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.

Katherine Zobre, Director of Training at Innovation Depot

Katherine Zobre serves as the Director of Training at Innovation Depot where she designs, coordinates, and delivers training to entrepreneurs in the Greater Birmingham area. As a former business advisor with the Alabama Small Business Development Center, she has served Central Alabama’s startup and small business community for 6 years assisting thousands of businesses. She is a former Community Economic Development Peace Corps Volunteer. Her MS is from the University of Amsterdam, NL in International Development Studies. She is a proud pet parent of three cats and one crazy dog. She loves to garden, travel, and read.

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.

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

Holland Hopson is Assistant Professor of Arts Entrepreneurship in New College and 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.