystem mapping, and best practices in university lab-to-market activities.
Paula served as Vice President of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Venture Capital for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, overseeing $1B under management and developed many new programs and investments to build the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem during the great recession recovery.
She has held the senior marketing role at seven early-stage technology companies – six of which resulted in successful sale of the company. She serves on several boards, including Procurement Sciences ai, the State Science & Technology Institute Leadership Committee, the Institute for Biohealth Innovation Advisory Council, Prince William County Bio Innovation Advisory Group, Arlington County Economic Commission, the Potomac Quantum Innovation Committee, and the Fairfax County Economic Advisory Council.
Education: Harvard – certificate: Corporate Board Management, Central Michigan University – BS/BA, MBA