Outstanding service to student entrepreneurs: PROFESSOR STEVE MCKEON
Steve McKeon has been an entrepreneur at heart since his student days when he was a founding member of the UO Investment Group. As a professor here at Lundquist College, Steve has been instrumental in countless careers and startups. Steve couldn’t join us today, but we want to recognize him for his many contributions to our community.

Startup of the Year: WADDLE MEAL PLAN
In the beginning of the pandemic, two students approached me with their idea to create a prepaid meal card for students. It sounded like many other ideas I have heard – take what works somewhere else and apply it to the Eugene/UO market.

Over 2 years later, I am happy to recognize co-founders of Waddle Meal Plan, Alden Schatz and Mia Lopez and Waddle Meal Plan as the ‘Startup of the Year’.

Alden Schatz and Mia Lopez have built Waddle from an idea into a thriving business, hired friends and other students, connected with the community, and navigated the pitfalls of launching a company. I look forward to seeing more success from Waddle in the coming years.

Founder of the Year: NINA GRACE MONTES, ALTHEA
Big ideas require vision, commitment and hard work. The founder of the year has demonstrated all of these traits in her journey to start a magazine focused on the cultural influence and sporting achievements of female athletes.

Like the pioneer namesake of the magazine, tennis great Althea Gibson, Nina Grace Montes is breaking new ground with her venture. With issue number one sold out of its first printing, good things are ahead.

Sustainable Startup of the Year: SPROUT VENDING
Building off of work done as Provost Innovation Fellow, Jackie Zhang developed her idea even further this year with the assistance of a co-founder, Emma Koontz. Emma brought specific expertise in non-profit sector operations to the team.

Their idea for a vending machine that offers sustainable and local products from makers and companies from underserved communities is moving towards launch. They are working with the EMU to place a vending machine in Fall 2022.

Lundquist College Outstanding Entrepreneurship Concentration Student: Avi Wahba
Chosen through a combination of outstanding work in the classroom as noted by faculty and with the highest GPA of any ENTR concentrator. Avi’s commitment to her studies and the engagement in coursework and activities represent the best of our students at the Lundquist College and the University of Oregon.

Avi has also served as a peer advisor and leader in the LCB Business Honors program.

Community Mentor: CHRIS HAZEN
As the entrepreneurial support structure in the area has evolved over the past few years, our community has relied dedicated mentors to keep the fires burning.

Chris Hazen has been instrumental in the continuation of the programming of Onward Eugene as it evolved from RAIN through his support of the programs and activities. Chris is a fixture at events works to keep the community connection by sharing his time with others.

Innovative Class: INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP, BRENNA LEECH
Entrepreneurship is a discipline that’s difficult to teach. Popular culture paints a picture of ‘Shark Tanks’ and roller coasters of wealth. Grounding students in the reality of new ventures is an important endeavor of all our instructors.

Brenna Leech stepped into the role of instructor with very little warning for the Winter 2022 term. In true startup fashion, she arranged for weekly guest speakers and built a course that kept the students engaged and inspired many of those students to start their own ventures or dig deeper into our clubs and courses.

Entrepreneurial Mentorship: KATIE BROWN
As both a restauranteur and fashion entrepreneurs, Katie brings a deep well of experience to her mentoring activities. She was an enthusiastic supporter of students during the Provost’s Innovation Challenge.

Katie Brown can almost always say that she has been there and done that when other founders and students seek her advice. Her direct approach and willingness to share time and energy are an example for our entire community to follow.

Innovative Club Award: UO INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP GROUP
Student engagement in clubs and activities ebbs and flows. With the return to in person learning over the past year, the energy on campus and around the Lillis complex has been growing. Restarting the Entrepreneurship Club and rebranding as the UO Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, our students are building the next generation of student entrepreneurship community at UO.

The student leaders of the club helped establish a great culture of collaboration and connection. Several UOIEG ideas have bubbled up into legitimate venture concepts with participants in the Provost Innovation Challenge and beyond. Student involvement in the club is high and the energy for the future is significant.

Co-founders, Karly Bierma, Brian Mastriano, and Vaughn Mestman took the lead to build a place for student entrepreneurs when they arrived back on campus and couldn’t find one. Their efforts have built a group that continues to grow and thrive and will for many years to come.

Campus Innovator of the Year: MANDY GETTLER
Innovation often comes from within. Mandy Gettler has taken her role within Innovation Partnership Services and sought out ways to have a greater impact across the campus and community.

Seeing a need for a community where female leaders and innovators could connect, Mandy acquired funding, organized events, and launched a program known as the Women’s Innovation Network (WIN). In the first year, Mandy Building on a successful first year, WIN is moving into 22-23 with a new cohort and continued energy around a community of empowerment and support.

Social Impact Award: CHANGEFINDER
Be the change that you want to see in this world…

Ian Winbrock works at UO as the Program Lead for the Center for Science Communication Research, and is an MBA student at the Lundquist College of Business. In his community, Ian served as the Chair of the Whiteaker Community Council here in Eugene and is active in many other community organizations.

