InnovATEBIO Principal Investigator
Biotechnology Department Chair, Austin Community College
Dr. Linnea Fletcher enjoys all forms of exercise but especially biking, hiking, and swimming. Her favorite pastimes are family events in the outdoors and travel. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin, did two postdocs one at the Southwestern Medical Center and another in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Texas. She joined Austin Community College as a Department Chair in Biology, and started the Biotechnology Program in 1999. At the same time she joined the first NSF Funded National Biotechnology Education Center, Bio-Link and received her first NSF funded ATE grant to start Biotechnology high school programs in Texas. She worked as an NSF Program Officer from 2008 to 2010 and was involved setting up the first Vision and Change Meeting. In 2015, she received an Emerging Technology Fund Grant to build a Bioscience Incubator at ACC and several Wagner Peyser Grants to equip it. Today the incubator is full of start up companies and students interning or working for these companies. She was PI of the AC2 Bio-Link Regional Center, and is now the PI of InnovATEBIO, the NSF funded National Biotechnology Center. Combining economic development with educational opportunities is her passion.