In the 10 years since the University of Georgia launched its Certificate in Entrepreneurship, the number of students taking entrepreneurship classes has grown to 500 a year.

This summer, the UGA Entrepreneurship Program doubled its faculty to handle the increase in available courses and breadth of topics covered.

The expanded faculty brings new depth and specialized expertise to Terry College’s “ENTR” courses while creating additional opportunities for supporting entrepreneurship across UGA, including with the UGA Innovation District and Franklin College of Arts and Sciences CREATE!

“Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and acting to create value in the face of uncertainty. It is recognizing opportunities, solving problems creatively, experimenting and moving ideas into action,” said Cali Brutz, the Milton Anthony (Tony) Greene Director of Entrepreneurship. “As entrepreneurship becomes more and more relevant to all UGA students, our expanded faculty gives us the opportunity to offer our students an even broader range of transformational experiences and academic courses, while helping them develop an entrepreneurial mindset they can carry into whatever they build, lead or pursue next.”

The new hires include Preston Davis, who served as assistant clinical professor of management at Kennesaw State University Coles College of Business. Davis, a senior lecturer, specializes in venture capital and startup financing structures. He is also a partner in venture capital firm Evoce Capital. He will take over advisement of the student-run Kickstart Fund and teach multiple levels of entrepreneurship courses.

Tony Middlebrooks, who served as a clinical professor of leadership at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business, was named a principal lecturer. Middlebrooks is a leading expert on creativity, leadership, and design thinking. His research focuses on how leadership, entrepreneurship and creativity can be applied to real-world problems.

John Weatherford, who recently served as a principal lecturer and director of experiential learning at the UGA New Media Institute in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, joins the Entrepreneurship Program as a principal lecturer. Weatherford will focus on shepherding students as they use Generative AI to develop prototypes and accelerate the development of new business concepts.

In addition to full-time faculty, the UGA Entrepreneurship Program is hosting visiting lecturer Scott Deviney, CEO of Chicken Salad Chick. He is teaching a course on franchising this fall.

The mission of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program is to infuse and refine an entrepreneurial mindset in our students through transformational experiences and comprehensive academic courses. UGA Entrepreneurship Program accelerators are open to UGA students and members of the Athens community.