Stetson School Names Entrepreneur Samantha Riley as Head of Mercer Innovation Center

The Mercer University – Eugene W. Stetson School of Business & Economics has recently named Dr. Samantha Riley as director for the new Mercer Innovation Center, effective January 1st.

Dr. Riley has a wide breadth of experience in business and entrepreneurship, most recently serving as a visiting assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University in entrepreneurial business writing. While at Penn State, Riley led students in developing more than fifty startups and twenty five service-learning projects. She additionally implemented a university-wide business writing program focused on entrepreneurship and service-learning.

Dr. Riley’s experience in the business world doesn’t stop there. Her teaching experience extends to several universities such as Yale, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Eurolingua Language School of Germany. Her work experience spans both the corporate and non-profit sector, including time at Google serving as online operations contractor.

“The Mercer Innovation Center welcomes a new chapter in entrepreneurship,” Dr. Riley said. “We propose to synergize the spirit and wealth of our ideas to grow the local and global community.” Riley has been responsible for organizing several speaker panels and has presented her academic work at more than a dozen conferences. In addition to several fellowships and awards throughout her career, she has earned the Erika Lindemann Distinguished Teaching Award from the English Department at UNC Chapel Hill.

The Mercer Innovation Center is both an academic and community effort in support of growing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on using technology for economic growth. Although the effort is led by the Stetson School, it hopes to cross academic and geographic boundaries to encourage innovation both in and outside of the academic community.

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