Keynote Speaker

Kylie Patterson is a Biden-Harris appointee and leading expert in economic inclusion. She is currently working to ensure that $50 billion in federal spending, under the CHIPS & Science Act to spur domestic semiconductor manufacturing, uplifts economically disadvantaged communities and individuals through equitable workforce development, supplier diversity, and community investment. Kylie also has extensive experience on Capitol Hill, serving both on the Senate Small Business Committee and House Financial Services Committee. During her tenure, she successfully drafted legislation that would lead to the reauthorization and extension of the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as the codification of the Minority Business Development Agency.

With over 15 years directing multi-million-dollar programs, investigations, and evaluations to address racial, gender and wealth inequality at Johns Hopkins University & Health System, the Pew Charitable Trusts, AFL-CIO, the City of Minneapolis and Prosperity Now she serves as a keynote speaker regularly.

Kylie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and African American Studies from Temple University, where she was awarded a Truman Scholarship and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Keynote Speaker

Prabal Chakrabarti is an Executive Vice-President at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the Regional and Community Outreach department, with a mission to improve the economic well-being of low and moderate income people. He oversees a department that focuses on three main pillars: (1) revitalizing smaller cities and rural areas through the Working Cities Challenge and Working Communities Challenge; (2) improving household financial stability for all, especially by race and ethnicity; and (3) increasing employment opportunities by improving the quality of jobs and enhancing access to quality, affordable child care.

Previously, Prabal was at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, where he led a research effort to measure economic competitiveness in America’s inner cities. He served in the U.S. Treasury in economic policy and he co-wrote a UNDP report Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor.

Prabal holds graduate degrees from MIT and Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a B.S. from the University of Illinois, where he was a Truman Scholar. He serves on the boards of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Conservation Law Foundation, and chairs the Marshall Scholar Regional Selection Committee.

Moderator: Keynote Panel
Andrea Levere is the founder and CEO of Capitalize Good and a Transforming the Social Sector through Enterprise Capital and Social Enterprise Fellow at the Yale School of Management. In this role, Andrea has drafted the Blueprint for Enterprise Capital to scale the delivery of “philanthropic equity” for nonprofits and social ventures to build financial strength and resilience and reduce the racial wealth gap in the nonprofit sector. She is President Emerita of Prosperity Now, an organization that designs and operates major national initiatives to integrate financial capability services into systems serving low-income people, build assets and savings, close the racial wealth divide and advance research and policies that expands economy mobility for all. She is a founding investor and Chair of ROC USA, a national social venture that converts manufactured home parks into resident owned cooperatives. She is Vice Chair of the Scale Link, a CDFI that manages loan sales while creating a secondary market for the nation’s largest microlenders and Chair of Rochdale Capital, an emerging CDFI financing coops and community-based businesses. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MBA from Yale University.

Panelist: Building State Capability

Robert Hotaling was named Deputy Commissioner and Chief Investment Officer of the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) in February of 2023. In this role, he drives public investment in statewide economic development efforts including commercial real estate projects, public-private partnerships, and performance-based tax incentives for employers. As CIO, he will maximize the return on the state’s investments by ensuring that public spending catalyzes private activity.

Prior to joining DECD, Rob was Senior Managing Director Enterprise Engineering and Head of Digital Delivery at Webster Bank. His extensive background includes Founder & CEO at Verbi, Vice President of Cloud & Mobile at Kitchen Brains, Director of Mobile Solutions at Walker Digital, IT Solution and Mobile Application Architect & Managing Consultant at IBM GBS, and Chief Technology Officer at Supply Insight. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and master of community service from the University of Connecticut, and professional certifications in Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Leadership & Strategy Implementation from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Panelist: Building State Capability

Katie has more than a decade of economic development experience, spanning multiple states, public, private, and non-profit sectors. She currently leads CEG’s business attraction and expansion activities; directs and implements strategies for entrepreneurship, growth, workforce, and talent. Prior to joining CEG, she led economic development for National Grid in the Capital Region. At Capitalize Albany Corporation, Katie helped manage business development and Downtown Albany’s Revitalization Plan. Before moving to the Capital Region, Newcombe served as Northwest Region Director, where she led business attraction and expansion efforts on behalf of the Department of Community and Economic Development and Governor in a 12-county region of Pennsylvania. Newcombe received dual BS degrees in economics and finance and an MBA from Pennsylvania State University.

Panelist: Building State Capability

Ryan serves as the founding Chief Executive Officer of ClimateHaven, a passionate community of climate technology companies and those supporting them. Rooted in New Haven, CT, ClimateHaven provides incubation, targeted programming, and valuable networks to climate tech entrepreneurs working to build and scale the technologies we need to decarbonize the planet.

