The Lemelson Foundation, the world’s leading funder of invention in service of social and economic change, announced today that it has hired three new team members, expanding its capacity both locally and globally. Graham Pugh will serve as deputy director and David Coronado and Kenneth Turner have joined the Foundation as program officers. These hires significantly increase the Foundation’s capacity to build ecosystems that inspire and educate the next generation of  inventors, and incubate invention-based businesses in the US and developing countries.

“We are thrilled to have three talented new team members who share a commitment to invention’s power to improve lives,” said Carol Dahl, executive director of The Lemelson Foundation. “Collectively, Graham, David, and Kenneth come to the Foundation with decades of expertise in diverse areas critical to our mission, including policy, technology, social enterprise, and education. Their strong, multifaceted backgrounds make them ideally suited to help empower aspiring inventors to discover their talents, and use those talents to solve the world’s most pressing problems.”

In the newly formed position of deputy director, Graham Pugh works to advance initiatives in support of the Foundation, and leads efforts that span across the programmatic portfolios of inspiring and educating inventors and incubating invention-based businesses. Prior to joining the Foundation, Pugh was director of Climate Change Policy and Technology at the U.S. Department of Energy. Previously, he served at the White House as deputy associate director for Technology and International Affairs on the Council of Environmental Quality.  Pugh also spent years facilitating development of new technologies for Intel and other corporations. He holds a B.A. in physics and a master of engineering from Cornell University and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya.

David Coronado, a program officer at The Lemelson Foundation, leads efforts to support student growth by promoting invention education both in and out of school for students in the K-12 grade levels with a focus on promoting equal access for students from under-resourced communities. Before joining the Foundation, Coronado spent nearly a decade as executive director of the Oregon Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program at Portland State University – a Lemelson Foundation grantee. He has also served as an academic coordinator at Harvey Mudd College and as a board member at the Oregon College Access Network. Coronado earned a B.A. from Occidental College.

Program Officer Kenneth Turner spearheads projects that incubate invention-based enterprises to improve the lives of the poor in developing countries. Prior to joining The Lemelson Foundation, he was associate director and World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow with the Schwab Foundation. Turner has also worked for USAID’s Development Credit Authority mobilizing local private sector capital to help businesses and social enterprises in developing countries succeed. He holds a B.A. in finance and policy studies from Syracuse University and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

For more information about the new Lemelson Foundation team members, please visit: http://www.lemelson.org/about-us/staff

About the Lemelson Foundation
Based in Portland, The Lemelson Foundation uses the power of invention to improve lives. Inspired by the belief that invention can solve many of the biggest economic and social challenges of our time, the Foundation helps the next generation of inventors and invention-based businesses to flourish. The Lemelson Foundation was established in the early 1990s by prolific inventor Jerome Lemelson and his wife Dorothy. To date, the Foundation has made grants totaling more than $190 million in support of its mission. For more information, visit http://www.lemelson.org

The Lemelson Foundation

The Lemelson Foundation

The Lemelson Foundation uses the power of invention to improve lives. Inspired by the belief that invention can solve many of the biggest economic and social challenges of our time, the Foundation helps the next generation of inventors and invention-based businesses to flourish. The Lemelson Foundation was established in 1992 by prolific inventor Jerome Lemelson and his wife Dorothy. To date the Foundation has made grants totaling more than $190 million in support of its mission. For more information, visit http://lemelson.org.

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