Meet Our Team

Our team brings together diverse expertise and experience, combining knowledge of intellectual property, business development, licensing and industry engagement. We are here to guide you through the technology transfer process and help transform your innovative ideas into tangible, impactful solutions.

Category:

Leadership

Our leadership team at the Technology Licensing Office focuses on strategy, business operations, human resources, accountability, procurement, processes, SOPs and workflows across the organization to enable informed decision-making.

Jamie P. Dwyer, MD

Executive Associate Vice President of Research and Interim Chief Innovation Officer

Jason Young, MD, MBA

Senior Director, Commercialization

Kyrsten Woolstenhulme, MBA

Senior Director, Venture

Shaleen Watkins

Senior Director, Operations

Amanda Ashley

Senior Director of Marketing & Communications

Audrey Taylor

Executive Assistant

Commercialization Team

Our commercialization team provides comprehensive guidance to faculty members from the pre-disclosure stage through to licensing. They manage intellectual property on campus, engage with faculty, establish tangible property agreements, market technologies, foster industry relationships, and ultimately license various technologies.

Lucia Irazabal, MBA

Tangible Property Life Sciences, Associate Director of Commercialization

Steven Christiansen, PhD

Life Sciences, Associate Director of Commercialization

Clay Macomber, MS

Physical Sciences, Associate Director of Commercialization

Vicky Suazo

Innovation Project Manager

Venture Team

Our Venture team helps researchers move ideas toward market through validation, strategy, and support. With programs like I-Corps and the Ascender Grant, they provide the insight and resources needed to de-risk technologies and advance them toward startups, licensing, and industry partnerships.

Amy W. Graham

Utah I-Corps™ Associate Director

Israel Jones

Market Research Analyst

Contracts

Our contracts team oversees the drafting, review and execution of all contracts and agreements for TLO, including licensing agreements, MTAs, DTAs , CDAs, VSAs, IIAs and DUAs. The contracts team also liaises with the Conflict of Interest Office, the Office of Sponsored Projects, and the Office of General Council on behalf of TLO.

Eric Paulsen, JD, MBA

Director of Contracts

Heather Johnson-Gutierrez, JD

Senior Contracts Manager

Megan Warren

Project Manager

Monica Zamudio

Contracts Manager

Intellectual Property

The intellectual property team manages the patent, copyright and trademark portfolio for the University of Utah. They serve as the TLO liaison with external patent counsel, develop intellectual property strategies to support commercialization and direct patent filing and prosecution for university owned technologies. The team also works with licensees to maintain patents and address intellectual property related legal concerns.

Corey Bingham, JD

Director, Intellectual Property

Stephanie DeGraff

Intellectual Property Manager

Carla MacQueen

Intellectual Property Manager

Finance

Our finance team is passionate about supporting the commercialization of cutting-edge research and development. They provide comprehensive financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, royalty distribution and reporting, while working to maximize the return on investment for our partners.

Tommy Evershed, MAcc

Director of Finance

Jessica Keat

Financial Analyst

Data Analytics Team

Our business and data analytics team is responsible for developing, implementing and managing data analytics capabilities while supporting quantitative and qualitative decision making.