In addition to his role at ClimateHaven, Ryan is a venture partner for Connecticut Innovations’ new $100M ClimateTech Fund, designed to invest capital and strategic support in early-stage companies whose technologies will address the many challenges climate change presents.

Prior to these roles, Ryan served as the Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel of Greentown Labs, North America’s largest climate tech incubator with locations in Somerville, MA, and Houston, TX. Before joining Greentown Labs, Ryan served as the Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel of Sunwealth. There he helped launch the Solar Impact Fund, which invested in the development and long-term ownership of commercial solar projects throughout the United States.

Ryan also served on the executive team of venture-backed prefab home builder Blu Homes and has advised numerous early-stage clean tech and building tech companies over the past 15 years. Before launching into clean technology, Ryan started his career practicing commercial real estate law in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ryan holds graduate degrees in law from Wake Forest University School of Law, in design, from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Moderator: Building State Capability

Kate Cooney is a Senior Lecturer in Social Enterprise and Management at the Yale School of Management. She has Ph.D. and MSW from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She grew up in Washington DC in the 1970s and 1980s. The stark economic differences between neighborhoods in the D.C. of that era inspired a deep interest and curiosity about cities, inequality, racial injustice and American history as it pertains to current urban landscapes. Professor Cooney teaches classes at Yale on social enterprise and nonprofit management, and on urban poverty and inclusive economic development in the United States. Current work focuses on the welfare outputs of new social business legal forms, power and inequality in urban governance networks, and inclusive economic development strategies in the American city. She is the founder of the Inclusive Economic Development Lab at the Yale School of Management and the CitySCOPE podcast.

Panelist: Inclusive Prosperity

Cristina Killingsworth serves as EDA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and External Affairs, responsible for EDA’s national programs, including Tech Hubs, Recompete, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, and the Good Jobs Challenge, legislative and public affairs, and the policy portfolio. Earlier in the Biden-Harris administration, Cristina served as Chief of Staff for the International Trade Administration within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Cristina helped launch and was Vice President at WestExec Advisors, a geopolitical strategic advisory firm. In her prior government service, she was Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Director for Strategic Planning at the White House National Security Council, Director for African Affairs at the NSC, and an Examiner in the International Affairs Division of the White House Office of Management and Budget. She started her career as a staffer in the Massachusetts State Senate. Cristina holds a Master of Arts in international affairs from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts in humanities and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Panelist: Inclusive Prosperity

Dr. Fred McKinney is the co-founder of BJM Solutions, LLC, an economic consulting firm focused on supplier diversity and minority business development. He previously held the Carlton Highsmith Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Quinnipiac University, teaching and promoting entrepreneurship. Dr. McKinney has an extensive academic background, serving as a professor at Brandeis University and the University of Connecticut, and starting successful ventures in the coffee industry. As President and CEO of the Connecticut Minority Supplier Development Council, he significantly expanded the organization. He later became the managing director of minority business programs at the Tuck School of Business and has held leadership roles in various prestigious boards. Dr. McKinney holds a B.A. from UCLA and a Ph.D. from Yale, with policy experience at the Rand Corporation and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Panelist: Inclusive Prosperity
Jackie Mandyck has a comprehensive background in leadership, community development, and governmental relations. Currently serving as the Executive Director of the iQuilt Partnership since January 2011, she leads key initiatives for the iQuilt Plan and the Hartford400, a regional plan celebrating Hartford's 400th anniversary in 2035. Before this, she was a Community Development Administrator at the State of Connecticut, managing housing and community development operations, including a $30 million budget. Jackie also served as the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection in Connecticut, where she managed a 160-person agency, oversaw an $11 million budget, and initiated cost-saving technology upgrades.

Her earlier roles include being the Director of the Office of Community and Institutional Relations at Trinity College - Hartford, where she fostered relationships with various community stakeholders and executed significant projects like the Learning Corridor Campus. Jackie also worked in Government Relations at Rural/Metro Corporation. She holds a Law & Public Policy degree from Syracuse University and an MBA from the University at Albany, SUNY.

Moderator: Inclusive Prosperity
Kevin is an assistant professor of economics at the Yale School of Management and Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. He works in the fields of economic growth and development, with current work focusing on the relationship between labor markets frictions and economic growth and the importance of rural infrastructure in developing countries. He has conducted field work in Kenya, Nicaragua, Rwanda, and Uganda and his research has appeared in leading economic journals, including Econometrica, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economic Studies, among others.

