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The Athens Area Chamber of Commerce has honored TechGROWTH Ohio with the 2015 Holzaepfel Award, the top economic development award in the region. Established in 1993, the annual Holzaepfel Award recognizes an Athens Area Chamber of Commerce member business for exceptional economic impact.
 "Director John Glazer and the team at TechGROWTH Ohio earned this prestigious distinction hands down based upon their exponential growth over the years and the assistance and resources offered to entrepreneurs to help start-ups succeed, such as help services, talent and capital," Wendy Jakmas, president of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, said.
Glazer accepted the award on behalf of TechGROWTH Ohio during the chamber's annual awards dinner last Thursday evening at the Ohio University Inn and Conference Center.
"TechGROWTH has been an effective program because of the vibrant ecosystem in the region that supports entrepreneurship and innovation," Glazer said. "Coming from the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, this award is especially meaningful to us because it shows that the business community recognizes firsthand the challenges of starting and growing businesses."
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Voinovich School students, faculty and staff gathered on Feb. 5 to enjoy coffee and snacks while celebrating the work of the three current Voinovich Undergraduate Research Scholars whose accomplishments were highlighted at the first Voinovich Scholar Showcase of 2016.
Holly Craycraft, research associate with the Voinovich School and coordinator of the Undergraduate Research Scholar program, hosted the showcase to offer scholars the opportunity to engage with the School, connect with one another and understand other Scholars' work.
 Bethany N. Bella, a sophomore focusing on journalism, geography and political science, presented her work with the Appalachian Watershed Research Group, which provides interdisciplinary, high-quality, applications-based watershed research.
Junior political science and economic development student Ellenore Holbrook showcased a very different aspect of the Voinovich School's work.
 Holbrook reviewed the work conducted by assistant professor and Master of Public Administration Director Jason Jolley to complete a skill-shed analysis of Kentucky coal mining jobs, which have significantly declined in recent years. A skill-shed analysis identifies the skills individuals in a given occupation can be expected to have that are transferable into other fields. The analysis also compares requisite certifications as well as salaries and other factors.
 The third presenter was Jasper Wirtschafter, a senior economics student. Wirtshafter shared about his work with TechGROWTH Ohio, a public-private entrepreneurship support program serving the Appalachian Ohio region and part of the Voinovich School. Wirtschafter works primarily with UpGrade Athens County, an environmental nonprofit focused on energy efficiency, on projects such as the distribution of LED light bulbs and the placement of solar panels on public buildings.
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On any given day, Ohio has over 12,500 children in foster care, and new children are entering the system all the time. 9,875 children entered the Ohio foster care system in 2013 alone. Given what most of these kids have been through - abuse, neglect, parental drug abuse - providing a stable, comfortable foster home is a priority.
 "Kids should be in the least restrictive setting," Dr. Lesli Johnson, Voinovich School associate professor, said. "They should be in the setting where they get their needs met and that's most like being in a family setting."
Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. In a 2014 report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that nearly 11 percent of children in Ohio's foster care system in 2012 had three or more placements on file. Of those, about one-third had been in foster care for less than two years.
 To improve its track record, the state is seeking an evidence-based approach to placing children and is funding evaluations of various placement tools to find the best options. In 2015, Johnson and Dr. Anirudh Ruhil, Voinovich School associate professor, received a two-year grant from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) to evaluate the Child and Adolescent Needs Assessment Survey (CANS) tool currently being tested in 11 Ohio counties, including Athens.
The Voinovich School's evaluation of the CANS tool considers placement stability, length of stay, appropriateness of placement and costs.
Johnson said that she is excited about the evaluation and hopes that, due in part to the Voinovich School's work, children will soon be able to get the care they need and placed into a home or permanent family situation much more quickly.
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 Please welcome Dr. Francesca Gordon, who recently joined the Voinovich School as an applied research professor. She has impressive experience with data and data visualization, and will be an important resource to the Planning, Evaluation, Education and Research (PEER) team, TechGROWTH Ohio and other growing Voinovich School health and social innovation partnerships across the University.
Gordon is a data scientist and has previously worked at Connance, Inc. as a senior data scientist and at Excelimmune, Inc. as a research scientist. She also has held postdoctoral fellowships at Tufts Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital. At Connance, Inc., Gordon helped develop a tool to identify individuals likely to have social barriers to healthcare access in order to help clients develop appropriate intervention strategies.
Gordon received a B.A. in biology from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Baylor College of Medicine in June 2007.
