The Partnership for Inclusive Innovation is a public-private partnership founded in 2020 by Executive Director Debra Lam, that guides efforts to help foster access, growth, entrepreneurship, and innovation throughout Georgia, with the ultimate goal of achieving widespread innovation across the state from the farm land in middle and southern Georgia to the coastal logistic operations to the advanced manufacturing in northern Georgia. The organization aspires to define Georgia’s entrepreneurial identity as a national leader in technology research, development, and implementation.
Prior to founding PIN, Debra was the managing director of Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation, a Georgia Institute of Technology initiative in applied research for community impact. In that role, she founded the award-winning Georgia Smart Community Challenge, the nation’s first statewide effort designed to empower communities of all sizes with the tools and applied research data to become smarter. In 2019 Debra was also named one of the top 100 most influential people in digital government by Apolitical. Prior to her work in Georgia, Debra was the Chief Innovation and Performance Officer for the city of Pittsburgh, PA, which is home to significant technology advances deriving from the major research universities of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, the healthcare leader UPMC as well as significant industry presence. Debra’s career has centered around leveraging talent and output to improve standards of living.
PIN came together for a singular, critical purpose: to activate untapped potential throughout Georgia by catalyzing collaboration amongst the next generation of innovation leaders, and the powerful ecosystem of businesses, urban, suburban and rural communities, universities, and government to advance Georgia’s economic development for a stronger, more resilient future.
PIN and TUFF share a foundational goal of promoting innovation and economic growth in the communities they support. Innovation paves the way for local opportunities, and TUFF believes investment in education and research helps higher education institutions and the communities surrounding them thrive.
With synergistic missions to advance growth, collaboration and innovation across Georgia, in 2022 TUFF President and CEO Kevin Byrne joined PIN’s Advisory Board to support advancing PIN’s mission across their four pillars off focus: 1) Economic Opportunity, 2) Workforce Development, 3) Student Engagement and 4) Community Research.
Projects across these four pillars include initiatives like the Digital Literacy for Small to Midsize Farms and the Transportation System Resilience to name a few. Visit PIN’s Interactive Map to fully experience state-wide impact.
PIN’s Inclusive Innovation Development Entrepreneurship Access and Support (IDEAS) is a statewide community of collaborative leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers, innovation champions, mentors, and funders that together create and sustain opportunities to scale social and economic impacts throughout the state of Georgia and beyond.
For more details related to PIN’s impact and accomplishments or to join the IDEAS community of leaders collaborating to build a stronger Georgia for all, please visit their website and newsletters, and watch their 2-Year Anniversary video.