In addition to his academic affiliations, he co-leads the Agriculture Program at the Structural Change and Economic Growth Consortium (STEG), an FCDO-funded research initiative to design and implement strategies that facilitate growth in developing countries. He has worked as an external consultant for the International Labor Organization on the “Future of Work” in developing countries and for the World Bank on a variety of topics including microenterprise growth and infrastructure development. He is also affiliated with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the Yale Economic Growth Center, the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE).

At SOM, he teaches the core class “The Global Macroeconomy” along with an elective “Market Failures and Economic Policy in Developing Countries” and an International Experience course, which includes a trip to Kenya.

Panelist: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

OhioX is a member-based organization with representation from Fortune 500 companies, universities, research organizations, startups, and tech-focused businesses. The work of OhioX centers around connecting, promoting, and advocating for tech and innovation in Ohio.

Previously, Chris served as the Chief of Staff and Director of Communications at the Ohio Treasurer’s office. He began his career on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

Chris has spent over a decade building and engaging in high profile campaigns that have touched on a wide range of first-of-their-kind issues. His work has been quoted and seen in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, the Associated Press, FOX Business, Forbes, Fortune and hundreds more across the world.

Panelist: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Onyeka serves as the Executive Director of CTNext, the entrepreneurship and innovation arm of Connecticut. In this role, he provides strategic leadership and oversees operations to support entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the state. Working closely with government agencies, academic institutions, and industry leaders, Onyeka spearheads the development and implementation of programs, initiatives, and policies aimed at stimulating the growth of startups, small businesses, and innovation ecosystems. His collaborative approach ensures the fostering of a thriving entrepreneurial community in Connecticut.

Previously, Obiocha founded Sharelogical, an e-commerce platform designed to empower donations by leveraging affiliate marketing, and he was also a co-founder of A Happy Life, a New Haven–based coffee company that received official recognition from the Connecticut General Assembly. During his time as managing director of the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, Obiocha worked to develop programming and expand resources for students to launch and scale businesses across the country.

Onyeka's exceptional contributions have garnered recognition, including Connecticut Magazine's “40 Under 40” award, the Next City Vanguard distinction, Nantucket Project Scholar, and inclusion among the "100 Men of Color" honorees.

Panelist: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

As Managing Partner of CORI's Innovation Fund, Jay leads fundraising, capital deployment, and portfolio management, targeting growth businesses in opportunity zones of small communities. With a background in mergers and acquisitions at Gleacher & Co. and Allen & Company, Jay later spearheaded strategy and development at NBCUniversal's Entertainment and Digital Networks. Post-NBCU, he advised the Chairman of Emigrant Bank and managed investments in growth businesses, including a chairmanship at GolfLogix. A founding board member and Treasurer of Venture for America, Jay mentors VFA entrepreneurs fostering startups in American cities. A Princeton alumnus, Jay holds a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School and certificates in East Asian studies and Japanese. He lives near his birthplace in Connecticut with his wife and two daughters.

Moderator: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Josh Geballe is Senior Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Yale University and Managing Director of Yale Ventures. He is responsible for a wide range of services and programs for students, faculty, and the broader New Haven community to launch new startups based on Yale research, provide training in entrepreneurship and innovation, expand external research partnerships, and foster the growth of the local innovation and entrepreneurship community

Prior to launching Yale Ventures in 2022 Josh served as Chief Operating Officer for the State of Connecticut under Governor Ned Lamont. With responsibility for all executive branch agencies covering 30,000 employees, he led successful initiatives to modernize government operations and led the state's nationally recognized response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to his three years in public service Josh spent his career in the technology industry, most recently as CEO of Core Informatics, a venture-backed scientific software company that was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific where he went on to serve as Vice President and General Manager of Digital Science. Previously he spent 11 years at IBM in a variety of international executive roles.

Josh serves on the boards of directors of several non-profit organizations, including ClimateHaven where he is the founding board chair, Connecticut Innovations, AdvanceCT, BioCT and the Mory’s Association.

Panelist: It’s About the People

Dean Cole Smith's research interests are primarily in the area of mathematical optimization, with a particular focus on mixed-integer programming and combinatorial optimization. A significant portion of Smith's recent work has been dedicated to studying network interdiction and fortification, as well as bilevel mixed-integer optimization problems. Smith exhibits a keen interest in interdiction issues, especially those involving uncertain data or asymmetrical information distribution among participants. The applications of Smith's research are diverse, spanning logistics, national security, healthcare, production, ecology, and sports. Smith's scholarly contributions have been published in esteemed journals such as Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, IISE Transactions, Networks, and INFORMS Journal on Computing. Moreover, Smith's research endeavors have received support from prestigious institutions, including the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Panelist: It’s About the People

Joe currently serves as Senior Manager for External Affairs at Micron Technology, where he directly supports the company’s New York expansion. He was born and raised in Utica, NY and graduated from Syracuse University in 2011. Prior to joining Micron, Joe led U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s Central and Northern New York Regional Office for over 7 years. He also held roles at the New York State Assembly, Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, and Syracuse University’s Office of Government and Community Relations. Joe is a proud Lebanese American and lives in Dewitt, NY with his wife Ilyana.

