Russ Lea's Consulting Services and Experience
Research Parks and Remote Campuses |
An old adage from a very seasoned research administrator once told Dr. Lea that in order to properly prepare for launching an R&D tech park to “check the paws on the puppy.” Through the years Dr. Lea has worked with campuses and industry leaders to set priorities and budgets for construction and operation for a variety of tech parks, specialized research facilities, and remote campus locations. A sample of such alliances and the role Dr. Lea played in the establishment of the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis can be found in the link below.
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Dr. Lea was instrumental in justifying and seeking funding from the North Carolina Legislature to establish the Coastal Studies Institute. The Institute has been built and is in full operation located in Wanchese, North Carolina. See the link below.
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Dr. Lea oversaw the operations of the University of South Alabama’s Tech Park and built a culture that was friendly to its industry tenants and beneficial to its academic mission for training students and providing outlets for faculty innovations. An example of a tenant who sought to increase their presence at USA’s Tech Park is provided in the link below.
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Improving Inter/Intra-Institutional Collaborations |
Most organizations have the capacity to dream of bold and audacious plans for new collaborative efforts across organizational boundaries or across organizations. Such efforts are often memorialized in planning documents, white papers, and workshops, but stumble quickly when leadership, funding, governance and space needs (location) are discussed. Dr. Lea has a history enabling organizations to realize their audacious plans by developing sound strategies to step organizations through planning, funding, leadership and governance issues. One such plan – born out of a junior faculty member’s desire to observe a large swath of the Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to Florida – was coordinated and brought to full operation across a multitude of institutions and geographies. The South East Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS) was fully developed in the UNC Office of the President and funding coordinated across congressional representatives from five states. The link below outlines the large-scale research endeavor that operated for 6 years.
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Dr. Lea has also served in a variety roles promoting national initiatives or following on to large-scale environmental planning activities. He recently participated in the following National Research Council Workshop. An excerpt is provided in the link below.
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Improving University/Industry Partnerships
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One of the best texts offered to assist organizations through the morass of issues regarding University/Industry partnerships was created by the American Association of University Professors and published by the University of Illinois Press. The book covers 56 principles that span academic norms to strategic corporate alliances. A copy of this valuable guide (link below) should occupy every senior administrator’s bookshelf, especially those who want mutually beneficial R&D relationships to continue and flourish.
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Over the years, Dr. Lea has taken a keen interest in why certain faculty can breakout of university controls and operate a start-up company while fully performing academic and institutional responsibilities. His close mentoring of faculty entrepreneurs and innovators has resulted in numerous successful corporations being founded by university faculty and clinicians. Below is an excerpt of a chapter that he was invited to write outlining the conditions that faculty entrepreneurs can be subject to while finding commercial outlets for their innovations.
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Dr. Lea also contributed to Gretchen Bataille and Betsy Brown’s book on Faculty Career Paths: Multiple routes to academic success and satisfaction. His piece found on page 138 covers “Transforming University Culture to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.” The link below provides an excerpt.
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International Collaborations
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Dr. Lea has consulted internationally on a variety of issues concerning research, innovation, entrepreneurship, cyberinfrastructure, intellectual property, environmental sustainability, environmental restoration, large research infrastructures, and food security. Below are links to presentations provided by Dr. Lea at recent international conferences.
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Crisis Management Regarding R&D
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Dr. Lea has consulted with R&D centric organizations and some federal agencies covering a diversity of “hot button” issues such as: conflict of interest, human and animal subjects, misconduct of science, intellectual property protections, stem cells, export controls, and publication restrictions.
One of the most notable crises that Lea dealt with, fortunately or unfortunately based on ones perspective, was the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill. Dr. Lea was leading the University of South Alabama’s research enterprise when it was thrown head long into one of the biggest environmental disasters where scientific data and applied science was of the utmost importance to understand the scope and impact of the disaster. The day the BP oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico multitudes of scientists and clinicians wondered how to get immediately involved and help understand the current state of the environment, human health, economic influences, and community well-being. BP and their corporate attorneys thought they could be extremely clever by providing research funds to address the multitude of issues and simultaneously tying up the university researcher’s hands to publish their work. Lea discovered suspicious contract language and went public with how BP corporate intentions were to limit the distribution of data and information related to the spill. Below are links that memorialize the response to the crisis associated with the spill. |
Corporate Innovation |
Dr. Lea has been extremely fortunate to be invited to participate in numerous Frost & Sullivan Global Innovation Leadership conferences. At the GIL conferences, C-level leaders of global organizations are invited to discuss, in a not for attribution mode, the challenges facing challenges of implementing innovation and deriving competitive advantages and long-term growth. The most creative GIL workshops that Lea participated in was hosted by SmartOrg where every component of the innovation “life line” was considered and fully vetted. The participant list and their findings can be found at the link below.
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In Alabama, Dr. Lea worked with state economic development leaders to initiate a program to accelerate university-based innovations into the marketplace. Alabama EDPA now hosts Launch Pad competitions where university innovators develop business plans working with business mentors and enter into a competition to receive small state grants to start up their companies. Below is the link that describes the initiation of the Alabama program.
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