We look forward to Dr. Gordon's leadership and participation in building our data science, innovation and research capacity in important social areas at both the School and Ohio University, and building the national reputation of the Voinovich School in this area.
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Exeterra, LLC is a young venture developing and selling equipment for the local productions of biochar, with the help of TechGROWTH Ohio and the Ohio University Innovation Center.
The Exeter Charcoal Retort, Exeterra's flagship product, converts waste typically disposed of by landowners - slabs of wood, branches, brush and livestock bones -into biochar in a process that both saves and makes money while combatting climate change. This machinery is intended for use by farmers, forest entrepreneurs, and compost and nursery businesses, among others.
Founded in 2015 by Scott Bagley, Exeterra is the sole United States manufacturer and seller of the Exeter Charcoal Retort, produced under exclusive license from the Carbon Compost Company of Exeter, Devon, England.
"This company had essentially created exactly what I wanted to create," said Bagley in a TechOhio article from September. "Instead of reinventing the wheel, I entered into a licensing agreement to get their product into the United States. This allowed me to expand my customer base to include natural and organic farms, compost and greenhouse operations and livestock processors."
Exeterra is a client of the Ohio University Innovation Center and receives assistance from TechGROWTH Ohio, both part of Ohio University's entrepreneurship ecosystem.
"TechGROWTH has helped create a sense of community for entrepreneurs in the most rural area of the state," said Bagley in a TechOhio article from September. "The combination of the Innovation Center and TechGROWTH is invaluable in terms of support and engagement. They both are continuing to develop new ways to help entrepreneurs."
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 A report co-authored by Ohio University Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs Executive-in-Residence Michael Zimmer on accessing capital for energy-efficient building was released at Building Innovation 2016: The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Annual Conference and Expo, held in Washington, D.C. The NIBS Council on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (CFIRE) report, Financing Energy-Efficiency and Renewable-Energy Projects, highlights the importance of expanding access to capital that builds environmental resilience and sustainability.
"Financing improvements and modernization in buildings is very challenging in today's economic environment," Zimmer said. "Including elements of sustainability creates permanence and longer-term strategies that can be taken to enhance the underlying value of buildings in a very economically positive way."
Zimmer's part in authoring the study was especially valuable, combining his environment and public policy perspective as a Voinovich School executive with his background as a Russ College of Engineering executive. He was recently named the 2016 Financial Insurance and Real Estate Committee Secretary to the NIBS Board of Directors. Zimmer is currently working with Ohio University on food, energy and water development issues; energy efficiency, technology and finance; and public-private partnership development issues in the Appalachian region, and is an expert on energy policy, corporate sustainability and clean tech transactions.
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Preliminary results of an evaluation of a program that brings college-credit courses to southeastern Ohio high schools show that it increases enrollment in such programs - and suggest that its innovative format is catching on with teachers and students alike.
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| | Margaret Hutzel |
Ohio University's Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs is evaluating the program, a partnership between Shawnee State University and 13 Appalachian Ohio school districts. Funded by a grant from the Ohio Department of Education's Straight A Fund, the project allows students to earn college credit for courses led by highly qualified teachers.
The evaluation team is led by senior project manager Margaret Hutzel, with Associate Professor Marsha Lewis and Undergraduate Research Scholars Phoenix Crane and Nicole Baker.
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| | Marsha Lewis |
Although students in these districts previously had the option to enroll in post-secondary educational opportunities by taking classes at local colleges and universities, offering college courses within the high schools themselves has resulted in a tremendous increase in the number of students pursuing dual enrollment, as shown by the data collected as part of the evaluation that Voinovich School staff are conducting.
Locating the courses within high schools isn't the only innovative aspect of the program. The courses are "flipped": Instead of listening to lectures in class and completing work on their own outside it, students in a flipped course watch recorded video lectures outside of class and complete independent work within class. The format allows teachers to work more closely with students.
"Upfront, I would say that there is more of a time investment required for teachers using the flipped format," Hutzel said. "But we've heard a lot of teachers say that they really prefer it, and that they get more one-on-one time with the students when they're in the classroom."
Having demonstrated the effectiveness of offering the courses in high schools, the Voinovich School will now start gathering data to determine if there is a subsequent increase in students' eventual enrollment at colleges and universities. Anecdotally, Hutzel said that the interviews the evaluation team is conducting with teachers and administrators show that they believe students are now more likely to go on to enroll in post-secondary education.
"It's a great program to give students a shot at college who might not have had the opportunity to go to college, either based on family hindrances, or their mental hindrances," one teacher said. "And they can say, 'Hey, I can do this.' It gives them that extra boost that they may not have had earlier."
