Celebrating 10 years of the USPTO's Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office

Senator John Hickenlooper began his career as a geologist and later opened a series of restaurants and brewpubs across the country, including the Wynkoop Brewing Co. in downtown Denver, which helped spark the revitalization of the city’s now-thriving Lower Downtown (“LoDo”) district. 

He served as the mayor of Denver, Colorado, from 2003 to 2011. As mayor, he reduced the size of city government, streamlined services and introduced successful programs to reduce homelessness and promote sustainability. 

As Governor, Hickenlooper and his team championed innovation, collaboration and efficiency, working to ensure that Colorado and its business-friendly climate is one of the most desirable places to live, work and play. 

Under his leadership, the state legislature passed five consecutive balanced budgets with bipartisan support, and his administration has tackled some of the state’s toughest challenges, through bold initiatives such as the Colorado Blueprint and the Colorado Innovation Network. These programs engage Coloradans to work together to help the state define and achieve its goals. 

Hickenlooper graduated from Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in geology.

As the Regional Director of the USPTO's Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office, since January 2016, Mollybeth (Molly) Kocialski carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the Rocky Mountain regional office. Focusing on the nine states within this region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Kocialski ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

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Sirena Rolfe has been in Colorado since she was 4 years old but was born in Texas. Her expertise is digital marketing, but her passion is being an entrepreneur. Sirena has over 15 years' experience in digital marketing and work at an ad agency in Denver. She is the founder/inventor of Tempus Hood Inc. Sirena received a patent for Tempus Hood in April of 2019 (Patent #10,241,439 - Hood Apparatus). Turns out that she is one of the very few African American women to receive a patent since the late 1800's. Her favorite sitcom is The Golden Girls.

Randy Sasaki is the Program Administrator for ProBoPat, the Pro Bono Patent program at MiCasa Resource Center. MiCasa provides core Career and Business Pathways programs alongside financial wellness, digital literacy, English as a Second Language (ESL), and more to advance economic self-sufficiency for Latinos, women, and low-income participants. MiCasa services the patent pro bono needs for Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

Kathi Vidal serves as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – America’s Innovation Agency.

As the chief executive of the USPTO, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 public servants and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. She is the principal IP advisor to the President and the Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, and is focused on incentivizing and protecting U.S. innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. Vidal was named to Forbes’ 50 over 50 in the innovation category in 2024 for her work bringing more underrepresented inventors and entrepreneurs into the innovation ecosystem, and as one of Managing IP’s top 50 most influential people in IP in 2022. She leads an agency whose mission is to help American workers and businesses compete and collaborate, especially in ground-breaking technologies and across all demographics. As Director of the USPTO, Vidal is working to expand American innovation for and from all, and to bring more ideas to impact, including serving as the Vice Chair of the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2), alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and the Council members, a Co-Chair of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), and the Co-Founder, with the Secretary, of the Women’s Entrepreneurship (WE) initiative.

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