The Baker Institute team is a small group of talented individuals who are dedicated to our students' success. The Institute is an entrepreneurial venture itself and we practice what we preach: we look for opportunities to create value for our customers by understanding their needs and providing solutions that are transformative.
Executive Director
Lisa Getzler is Executive Director of Lehigh University's Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Innovation, which was launched in 2010 to create a culture of entrepreneurship across the university, promote innovative thinking and foster the realization of entrepreneurial ideas.
Lisa is responsible for the Institute's strategy, mission driven program design, internal and external partnerships and developing the resources needed to provide students from all disciplines with opportunities to develop their entrepreneurial mindset and actionable skills as well as their early stage ventures. Design Thinking is at the heart of Baker Institute programming and Lisa has been a DT practitioner and facilitator for over a decade. Lisa has worked to champion forward looking approaches to students' intellectual property and is nationally known for developing assessment tools to directly measure student performance in multi-disciplined, team-based, immersive learning environments. The assessment measures she developed for the Integrated Product Development Capstone Program at Lehigh University, have been recognized as best practices in assessment of student performance and adopted by similar programs across the country.
These works have been the basis for partnerships with peer institutions, garnering National Science Foundation funding and have been recognized by ABET, the accrediting agency for academic programs in applied science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.
In 2017 she spearheaded Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, a partnership between Lehigh and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco, providing Lehigh a permanent, year-round academic presence on the West Coast, particularly in the globally renowned startup hub of nearby Silicon Valley. Lisa is a co-founder of TEDxLehighRiver where she serves as curator and speaker coach. Lisa was named a Lehigh Valley Business Women of Influence and is the recipient of Lehigh U's Hillman Award for her major impact on advancing the role of entrepreneurship at Lehigh, and has served on the executive board of directors at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center.
Interim Director of Lehigh Ventures Lab
Chris Kauzmann has taught, managed and run Baker Institute programs for a decade at Lehigh. In his role as Interim Director of Lehigh Ventures Lab Chris plans to build out the core structural systems, including mentorship, content and policy, allowing Lehigh founders to focus on what matters. Chris graduated from Lehigh University in 2013 with a Mechanical Engineering degree and Entrepreneurship Minor, followed by a Master's of Engineering in Technical Entrepreneurship in 2014.
Senior Administrative Coordinator
With over a decade of service at Lehigh, Catherine is a highly visible, key player within the Baker Institute. Her duties are wide-ranging and cut across numerous programs and events. She provides support and assistance to the Executive Director as well as managing day-to-day operations within Baker, including financials for all programs. Catherine is also responsible for managing its flagship LehighSiliconValley program as the Logistics Manager for LSV.
Young Entrepreneur in Residence
Brian Quispe graduated from Lehigh University in 2020 with his Bachelor's of Science in Finance and Economics followed by a Master's Degree in Applied Economics in 2022. As a student he participated in several Baker Institute programs including the Hatchery and EUREKA! Pitch night events with his venture OcuTrap eventually winning the Thalheimer Grand Prize in 2021. In Brian's role he helps early stage student startup teams through the EUREKA! Ventures Project Program. He runs the "What to do with an Idea" sessions in which he offers pre-pitch coaching and direct support to teams.
R.I.S.E Associate
Cedrique Wafula is a sophomore at Lehigh University's College of Business. Cedrique supports the Baker Institute's R.I.S.E. (Rightful Inclusive Student Entrepreneurship) associate in conducting primary research and qualitative data collection with the goal of understanding the why and the how behind the explicit, implicit, and systemic barriers that students must navigate on their path to entrepreneurial thinking and doing. In his current role , Cedrique will continue to inform the institute's language, practices, and program design to foster the intentional creation of equitable and inclusive opportunities for students from under-represented groups on Lehigh University's campus.
Program Associate
Dulra is the Founder/CEO of Dot, a cashless experience for immigrant students in Africa, Dulra worked as a consultant for the African Leadership Consulting Group to deliver pro-bono research and consulting for youth-led SMEs in Africa and also worked as a Research Analyst for the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center.
He has also served as the Director for Logicae Science Summer Program, where he helped build a scientific research summer program for high school students from 15+ African countries.
He was recently named a Silicon Valley Social Impact Fellow at Lehigh University and a Ford Fund Fellow by the Watson Institute. He also joined the highly selective NASDAQ Milestone Maker Program that comes with intense executive coaching and was recently featured on Nasdaq Times Tower in NYC.
Dulra is the only first-year student to have won the Thalheimer Student Startup Award and he is also the only first-year student to have won the Thalheimer '55 Grand Prize at the recent Baker Institute Annual Awards Dinner.