Formerly Incarcerated Innovation and Entrepreneurship program: Overcoming challenge with innovation

Rob Berry is the manager of the USPTO’s Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) Program. Prior to joining the USPTO, he was a PTRC representative in Fairfield, Connecticut and served as the PTRC program’s 27th Fellowship Librarian. He also served as a litigator for the New York City Law Department’s Tort Division, Special Litigation Unit, handling state cases in the five boroughs of New York City, as well as federal cases in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. 

Berry holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Arts in political science from the New School for Social Research, a Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School, and a Master of Library Science from Southern Connecticut State University.

Return to agenda

In September 2022, Ed Carballo II joined the USPTO as an Innovation Outreach Specialist. Carballo transferred to the USPTO from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he was the Chief of the Financial Services Division for the Eastern and Mid-Atlantic Regions, leading a team responsible for several lending programs targeting the commercial fishing industry, fishing vessels, shore-side processing facilities, and aquaculture projects across 19 states. 

Prior to his role at NOAA, Carballo was the Deputy District Director with the U.S. Small Business Administration in Georgia, where his leadership consistently placed Georgia in the “Top Five” nationally in SBA lending programs. 

Carballo has experience as an entrepreneur and has worked in the finance, service and utilities, technology, and healthcare sectors; he is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs connect with the resources they need in order to be fully successful. 

Carballo is a U.S. Army veteran, having served multiple tours overseas, and he is a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and The American Legion.

Return to agenda

Elizabeth Dorsey is a Staff Attorney with the USPTO's Office of Enrollment and Discipline. In this position, she investigates discipline and enrollment matters and helps administer the Patent Pro Bono Program. As a member of the Patent Pro Bono Team, she is dedicated to ensuring that all inventors have access to the patent system. Prior to joining the USPTO, Ms. Dorsey served as an attorney advisor with the U.S. Department of Labor, where she drafted in-depth memoranda, decisions, and orders for the Office of Administrative Law Judges. 

Ms. Dorsey graduated summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 2012, she graduated cum laude from William and Mary Law School. Ms. Dorsey is barred in Virginia.

Return to agenda

NaThanya Ferguson is a supervisory innovation development program specialist in the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Development, which focuses on outreach and engagement of independent inventors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, university inventors, and underserved communities across America. 

Ferguson joined the USPTO in 1989. During her 34 year tenure at the agency, she has worked as a paralegal specialist in the Patents technology centers, lead patent analyst for the Patent Reengineering Lab, management and program analyst in the Science and Technology Information Center, contracting officer technical representative in the Office of Data Management, and project manager in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Patent Operations. 

Ferguson has received numerous awards, including a Department of Commerce Gold Medal in 2015 for her contribution to the innovative and collaborative implementation of the First Inventor to File statutory provisions of the America Invents Act, a Department of Commerce Distinguished Career Award in 2011 for continued outstanding service, and a Silver Medal Award in 1999 for her contribution to the development and implementation of the Patent Reengineering initiative. 

Ferguson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Management from Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s Certificate in project management from Management Concepts and Regis University.

Return to agenda

Carlos Gutierrez started his career with service in the United States Marine Corps working in the field of logistics. He completed two tours overseas, one of which was in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Persian Gulf. Subsequently, Gutierrez held roles in the private sector, including several years as an Executive Team Leader with Target retail stores and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley. 

Additionally, Gutierrez holds a U.S. patent, was the founder of several companies, and has served as an advisor for several nascent-stage tech startups. He has written and managed grants that have been awarded a total of $1.73 million. 

Gutierrez has served with several agencies within the federal government, including the Department of Energy, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Small Business Administration. Gutierrez also previously served as the Director of the Texas Veterans Business Outreach Center. 

Gutierrez has a background in business development and program management in the private sector, state government, federal government, academia, and non-profit spaces. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in management from The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, and a Master of Science in technology commercialization from The University of Texas at Austin.

Return to agenda

Aisha McCain is a natural entrepreneur with the heart of a healer and the personality of a fighter. She is an accomplished inventor and innovator who holds multiple patents and has run multiple direct-to-consumer businesses. 

Ms. McCain has donated a lifetime of community service, starting when her mother would take a very young Aisha to visit nursing homes and socially shunned AIDS patients, which had a profound effect on her. Additionally, she has become a community resource for cancer patients and an advocate for minority patients' rights. The path Ms. McCain has traveled required drive, tenacity, and creativity. Always a poet, she has written five books of poetry and prose. In order to found Casual Recovery, she balanced work with her own healing over the course of more than ten major surgeries. Ms. McCain had surgical drains even as she struggled to improve the lives of others. She brings bold new perspectives as both a patient and an inventor. As a leader, she delegates well, asks incisive questions, and seeks out expert advice. Ms. McCain assembled a team separated by geography and background but united in vision and philosophy.

Return to agenda

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. Named 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.

Read full biography.

Return to agenda

Mark Winchester is the Deputy District Director for the Houston District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and has 20 years of federal service and economic development.

Winchester’s duties include supervising district staff and assisting the District Director in overseeing the delivery of SBA programs and services in the 32 counties served by the district. Last year, this included over $1.1 Billion in loan guarantees and surety for small businesses in the district. 

Before joining SBA, Mr. Winchester worked for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) for nearly eight years. During that time Mr. Winchester worked for the Women’s Business Center (WBC), Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the Veteran’s Business Outreach Center (VBOC), and the Rio South Texas Regional Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC). 

While at UTRGV, Mr. Winchester held various positions including SBDC Certified Business Advisor (CBA) Level IV Counselor, Special Projects Coordinator, and Assistant SBDC Director. In addition, Mr. Winchester served as VBOC Director and Director of the Rio South Texas Regional PTAC. 

Prior to UTRGV, Mr. Winchester was an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer for a non-profit working in housing and economic development. Mr. Winchester has also worked for several insurance companies and was exposed to complex litigation, risk management, and underwriting. Mr. Winchester has also worked for the State of Connecticut Attorney General’s Office as well as U.S. Navy Submarine Force. 

Mr. Winchester is a three-time recipient of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) District Office Counselor of the Year Award and a two-time recipient of both the SBDC State Star Award and congressional letters of recognition. He holds Associate of Science, Bachelor of Business Science, and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Connecticut at Storrs. His expertise is in finance and information technology.

Return to agenda