Ian is building ChangeFinder as a platform to help all non-profits thrive through connecting funders and non-profits more efficiently He and his team have been selected to participate in the Hult Prize global competition this summer, where the winner will receive $1M.

Best eCommerce Award: KARLY BIERSMA
Karly has taken her artistic talents beyond the typical social media posting. Her design business, KPB Designs takes her artwork and shares it through stickers, keychains, and more. Her talents for business and art represent the best of what entrepreneurs can offer.

Best Technology Award: KINGDOMLY
Ethan Rife has been a fixture in the Entrepreneurship culture here at UO over the past 4 years. He was actively involved with student groups pre-pandemic, stayed engaged as a team member on the Oregon Capital Scan project over the summer of 2020

Now, working with fellow blockchain enthusiast, Jordan Combs, Ethan has embarked on a new journey with a venture called Kingdomly. Ethan and Jordan have uncovered an opportunity to trade gaming assets via NFTs. Ethan and Jordan have created a platform to enable the trading of NFTs. This type of forward-thinking innovation will serve Ethan well as he graduates and makes an impact in the world.

Freelancer of the Year: ERIN HARVILLE
In addition to building her own startup idea, focused on Name Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for female athletes, Erin Harville has been contributing her great design skills to her student teams and others that need help with their slide design, logos, and other projects.

Erin Harville has been a force for good in her time here in Oregon. She has a knack for design and a passion for seeing women rise and thrive.

Best Consumer Product Award: LOVEHATE ATHLETICA
Marrying her passion for tennis with her drive to improve on the status quo for apparel in that sport, Jensen Barnes has started Love Hate Althletica.

Seeing the need for tennis apparel that was functional and fashionable, Jensen Barnes designed what she could not find in the market. She has gotten technical designers involved, found suppliers that can make her garments in California, and is planning to order her first batch of garments this summer.

Faculty Innovator: CHRIS MINSON
What if you could quantify the benefits of exposure to our natural world? How might measurements of those benefits with a ‘Nature Score’ help individuals, businesses, and governments change their behaviors?

Chris Minson is a Professor in the Dept. of Human Physiology and Chief Scientific Officer at Nature Quant, a local startup working with a team to build a system that can quantify the benefits of exposure to nature and deliver data to help people connect with nature. This is just the type of innovation we need more of – taking the data driven insights from research to create products and services that benefit society.

Entrepreneurship Faculty
We have a fantastic team of research faculty here at the Lundquist College who work tirelessly to create knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship.

I want to recognize 3 of our faculty here today who will be taking well deserved sabbaticals over the 22-23 Academic year: Ralph Heidl, Lauren Lanahan, and Andrew Nelson. All of these colleagues are great teachers and researchers. We will miss you all for the year and look forward to having you return revived and refreshed in Fall 23.

For outstanding research over the past academic year, we are excited to recognize Assistant Professor Alex Murray for his productive year of work.

Alex cannot be here today, as he’s climbing Mt. Rainier, teaching others the skills of alpine climbing. Here’s to Alex and his continued climb towards excellence.

InventOR Finalists: JENSEN BARNES, LOVEHATE ATHLETICA & RILEY FARRELL, STORMRIDER
The University of Oregon is one of many institutions around the state sending our best student inventors to a program called Invent OR. This program takes aspiring inventors and creators and gives them training and mentoring to make their ideas reality. Representing UO at the competition later this month in Grants Pass will be:

PIC Elevator Pitch winner: POWHER PLAYHER
Erin delivered a clear and concise pitch that left the judges and the audience excited about the opportunity to build a platform for connecting female athletes to brands with their NIL.

Provost Innovation Challenge Finalists
Sprout Vending, ChangeFinder, StormRider

PIC Runner Up: SAFEGUIDE
UO students David Schurer and Kyla Kirshner saw the need to improve safety for students walking around and through the UO campus. To address that Waze for walking safely around and through and around a college campus. Excellent Identified the need for safe

PIC Winner: PETPET, DORIS PU, CECE CHE
CeCe and Doris found a great opportunity for a social network focused on pets. Moving beyond an Instagram account for dogs and cats, they envision a community where the pets take the lead of the profile and pet owners can connect with others.

Paul Anthony Troiano RAINmaker Awards
These entrepreneurs have been chosen to receive a $5,000 grant to support their ideas.

Zoë Gamell Brown, Fernland Studios – Zoe is creating a Fernland Studios, a non-profit focused on reimagining environmentalism through art and education by providing Black, Indigenous, and People of Color opportunities to explore environmentalism through residencies, educational retreats, and writing workshops.

Ian Winbrock – ChangeFinder; Ian is taking the support from his work at the UO and this funding to represent the University at the global Hult Prize social impact competition.

Nina Grace-Montes, Althea. Nina has launched Althea Magazine and we hope that this support makes issue #2 even better than the first.

Jensen Barnes, Love Hate Athletica will leverage this funding to complete her first order of garments and go to market.

David Scheurer and Kyla Kirshner, Safe Guide – This funding can help them make their idea a reality with a hopeful pilot program at the UO in Fall 2022.