Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has relaunched its Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, appointing a new director and adding a new experiential lab to expand opportunities for enterprising students.  

Housed under the David B. O’Maley College of Business, the center focuses on helping students develop ideas, evaluate their commercial potential and turn promising concepts into businesses.

The relaunch includes the naming of Dr. Sierra Pollard, who spearheaded start-up incubators and entrepreneurship initiatives at the University of Florida, as the center’s director. The new lab, on the first floor of the college, features modern meeting and presentation spaces designed to bring students, faculty and industry collaborators together.

“Embry-Riddle has an extraordinary opportunity to build a distinctive entrepreneurship ecosystem at the intersection of aviation, aerospace, space and emerging technologies,” said Joe Gibney, dean of the O’Maley College of Business. “By bringing together students from across the university with entrepreneurs, industry leaders and investors, we can help transform innovative ideas into real-world opportunities. Sierra brings the experience and industry relationships needed to advance that vision.”

At UF, Pollard served as director of the Blackstone LaunchPad, a campus hub for innovation in the Warrington College of Business.

She also was a professor and created UF’s Innovating 4 Space (i4S) program, a cross-disciplinary space innovation program integrating business, engineering, design and strategy and facilitating startups in the space industry. The program, housed under UF’s Engineering Innovation Institute, partnered with companies such as Blue Origin, Collins Aerospace and Raytheon Technologies.

Sierra Pollard stands smiling outside the glass-fronted Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship while students work inside.
Pollard is the new director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which focuses on helping students develop ideas, evaluate their commercial potential and turn promising concepts into businesses. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/Steven Sobel)

A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” Pollard has started five companies and a charitable foundation. She serves as a board member for the Women in Space organization with the Space Force Association, where she supports space education, outreach and advocacy.

“For me, this role at Embry-Riddle was a perfect melting pot of entrepreneurship and aerospace engineering and aviation,” she said.

Pollard said she looks forward to sharing her existing connections in industry and innovation arms with Embry-Riddle students. Her plans include frequent guest speakers, workshops and events to connect students with industry partners, entrepreneurs and mentors.

“Our ambition is to make entrepreneurial experience a defining part of an O’Maley education while creating an innovation resource that serves the entire Embry-Riddle community,” said Gibney. “We want students to graduate not just with the knowledge to succeed in established organizations, but with the confidence and skills to identify opportunities, solve problems and create something new.”

On Nov. 13, the center will host TREP Expo, a student business idea competition with up to $7,000 in awards.