Jill Jemison, Larner College of Medicine technology services director, and Kerry Swift, M.S., technology licensing officer in the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) at the University of Vermont, are currently serving as two of eight inaugural BTV Ignite Executive Fellows.
Jill Jemison, Larner College of Medicine technology services director, and Kerry Swift, M.S., technology licensing officer in the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) at the University of Vermont. (Photo: LCOM Creative Services)
Jill Jemison, Larner College of Medicine technology services director, and Kerry Swift, M.S., technology licensing officer in the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) at the University of Vermont, are currently serving as two of eight inaugural BTV Ignite Executive Fellows.
The new program – announced in October 2016 and launched in January 2017 – is a collaboration of BTV Ignite and its partners, which include the City of Burlington, Burlington Electric, Burlington Telecom, Champlain College, The Institute for American Apprenticeships at Vermont HITEC, the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, People’s United Bank, UVM, UVM Medical Center, and Vermont Works.
According to BTV Ignite, the Executive Fellows are current members of innovation and technology ecosystem in the greater Burlington area who have demonstrated extensive knowledge and expertise in innovation and technology and serve as facilitators and conveners of projects and ongoing education and training initiatives. Jemison and the other seven Executive Fellows serve as members of the BTV Ignite Directors Advisory Board to help ensure the organization is grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the practical opportunities resident in the tech ecosystem. She and the other Executive Fellows are working on projects, representing the organization at meetings and conferences, and are developing substantive strategies and thought pieces about the issues and opportunities facing our area today.
Jemison is responsible for infrastructure, programming, helpdesk, education technology, research computing, classroom support and AV at the College. Prior to assuming her current role, she led the College’s nationally recognized online learning project, COMET. Jemison is faculty director of the Association of American Medical College’s (AAMC) Group on Information Resources (GIR) Leadership Institute for IT leaders in academic medicine, and served both as chair of the steering committee for the AAMC GIR and as founding chair of the GIR Education Technology Special Interest Group. She co-chairs the Educause Health Sciences constituent group and teaches in the Public Health Projects course at the College of Medicine. Before joining UVM, she was a journalist for 13 years, and was the first online editor for The Burlington Free Press.
Swift, who served as the OTC’s interim director from 2011 to 2012, has served as UVM’s technology licensing officer since 2004. She is responsible for facilitating the disclosure of new technologies and their transfer to both established and new start-up companies for commercialization and also supports UVM’s industry-related research activities with her experience in negotiating a wide variety of funding and research support agreements with both large and small companies. Prior to joining UVM, Swift worked in MIT’s Technology Licensing Office for six-and-a-half years. She holds a master of science degree in molecular and microbiology from Tufts University.