Moderator: It’s About the People

Jaime Arellano-Bover’s research is in the areas of labor economics and applied microeconomics. Some of his recent research studies the importance of young workers’ labor market entry conditions and matches to first jobs, how on-the-job learning varies across employers, immigrants’ job mobility and climbing of the firm ladder, the infiltration of organized crime in legal firms, and the long-run dynamics of the gender pay gap.

Jaime obtained his PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 2019.

Panelist: Yale Faculty Panel

Michael Crair is Vice Provost for Research and the William Ziegler III Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Ophthalmology & Visual Science. As Vice Provost for Research, he has University-wide oversight over research strategy, planning, policies, infrastructure and facilities, technology transfer and engagement with public and private sponsors of research. He works to encourage and broadly support research at Yale, innovative interdisciplinary scholarship, entrepreneurship, innovation, and enable groundbreaking discoveries across all schools and departments at the university. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation for the Blind, Inc. and the Dan Lewis Foundation for Brain Regeneration Research.

Holding a physics doctorate from UC Berkeley and postdoctoral training in Japan and UCSF, Dr. Crair joined Yale in 2007. He's held numerous roles, including Deputy Dean for Scientific Affairs at Yale School of Medicine before his current role in 2020. His research, focusing on brain circuit plasticity and development in the visual system, has earned him multiple accolades and significant funding from national health institutes.

Panelist: Yale Faculty Panel

Aishwarya serves as the Deputy Director of the Economic Growth Center, Yale’s hub for economics research and teaching on issues relating to lower-income economies and the advancement of their populations. Prior to the EGC, Aishwarya managed research and evaluation investments for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Women’s Economic Empowerment and Financial Services for the Poor teams. Her previous experience includes running a financial inclusion research initiative at the EGC from 2011-2014 in partnership with Innovations for Poverty Action, leading the Monitoring, Research and Evaluation unit at Women for Women International, and working as an Associate Researcher at Microsoft Research India. Aishwarya earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and women’s studies from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in public administration and international development from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Panelist: Yale Faculty Panel

Lorenzo Caliendo serves as the Won Park Hahn Professor of Global Affairs and Management, Deputy Dean of Jackson School of Global Affairs, and Professor of Economics. He holds joint positions at the Jackson School of Global Affairs and the School of Management. Additionally, Caliendo is a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), has a courtesy appointment in Yale University's Department of Economics, and is part of the research staff at the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics.

He is an Associate Editor for Econometrica, the Journal of International Economics, and the Journal of European Economics Association. His research interests span international trade, migration, spatial economics, and macroeconomics, focusing on the trade and welfare effects of commercial and migration policies, the impact of foreign trade competition on firms' organizational and wage structures, and the influence of sectoral and regional linkages on aggregate economic activity. His work has been published in prominent academic journals including Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economic Studies, and has garnered coverage in leading media outlets.

Caliendo holds a PhD in Economics and a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago, a Master's in Economics from Auckland University, and has held various prestigious positions including Research Fellow at IES-Princeton University, Lecturer at the University of Chicago, and Global Future Council Fellow at the World Economic Forum in The Future of International Trade and Investment Council. He has also been honored with Uruguay National Prizes in Economics from FCS and ACADECO.

Moderator : Yale Faculty Panel

Tony Sheldon has been executive director of Yale School of Management's Program on Social Enterprise and lecturer in the practice of management since 2008. He teaches practicum courses on social entrepreneurship, in which student teams work with organizations in India, Brazil, and Kenya, as well as a course on social “intra-preneuship” in the Executive MBA program. Tony’s professional background is in international development. He has worked with microfinance institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, primarily in the areas of business planning, financial modeling, and social performance management. Tony has also been a consultant to several development finance networks and funders, including the Ford Foundation, the World Bank, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), ShoreBank International, and Women's World Banking.

His most recent publications are as co-author of Evidence In Practice: Toward an Integrated Approach (Yale SOM, 2018), a summary of the findings of a two-year research project funded by the Hewlett Foundation, and From Extreme Poverty to Sustainable Livelihoods (World Bank 2018), on a unique program that combines social protection, livelihood development and financial services to reach extremely poor households. Other publications include CGAP’s Handbook on Business Planning and Financial Modeling for Microfinance Institutions and Women's World Banking's Principles and Practices of Financial Management.