Kimberly Gramm is the Associate Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. She is a leader with a proven track record in the development of technology hubs and community engagement to support economic growth and resilience in both urban and rural communities. In her current role, she is responsible for economic engagement and high-growth startup creation, increasing commercialization activities, and developing a university entrepreneurship environment to impact rural innovation clusters. Her primary focus is building an innovation and entrepreneurial pipeline and regional capacity to support economic development, growth, and sustainability. She deploys extensive experience in developing robust programs to ensure the prosperity of Texas through promoting best practices in commercializing research and intellectual property, industry engagement to develop and expand talent and workforce, and securing resources to develop the infrastructure needed to cultivate regional rural and urban areas.
She has 14+ years of early-stage technology venture development with over 279 startups created under her management in university environments, launched two accelerators, including a $10M seed fund to support ag-tech startups, the first of its kind in West Texas. Her passion is to develop, implement, and find resources to support I&E programming for students, faculty, and entrepreneurs. She has been awarded a $12M+ grant and industry-sponsored program funding in support of innovators and entrepreneurs. Gramm is a sought-after speaker at national conferences on entrepreneurship and venture funds. In 2019 she was appointed to Governor of Texas’ Product Development and Small Business Incubator Fund offering asset back loans to product development companies and small business incubators/accelerators. Recently, she was appointed to the Association of Public Land Grant Commission on Economic and Community Engagement. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in the College of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech University expected graduation in 2022.
