Anderson announces new corporate and community engagement office

September 22, 2021 - Anna Dykeman

The Anderson School of Management at The University of New Mexico has created a new office with an intentional focus on how Anderson partners with corporations, organizations and interested community members to best meet their needs. The Corporate and Community Engagement, or CCE, Office will continue the important work of the Innovation Academy, formerly housed in the Provost’s Office, and the Small Business Institute, while reimagining offerings to support professional development to more fully prepare today’s and tomorrow’s workforce. In addition, the office will manage corporate relations, including internship opportunities, as well as advisory board opportunities.

Corporate and Community Engagement Office areas of focus

Executive and professional education offerings will continue through Fall 2021 and beyond, including popular courses such as Essentials for Managers, SHRM Exam Prep, and Women’s Leadership Development. In addition, new courses and certifications are being planned in digital marketing, data analysis and science, project management, business analysis, and a variety of programming, IT service and architecture options.

The Innovation Academy is designed to allow students to pursue their interests in innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. They build their enterprise while completing their degree program with world-class support from a research university truly interested in their success.

The Small Business Institute provides consulting work for local start-ups, expanding businesses, nonprofit organizations and family enterprises. Student teams, guided by faculty members, assist clients in preparing strategic business plans, financial analyses and marketing research studies. These mutually beneficial partnerships offer students real-world learning opportunities while providing businesses with critical assistance at an affordable rate.

“The services and resources available from the Anderson School provide a winning combination of supporting student development, advancing business goals, and providing opportunities for our individuals to upskill or reskill as needed to be competitive in the workforce today and in the future,” said Robert G. DelCampo, Ph.D., senior executive director of CCE.

“We can help identify interns for companies, facilitate contract research or market validation, even develop training programs staffed by our network of leading experts across a number of fields,” said DelCampo.

The Anderson CCE Office was recently awarded a grant of almost $1 million from the National Science Foundation to explore barriers to rural STEM innovation and entrepreneurship. Using research, mentorship, networking and technical training, this project will address historical inequalities affecting Native American, New Mexico Hispanic and other minority students to engaging in STEM innovation and entrepreneurship.

In addition, the Innovation Academy is part of the West region’s new I-Corps Hub, which was recently awarded another $3 million in National Science Foundation funding to help advance new technologies and incubate emerging companies that can move discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. The West region I-Corps Hub, which is led by the University of Southern California, includes the University of New Mexico, California Institute of Technology, Colorado School of Mines, University of California – Los Angeles, University of California – Riverside, University of Colorado Boulder and The University of Utah. For the past six years, these universities have trained more than 925 entrepreneur teams through their participation in the NSF I-Corps program.

“These are the types of relevant projects we expect to continue seeking through the Anderson CCE Office,” said Mitzi Montoya, Ph.D., dean of the Anderson School. “We intend to be partners in progress, leveraging our strengths and collaborating with other community partners to support regional innovation.”

For more information on how to partner with Anderson’s Corporate and Community Engagement Office, visit https://www.mgt.unm.edu/cce