Invest in HER: Empowering women’s ventures

Jacob Y. Choi is the Regional Assistant Director of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Texas Regional Office. He is responsible for effectively overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Texas Regional Office including providing quality products and services for the Intellectual Property (IP) community and stakeholders through education and outreach in the region; all facility, staffing, infrastructure, and onboarding for all regional office staff and externs; provide leadership and management of all regional office administrative, information technology, and security contract staff as well as Regional Outreach; and provide an organization consistency and coordination across the USPTO by working with business units comprise of Patents, Trademarks, Patent Trial Appeal Board (PTAB), and Trademark Trial Appeal Board (TTAB).

In his current role, Mr. Choi has spoken at many of the regions IP conferences, universities, technology transfer offices, law schools, and region state bar groups on a variety of IP-related events including South by Southwest (SXSW), The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), Innovate Mississippi’s Accelerate Conference, The Center for American and International Law IP Conference, and others. Mr. Choi received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University and has over 20 years of experience at the USPTO.

Dr. Trivia Frazier is the Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Obatala Sciences, Inc. She is an experienced adult stem cell researcher and biotech business professional who holds bachelors degrees in physics (Dillard University 2007) and biomedical engineering (Tulane 2008), an MBA (Tulane 2018), and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences (Tulane 2012). Under her leadership, the company has received federal funding through SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the National Institute on Aging and has a robust intellectual property portfolio, consisting of a combination of patents, trademarks, and trade secrets, to commercialize the Obatala suite of human-derived stem cells and 3D cell culture products. These products are used to model human adipose tissue from patients of varying demographics to accelerate research in the fields of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and related metabolic disorders. Dr. Frazier is passionate about promoting diversity in research and she is recognized as a civic leader. She is also a wife and mother of three young men.

Fueled by a mission to empower, inspire, and motivate women and girls to strive for excellence in all that they pursue, Khristie Landrew built her business on the simple premise that her designs would be pieces that sparked conversations and become the cherished keepsakes that women were excited to buy for themselves and gift to cherished sisters, friends, and loved ones. Utopia Creations' pieces are collections of high-quality, fashionable, intentionally-designed jewelry, apparel, accessories, and gifts that are branded for the organizations they serve and distinctly reflect the culture, history, legacy, and pride their customers personify.

Phala Kimbrough Mire is the President and CEO of the Women’s Business Enterprise Council South (WBEC South), a regional partner organization of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). A non-profit executive for over 25 years, Mire currently orchestrates business growth and certification programs for women owned businesses in the South and is a renowned advocate and thought leader on issues around entrepreneurship, diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

A mother of three and a graduate of Tulane (B.A.) and Louisiana State University (Shreveport, MBA), Mire is a co-founder of the groundbreaking Bigger Discussion series on "The Future of Supplier Diversity". In 2020, she was honored for the second time as a City Business "Woman of the Year" and inducted into the National Women’s Business Hall of Fame.

Mariessa Terrell is an Attorney Advisor in the USPTO’s Trademarks Customer Outreach office. Previous to that, she served as an USPTO Trademark Examining Attorney, solo trademark practitioner, in-house trademark attorney consultant for two large defense contractors, and trademark and fashion law professor at Howard University School of Law (HUSL). In 2015, Terrell was recruited to manage the USPTO Trademark Law Clinic at HUSL, and she helped develop a USPTO Patent Law Clinic in 2019. Terrell earned her Juris Doctor from HUSL and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Pace University; she is admitted to the Maryland and District of Columbia bar associations. In her spare time, Terrell volunteers with the High Tea Society, a life skills program for Washington, D.C. girls.

As Deputy Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Martin Wallace manages and leads the Patents organization’s efforts related to international IP harmonization and provides executive oversight over patent-examining functions in technology centers that examine in the technologies of communication, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and medical devices and processes. Regarding international IP harmonization, she specifically provides executive leadership on international patent legal issues and various work sharing efforts with international partners. Ms. Martin Wallace is currently the Executive Lead for the USPTO’s Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2). The CI2, comprised of representatives from industry, academia, and government, will help guide the USPTO in developing a comprehensive national strategy to build a more diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem by encouraging participation demographically, geographically, and economically. See full biography.