Meet the da Vinci Center Team

We are a small and mighty team, each highly passionate and driven to imagine the future of higher education. Our staff are just like our students in that we work collaboratively and across disciplines to serve our students and partners. We work tirelessly to ensure that our students are better prepared to engage in an increasingly global world because they have developed the skills and tools necessary to engage in difficult dialog, to disagree, to reframe failure, and make change.

Garret Westlake, Ph.D.

Associate Vice Provost in Innovation
Executive Director, VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation
Co-founder, SHIFT Retail Lab

Pronouns: he, him, his

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Executive Director, Garret Westlake headshot

Allison Schumacher

Director of Academic Alchemy
Certified Scrum Master

Pronouns: she, her, hers

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Director of Academic Alchemy, Allison Schumacher headshot

Lloyd Young

Director of Innovation and Design,
VCU da Vinci Center and SHIFT Retail Lab

Pronouns: she, her, hers

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Director of Innovation and Design, Lloyd Young headshot

Mary-Chris Escobar

Associate Director of Student Success

Pronouns: she, her, hers

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Associate Director of Student Success, Mary-Chris Escobar headshot

Tyrone Frye

Experience and Engagement Coordinator

Pronouns: he, him, his

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Tyrone Frye, Experiential Learning Coordinator and Shift Retail Lab Liaison

Stephanie Danis

Executive Admin Assistant to the Executive Director
Certified Scrum Master

Pronouns: she, her, hers

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Stephanie Danis headshot

Adria Dunn

Business Manager

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Adria Dunn headshot

Caslin Applewhite

Communications Coordinator

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Headshot of Caslin Applewhite

Manjari Kumarappan

Postdoctoral Fellow, Innovation and Human-Centered Design

Pronouns: she, her, hers

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Portrait of Manjari Kumarappan in front of the Shift mural.

Regan O'Donnell

Office Manager, da Vinci Center NORTH and Shift Retail Lab

Pronouns: she, her, hers

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Regan O'Donnell

da Vinci in Residencies

In Residence positions are an integral part of the VCU da Vinci Center curriculum. They are the practitioners who link our students with the community and local entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. Rather than solely being driven by academic achievement or research accolades, our in Residence partners are selected based on the power of their community work and their innovative approaches as practitioners in bridging the divide between design, education and real world operation.

Ideator in Residence

Todd B. Waldo
Founder and Principal Consultant at Hugh Helen LLC

Pronouns: he, him, his

Todd B. Waldo is the Founder and Principal Consultant for Hugh Helen LLC,  a team of passionate problem solvers developing solutions for client success and social good.

As a strategic partner, Hugh Helen comes alongside executives and their teams for the deep, transformational work that moves organizations forward towards their vision and outcomes building consensus along the way.

The result is a strategic system grounded in empathy and affirmed with data. Practice areas include economic development, executive leadership, operations and technology.

Todd Waldo headshot

Founder in Residence

April Palmer

Pronouns: she, her, hers

During her corporate career, April was a top sales performer for multiple Fortune 100 companies across different industries, driving double-digit growth across six- and seven-figure portfolios year over year. Today, April uses her success across multiple industries to help "want to" preneurs become "entrepreneurs" by building strategies centered at the intersection of Finance, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Experience. Her specialty is helping organizations achieve the growth needed to secure investor funding and establish their footprint in the marketplace.

April will teach Venture 460 and mentor for INNO 651 this Spring.

 

April Palmer headshot

Innovator in Residence 

Gopa Nair

Pronouns: he, him, his

Gopa brings over 25 years of experience in Innovation, Product Management, Change Management, Automation and digital transformation. He is skilled at leveraging technical and operational capabilities to re-engineer, re-invent and optimize processes to yield the highest efficiency and cost benefits. Gopa is a change agent and transformational leader who understands the unmet needs of the customer and employees and utilizes tools of design thinking, agile and lean methodologies to create the desired organizational transformation. He shares his expertise by providing entrepreneurship training to small businesses through a local non- profit organization.

Gopa teaches Innovation, Change Management and Design Thinking at VCU da Vinci center as an adjunct faculty.

 

Gopa Nair, Innovator-in-Residence

Visionary in Residence 

Briana Williams
Founder & CEO of LipLoveLine

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Briana Williams is an experienced dreamer and doer, with a remarkable journey that has shaped her into the Founder and CEO of a thriving beauty brand. With a diverse background in public relations, communications, marketing, and event management spanning over 10+ years across corporate, nonprofit, and academic sectors, she has collaborated with numerous major brands and celebrities nationwide.

Holding degrees in Strategic Public Relations, Communications, and Marketing from HBCU Virginia State University and Virginia Commonwealth University, Briana is a creative, inventive, and ambitious entrepreneur. Her expertise lies in communication, brand strategy, content creation, and coaching on entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, and business leadership. A visionary leader, Briana combines her extensive experience, unwavering passion, and profound knowledge of entrepreneurship to inspire, empower, and guide others in embracing their dreams, telling their unique narratives, and achieving success.

Briana will teach INNO 591-001 Top: Crafting Your Brand Story this fall.

Headshot of Briana Williams.

Innovator in Residence 

Denise Myerson

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Denise Myerson is a Board Member, CEO and Management Consultant with over 30 years board level experience with a focus on education, training & workforce development. Denise helps organizations grow by setting the strategic direction, financial governance and driving innovation.

She is also the Founder and Director of Management Consultancy International, an award-winning education and training provider, and the Founder and CEO of The Focus Learning Group.

Headshot of Denis Myerson

Adjunct Faculty

We are fortunate to have a rock star group of adjunct instructors that partner with us to bring their industry expertise to our students.

William Benton
VNTR 300: VENTURE CREATION SKILLS

Mary Chris Escobar
INNO 200: INTRO TO INNO & VENTURE CREATN

Todd B. Waldo
INNO 210: THE INNOVATION INTERSECTION: INDUSTRY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Tabitha Geary
INNO 223: INTRO TO BUSINESS PRINC

Katie Gilstrap
INNO 460: PRODUCT INNOVATION

Andrew Ilnicki
INNO 460: PRODUCT INNOVATION

Andrew Indelicato, MFA
INNO 221: INTRO TO ARTS & DESIGN PRINC

Corell Moore, Ph.D.
INNO 225: INTRO TO ENGINEER & TECH PRINC

April Palmer
VNTR 460: VENTURE CREATION PROJECT

Joseph Ruiz
HCDN 351: INTRO TO HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN

Lloyd Young
HCDN 353: HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN THROUGH SERVICE LEARNING