Colin Lacy

Leading social entrepreneurial efforts in the education equity field for over 10 years. Experience includes leadership role in the launch of US2020 in 2013 in partnership with the White House Office and Science Technology Policy, ultimately serving as Executive Director of "Makers + Mentors Network" (rebrand of US2020). During this time, led the design and implementation of new models that more than doubled the scale of the initiative to support over 20 regional STEM and maker ecosystems, serving over 200,000 underrepresented and underserved youth. This included the development of a new national service model that placed AmeriCorps members at partner community colleges and HBCUs. This effort revealed a significant community demand that was going unmet and led to the formation of MakerUSA. Now serving as the CEO and co-founder role of MakerUSA, which is incubated within the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE). Our goal at MakerUSA is to help communities build stronger pathways for underserved students into making-related careers and entrepreneurship. Volunteer leadership roles have included serving as three-term president of regional chamber of commerce and elected school-board official. Deeply committed to the belief that our collective future will be determined by our ability to empower the ideas and solutions of all and that our greatest asset is our diversity of thought, race, culture, perspective and experience.