National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Appoints Therese Fellner as Vice President of Membership

Springfield, MA, January 31, 2014 --(PR.com)-- The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), the nation’s leading organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship through community colleges, has announced the appointment of Therese Fellner, Ph.D., as vice president of membership.

"It is with great pleasure and excitement that I join the strong and visionary leadership of the NACCE team,” said Fellner. “As workforce and economic development initiatives at two-year colleges continue to transition into integrative strategies and collaboration with academia, I see NACCE building value through targeted programs and resources that respond to the diverse needs of our members and stakeholders, both nationally and globally."

“At numerous points in her career and especially in the past decade, Therese’s experience touches on many areas that are integral to NACCE’s vision of creating economic vitality through entrepreneurship,” said NACCE President and CEO Heather Van Sickle. “We are excited to have her join the NACCE team in support of our member colleges across the country that are fostering economic vitality in the communities they serve.”

Fellner joins NACCE from Gateway Technical College, which serves more than 25,000 students in Southeastern Wisconsin and has a strong entrepreneurship program. Her most recent position there was as executive director of Strategic Initiatives. Previously, she served as director of Business Development at Gateway. In addition to a distinguished background in higher education that has included stints at Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Arizona State University, and the University of Minnesota, Fellner has other experience that is extremely germane to NACCE’s work. She served as president of the Wisconsin Business Incubation Association from 2007 to 2012. In addition, she has been an entrepreneur, having co-founded a specialty toy store in Racine, WI, and worked as a solopreneur providing grant writing and program evaluation services. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Arizona State University and M.A. in Educational Administration and a B.A. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

About NACCE
The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) is an organization of educators, administrators, presidents and entrepreneurs, focused on inciting entrepreneurship in their community and on their campus. NACCE has two main goals: 1. Empower the college to approach the business of running a community college with an entrepreneurial mindset; and 2. Grow the community college’s role in supporting job creation and entrepreneurs in their local ecosystem.

Founded in 2002, NACCE is at the heart of the "entrepreneurship movement.” Through membership, an annual conference and exhibition, regional summits, a quarterly journal, monthly webinars, a dynamic list-serv, and training resources, NACCE serves as the hub for the dissemination and integration of knowledge and successful practices regarding entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurship education and student business incubation. These initiatives and resulting actions advance economic prosperity in the communities served by its member colleges. NACCE is a founding member of the White House-led Startup America Partnership For more information, visit http://www.nacce.com.