The University of Arizona Center for Innovation, which helps incubate startups in the state, has promoted Casey Carrillo to be its new assistant director.
Carillo will manage the center’s cohort-based programming and its Sponsored Launch program, which coordinates with community financial support to provide scholarships for startups. In addition, she will work with the U.S. Department of Energy to facilitate the American Made Challenge.
She will also be helping to connect female interns with startups as part of a two-year program funded with $20,000 from Wells Fargo to support female-led startups with students specializing in science, technology, engineering or math, or STEM.
In a statement, Carillo said she is thrilled to work alongside passionate entrepreneurs and helping their startups succeed.
“There is such a growing momentum here at UACI with new regional and international collaboration opportunities in addition to a growing pipeline of startups to support,” Carillo said in the statement. “I am committed to working with the startups in our program, contributing knowledge and driving growth in Arizona’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Carillo was previously the program manager for the Center for Innovation. She has also previously worked at the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship in UArizona’s Eller College of Management.
The Center for Innovation, which started in 2003, serves more than 50 companies working in therapeutics, medical devices, software, fintech and other industries. Many of them have a connection to UArizona through an alumni, faculty member or technology transfer from the school, but others come from connections to other universities, from the federal government, or from entrepreneurs out in the community.
The center is open to startups at all stages of development, and the incubator program is tailored for each to meet the needs and existing skills of the individual company. It takes applications on an ongoing basis, so long as it has the resources to serve interested startups.
