2022 Workshop Series

Katherine Zobre, Business Advisor

Katherine Zobre currently works as a Business Advisor for the Alabama Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, proudly serving the business community through coaching and mentoring of small businesses in Alabama. In the four years she has worked with the SBDC, she has assisted over 1,500 businesses, helped 167 businesses start, and assisted with over $2.2m in equity and debt financing. She was awarded the national State Star award for her outstanding contribution to the ASBDC in 2020. She has traveled and lived in 11 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America consulting in financial services, healthcare, education, agriculture, manufacturing, retail, and consulting.

She served in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa where she focused on empowerment through financial literacy and technical assistance to women’s business groups. She worked in consulting in Buenos Aires, Argentina before moving back to the U.S. where she started her own consulting firm in Dallas, Texas. Her specialization is startup and growth strategy with science/engineering R&D companies and creative arts businesses.

Katherine obtained a BA in political science and economics from the University of Maryland and MS in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dr. Theresa M. Welbourne, Professor in Entrepreneurship and Executive Director

Dr. Theresa M. Welbourne is the Will and Maggie Brooke Professor in Entrepreneurship and Executive Director, Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute, Culverhouse College of Business at The University of Alabama. She works with students, faculty, staff and business leaders to help drive both new venture development and ongoing growth within established firms. Theresa also runs programming at The EDGE, which is Tuscaloosa’s incubator and accelerator. Dr. Welbourne’s expertise is in the areas of entrepreneurship, human capital management and strategic leadership in high growth, entrepreneurial and high change organizations. She is the founder, president, and CEO of eePulse, Inc., a human capital technology and consulting firm. Dr. Welbourne’s research and work have been featured in popular publications such as Inc. Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Business Week, New York Times, and Entrepreneur Magazine and she is well published in numerous academic and business books. Theresa was awarded the 2012 Academy of Management Distinguished Executive Award (for contributions in research, teaching and practice), and in 2017 she was named a Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Fellow. Dr. Welbourne also holds an appointment as an affiliated senior research scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

Dr. Pamela Young, Director of Community Engagement and Economic Development

Dr. Pamela Young is the Director of Community Engagement and Economic Development in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama. Dr. Young supports community engaged scholarship, teaching and service-learning initiatives career development and student leadership.  She has led the creation of Embrace Tuscaloosa and Engage Alabama days service learning the College, serves as the advisor to the A&S Student Ambassadors, and teaches a first-year seminar. Dr. Young also served on the Community Engagement subcommittee of General Education Taskforce and is involved with the United Way of West Alabama.  She received the 2021 UA staff award for excellence in community engagement.  An education specialist and experienced crisis manager, Dr. Young worked as a leader at international nonprofit organizations, an experience that took her to 60 countries across the globe to work with young people, parents, government leaders, universities, schools and community-based organizations to design and implement socio-economic development and humanitarian programs. She is active in NASPA and a Fulbright Specialist. She is a proud native of Massachusetts and avid Red Sox fan.

Dr. Young earned a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Colby College.

Hunter Adams, Patent and Intellectual Strategy Attorney

Hunter Adams is a patent and intellectual strategy attorney. A New College and University of Alabama Law School alumnus, Adams opened his firm AdamsIP in 2012 in Mobile, Alabama.  He specializes in Intellectual Property Strategy, Patent Portfolio Analysis, Patent Law, Trademarks, and high growth early-stage companies.

Holland Hopson, Assistant Professor for Arts Entrepreneurship New College and the Department of Art and Art History

Holland Hopson is Assistant Professor of Arts Entrepreneurship in New College and the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Alabama. He’s currently a Fellow of the Collaborative Arts Research Initiative (CARI). Holland’s creative work focuses on the intersection of the arts and technology. His output includes work as a sound and media artist, composer and improviser. Holland has exhibited and performed in Australia, Europe, Korea, and North America, and he has held residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Hambidge Center, and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts. Holland’s work has been supported by grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT); and Meet the Composer.

Amy Pirkle, Assistant Professor and Faculty Advisor

Amy Pirkle is an Assistant Professor at The University of Alabama, with a joint appointment in the Honors College and New College. She teaches classes in Contemporary Book Arts, Design, the History of the Book, and Interdisciplinary Studies. In addition to her fourteen years of teaching at UA, she has taught for Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and The University of Georgia, and she hosted a 6-episode webseries called Flip Out for NBCUniversal.

Her art resides in over 60 permanent collections across the United States, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Meridian Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, and Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Special Collections. Although Amy is formally trained as a fine press printer and bookbinder, her recent work has shifted almost exclusively to animation and video in the past few years, where she has received commissions from McDonalds, Amazon Prime, the BBC, Crayola, Fairlife Milk, and Callaway Golf, among others.