Value Added HBCUs, Maker Spaces and Regional Manufacturing with Dr. Ronald C. Williams

Wearable Takeover Podcast

Dr. Ronald C. Williams, Associate Professor of Management, Coppin State University College of Business and Founding Director of the CSU Center for Strategic Entrepreneurship

35-year higher education career with deep community roots and national influence.

Ronald (Ron) C. Williams has served in higher education for 35 years, spending the past 25 years as a faculty member in the Coppin State University (CSU) College of Business and serving as interim dean from 2013 until 2017.

In 2016, Dr. Williams established a formal relationship between CSU and Open Works Baltimore, a 34K sq. ft makerspace. This groundbreaking relationship is the first of its kind in the nation and led to a role as principal investigator in the 2019 “Turning Makerspaces into Greater Places: An Organizational Assessment and Economic Impact Study of Open Works” (www.GreaterSpacesAndPlaces.com), another significant innovation as the first comprehensive organizational assessment and economic impact study of a makerspace. He further contributed to the understanding of makerspace value in 2020 as principal investigator in the case study of Open Works’ application of Lean Manufacturing principles during the initial months of the Covid-19 global pandemic, producing over 28,000 face shields in 56 days for over 100 clients.

Immediately prior to the 2015 unrest in Baltimore, Dr. Williams coined the phrase “ingepreneurship” (inge… as in ingenuity) in a 2017 Metropolitan Journal article entitled “Creating a University Driven ‘Ingepreneurial’ Ecosystem in West Baltimore: A Strategy for Rust Belt Revitalization.”
Dr. Williams holds a Ph.D. in management and organization from George Washington University with concentrations in organization behavior & development and the management of science, technology, & innovation; a master's degree in human resource development from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; and a bachelor's degree with majors in psychology, social science, and education from the University of Tampa in Tampa, Florida. He also serves on the AAAS HBCU Making & Innovation Advisory Board, the Open Works Board of Directors, and as President and Chair of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance.

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