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Mike Crispen is still working on his master of public administration degree, but he is already applying his knowledge in his career as an Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) captain to develop a campaign against human trafficking.
 Crispen, who earned a degree in criminal justice from Ohio University in 2014, enrolled in the executive master of public administration program at the Voinovich School with his primary research focus to evaluate how his agency runs and make it more efficient. However, a class with adjunct MPA professor Dr. Floun'say R. Caver on efficiency and cost savings unexpectedly led Crispen in a different direction.
According to Crispen, during class one day, Caver began discussing a news story about a horrendous human trafficking case in which three young women were held hostage for about 10 years. Crispen then mentioned a two-part program at the Ohio State Highway Patrol that involved both reducing traffic accidents and combatting human trafficking.
"I didn't realize at the time that human trafficking was something dear to Dr. Caver's heart," Crispen said.
After class, the two began to talk. Caver explained that he'd been involved in a project putting signage together throughout the Cleveland transit system in order to spread awareness of human trafficking and bring hope to victims. Together, Crispen and Caver devised a plan to emulate this advertising campaign across the state. Between the inception of the project and late 2015, more than 168,000 signs, wallet cards, and pamphlets had been produced and distributed. Additionally, Crispen has successfully aided the development of a coalition combatting human trafficking in Ohio, which includes a group called Truckers Against Trafficking, the Ohio Trucking Association, Greyhound bus lines, taxi services, the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the Attorney General's office, the Governor's Office and the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, as well as pre-existing coalitions across the state and many truck stops.
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| | Officers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol pose with others involved in the coalition to combat human trafficking. |
Although Crispen and the Patrol have not yet received official data from the hotline advertised by the signs and promoted in the classes for commercial drivers, Crispen did identify two cases that seem to support the effectiveness of his work with Dr. Caver and the coalition. In both cases, a young girl was rescued because she was spotted by truckers who recognized the signs of human trafficking as a direct result of their experiences in the classes that were devised by the coalition. The truckers then knew to call the hotline, and both of the girls were rescued.
"If I hadn't been in that class with Dr. Caver, I'm not sure any of this would have happened," Crispen said.
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Ohio University has awarded the 2015 Konneker Medal for Commercialization and Entrepreneurship to two alumni for their innovations in the fields of product development and cancer therapy.
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| | Winston Breeden III
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Winston Breeden III, an alumnus of the Scripps College of Communication, and Joseph Jachinowski, an alumnus of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, were recognized for their accomplishments at the Ohio University Inventors Dinner on Feb. 10.
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| | Joseph Jachinowski
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The Ohio University Foundation established the Konneker Medal to recognize current and former faculty members or students who have demonstrated excellence in innovation, invention, commercialization and entrepreneurship. The award is named for Wilfred Konneker, an Ohio University alumnus renowned for his contributions to these fields.
"Through the development of innovative ideas and products and the pursuit of new scientific and medical discoveries, Ohio University faculty, staff, students and alumni are making important contributions to society," said Joseph Shields, vice president for research and creative activity and dean of the Graduate College. "The 2015 Konneker Medal recipients demonstrate how our former students are uniting ingenuity and entrepreneurship to devise creative solutions to a wide range of issues."
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Ranked in the top 50 innovative public affairs schools in the U.S. by Best Value Schools, the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs finds researched-based solutions to challenges facing communities, the economy and the environment. By blending real-world problem solving and government, nonprofit sector and industry partnerships with education, students are offered unique learning opportunities as they prepare for careers serving the public interest in Ohio University's rural region and beyond.
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Voinovich School in the News
Dr. Derek Kauneckis was mentioned in a Smithsonian Magazine article about his research in a symposium on "Climate, Water and the American Indian Farmer."
The article states, "Leaving traditional lands is not an option for many Native Americans. In some ways, they have the same migration opportunities as anyone, but these peoples often have a profound relationship with the land and leaving it can mean losing traditional native culture...scientists are trying to identify how these tribes will be affected by climate change, and how they can not only adapt to that change but even thrive in the face of it, Kauneckis says."
"We are engaging in a community conversation about venture development in various regions throughout Ohio."
__________________ "The applied collaboration between professor and student, in efforts to better the community, is indicative of the uniqueness and value found in the Voinovich School's classroom."
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Impact & Innovation is written and created by undergraduate students Diana Wiebe, M.C. Tilton, Jasmine Grillmeier and Daniel Kington.
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Faith Knutsen, Associate Director of Operations of TechGROWTH Ohio, as quoted in 
