Kayla Meisner
Kayla Meisner was recently named executive director of Kentucky Commercialization Ventures (KCV) by Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation. KCV has received national recognition for its work, with two recent awards from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Meisner currently holds an adjunct professorship within the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business. She serves as vice president and board chair for Venture Connectors, a nonprofit that advances business opportunities throughout Kentucky. Business Lexington spoke with her about her career and the mission of KCV.
Tell us a bit about your background and what brought you to KCV.
I grew up with a single mom, who was a nurse. She worked shifts, and when she came home, I’d say, ‘turn on that show ER.’ I loved that they were saving lives and that you could see surgery on TV. My older brother had cerebral palsy, and they’d make custom braces for his legs so he could walk. I nerded out on that whole experience. I wanted to be a doctor.
The campaign to get girls into science was huge when I was in elementary and middle school. In eighth grade, I found out engineers were more than train conductors. I said, ‘OK, maybe I’d be a good biomedical engineer and that would get my foot into the door of medicine.’
From high school, I was recruited to go to the University of Louisville’s Speed School. About a year into my studies, I figured out I was not suited for the life of laboratory research. I’m a people person — the most extroverted of extroverts. I thought about dropping engineering and attending business school to major in entrepreneurship. All my advisors told me, ‘don’t do that — there aren’t many Black women with engineering degrees. You should stick with that and you could probably find a job in business.’ They advised me to talk to the U of L tech transfer office, which works with both science and business. I was the first ever engineering student they hired. I love tech transfer and its multifaceted nature. We’re working to make the world a better place.
What is the primary focus of KVC?
Kentucky Commercialization Ventures is an unprecedented model for tech transfer. For background, in 1980, Congress enacted the Bayh–Dole Act. The federal government had been pumping billions of dollars into research at private and public institutions, and they weren’t seeing a return on that investment. We were no longer leading the world in intellectual property filings, so how do we entice people to innovate and file patents? Bayh–Dole made it the institution’s responsibility to disclose research done with federal dollars. That was the genesis of tech transfer. Provisions in the Bayh–Dole Act incentivized and accelerated the commercialization of inventions and patents, bringing the fruits of institutional research to the market.
The big R1 schools — recognized universities with large, advanced research pro- grams — began hiring commercialization experts for tech transfer. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, when places like Silicon Valley had explosive growth, people saw that university research could be an engine for economic growth and the incentivizing of start-up companies and the jobs they create.
KCV is pioneering the third generation of tech transfer, which is to say, we’re removing barriers to access to education and resources. Innovation doesn’t just happen in the STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] field. It doesn’t just happen with people who majored in entrepreneurship or went through MBA programs. And innovation can happen at institutions that aren’t R1 schools.
So, KCV is a public-private partnership of the Kentucky Cabinet of Economic Development and the nonprofit Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, and then leaning on Kentucky’s two R1 schools — U of L and the University of Kentucky — as the tech transfer support staff. KCV has a staff of three that coordinates the work. Through KCV, we support tech transfer in all 22 Kentucky institutions of higher education and training.
The SUNY system of New York and the UC system of California have something like this, but their systems are each under the umbrella of one institution. KCV serves multiple institutions under a unifying umbrella.
KCV is leading the nation in inclusive innovation — inclusive meaning that we support innovation from technical and community colleges that have never had tech-transfer support.
KCV is leading the nation in inclusive innovation — inclusive meaning that we support innovation from technical and community colleges that have never had tech-transfer support. Our mission is to elevate the ideas of Kentucky — ideas that will solve Kentucky problems and help solve world problems. We have a lot of good and innovative research that has never been given the time of day.
What is an example of tech transfer that you worked on at U of L?
When I started there, they had never filed for copyright licensing of any research. People would say, ‘we don’t know what to do with these creative works that aren’t patentable.’
I met Brad Shuck, a researcher in the school of education. He studied work culture and employee engagement and what motivates people to work for more than 10 years. I worked with him for three years, fighting for the tech transfer office to copyright his stuff and to let me find an interested company. We filed a copyright. I met a high-powered businessman, Charlie Miller, in Louisville. He and Dr. Shuck clicked, and the business was formed. At first, we thought the market would be HR departments. We pivoted to a consulting model and landed several consulting contracts. It’s been highly successful and has rebranded to OrgVitals, offering management software that allows companies of any size to get a pulse on how their employees are doing.
What are some innovations that KCV has supported?
At Somerset Community College, an inventor, Eric Woolridge, was working on 3D printing a mask for COVID. The material he was using was very effective at capturing the COVID virus and protecting people. We saw that, beyond the mask, this material could be used in HVAC systems, like at hospitals.
Eastern Kentucky University received its first licensing revenue from a faculty-led startup called Eastern Scientific. Researchers have developed a test for E. coli. We filed a patent in 2021, and commercial sales have already begun. Without KCV, there would be no mechanism for taking that intellectual property outside of the university.
At Western Kentucky University, Dr. Daniel Boamah received a $25,000 KCV Impact competition award for developing a virtual-reality platform to increase awareness of implicit bias in child welfare decision-making. And that’s a public health crisis.
What kinds of programs does KCV or its affiliates offer?
UK offers start-up bootcamp programs. They’re nationally known programs. Once our innovators are at a certain stage, they can go through those programs to push their start-ups forward.
Our Innovation Fellowship Program allows students to have a safe space to explore their ideas. We’re going to offer another this year — a six-week, all-virtual program given to anyone across the state of Kentucky to gain an understanding of the process of innovation and to help break down barriers.
Anything you’d like to add?
Things are opening up. Innovators are seeing we’re here to stay and they’re seeing there’s support from the state. They see we put our money where our mouth is. And, when we get awarded, we give it back to the people — our stakeholders and clients — and our regional institutions. We have expertise in all things, from agritech to clean energy. Appalachia will be the place that fuels the next generation of clean energy