UNCW chancellor invited to education forum, White House

Miller

Gary Miller, chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, was scheduled to spend Monday at a forum in Washington, D.C. to discuss issues of innovation in higher education, followed by a visit to the White House. 

The forum, hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, included panel discussions about student-faculty innovation, technology transfer and industry collaboration and universities' roles in regional economic development, according to a press release from UNCW. Other forum attendees were the chancellors and presidents of Northeastern University, Texas A&M University, Howard University, the University of Minnesota, Clemson University and N.C. State University.

The session was dubbed “The Innovative and Entrepreneurial University: Higher Education, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Focus.”

Under Miller, UNCW formed an Innovation Council in 2011 to – in Miller’s words – “vigorously seek out and develop ideas with the potential to positively impact our campus and, in some cases, southeastern North Carolina.”

“UNCW’s values inspire our faculty to enhance students’ ‘journeys of learning’ by involving them in research and outreach projects that improve the quality of life in our region,” Miller said in the release. “We're very interested in technology transfer, and we’re actively developing public-private partnerships with businesses, industries agencies and nonprofits.”

The university also operates programs directly charged with contributing to economic development such as the Entrepreneurship Center. A new economic impact study conducted by faculty in the Cameron School of Business indicates UNCW is a catalyst for the economic engine of southeastern North Carolina, generating more than $1 billion in annual economic activity during academic year 2011-12.