Event
Wednesday, June 3, 2026 – Thursday, June 4, 2026
Event Summary
RSVP to this year’s American Innovator Award Ceremony and Faces of American Innovation Capitol Hill Briefing here.
On Wednesday, June 3, and Thursday, June 4, 2026, the Bayh-Dole Coalition will host our fourth-annual American Innovator Award ceremony and Faces of American Innovation Capitol Hill briefing.
Over the two days, we will honor the individuals profiled in our soon-to-be-released 2026 Faces of American Innovation report, discuss timely Bayh-Dole-related issues, and meet with members of Congress.
Wednesday, June 3 | Top of the Hill Banquet & Conference Center, Minuteman Ballroom — The American Innovator Award Ceremony and Bayh-Dole Advocacy Conference will begin with breakfast and opening remarks. Joseph P. Allen, executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition, will then honor the 2026 recipients of the American Innovator Award. Attendees will hear from special speakers and sit in on panel discussions on timely Bayh-Dole-related issues.
After lunch, a members-only portion of the day will follow, including a Coalition member town hall and preparations for Capitol Hill meetings.
Thursday, June 4 | Capitol Hill (Building TBD) — The Faces of American Innovation Capitol Hill Briefing will open with remarks from Joseph P. Allen, followed by the 2026 Faces of American Innovation report briefing with the five awardees. The members-only portion of the day will follow and include meetings with members of Congress and their staff to discuss critical issues related to the Bayh-Dole Act.
More details and a full schedule coming soon — we hope to see you there!
Speakers
Joseph P. Allen (Moderator)
Joe is the executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. As a professional staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee to Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), he played a key role in the successful passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and its subsequent amendments. He later served as the director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the Department of Commerce, which oversaw the implementation of Bayh-Dole and chaired the Interagency Committee on Technology Transfer.
Jere W. Glover
Jere is the executive director of the Small Business Technology Council. He is also an attorney with Seidman & Associates, P.C., where he advises businesses on regulatory, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Small Business Administration (SBA), and federal contracting matters. He previously served as Chief Counsel for Advocacy at SBA, where his work on regulatory reform helped save the private sector billions in annual compliance costs. Prior to his time at SBA, he held senior roles on Capitol Hill and in federal agencies, including counsel to the House and Senate small business committees, director of the legal division at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and senior antitrust trial attorney at the Federal Trade Commission. He has testified before Congress more than 30 times and played a key role in shaping the Small Business Innovation Research Act. Jere holds a J.D. from the University of Memphis and an LL.M. from The George Washington University Law School.
Karen Kerrigan
Karen is president & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. In this role, she regularly testifies before Congress on the key issues impacting entrepreneurs and the economy, engages with the President’s cabinet and key advisors, and has been appointed to numerous federal advisory boards. She also chairs the Small Business Roundtable and is a founding member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum. Karen earned a B.A. from SUNY Cortland and currently serves on the Cortland College Foundation Board.
Jennifer Pagán
Dr. Jennifer Pagán is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of AquiSense Inc., the global leader in UV-C LED water disinfection systems. She earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she first developed her U.S. patented disinfection technologies with funding from the National Science Foundation. Licensed to the UNC Charlotte spinout Dot Metrics Technologies, her invention enabled the world’s first UV-C LED water disinfection system and ultimately the launch of AquiSense in 2015. Today, her technology is deployed worldwide and even aboard the International Space Station.
Andrew Maas
Andy is the assistant vice president of technology transfer at the University of Texas at Austin. In this role, he leads the University’s research commercialization and innovation initiatives and oversees the protection and commercialization of UT’s intellectual property. He previously served as associate vice president for research at Louisiana State University, overseeing the office of Innovation and Ecosystem Development. During his career, he has built an engineering startup, led within the university and research foundation settings, and currently serves as the board chair of AUTM. Maas holds a B.S. from Brigham Young University, an M.S. from UT Austin, and a J.D. and LLM from The University of Akron.
Ashlyn Roberts
Ashlyn serves as the vice president of government affairs at the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). She has been on the frontline of the Small Business Roundtable and advised the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation on matters related to entrepreneurship, economic development, and workforce policy. She has experience working alongside the Department of Commerce and Small Business Administration identifying collaborative opportunities at the intersection of private, philanthropic, and public capital. She was previously the director of government and public affairs at Prism Group. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Roberts graduated from Wofford College with degrees in International Affairs and Spanish.
Dr. Rachel Dorin
Rachel is the founder and chief technology officer of TeraPore Technologies, a startup created to develop the Intelligent Membrane platform she discovered as a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University. As CTO, she leads R&D for TeraPore’s next-generation products focused on customizable filtration technologies for virus filtration and beyond.