Skip to content
i2E
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Menu
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Search

Business of Health: Moving forward with OKC’s Innovation District

Get in Touch

By Stephen Prescott, M.D.
Copyright (2018) The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Nor will Oklahoma City’s Innovation District be. But the past month has seen some exciting progress as our community works to create a hub for entrepreneurship.

First, a quick refresher: The Innovation District is loosely defined as the area that contains the Oklahoma Health Center and Automobile Alley. The goal is to establish a more unified identity for this part of the city, with a focus on making it home to a critical mass of startup businesses.

This effort is being led by the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation, with support from the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, Presbyterian Health Foundation, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma City Redevelopment Authority.

The big, public development was the naming of Katy Evans Boren as the president and CEO of the Innovation District. An Oklahoma City attorney, she will take the reins on July 9.

When she does, Boren will bring a host of skills that she’s developed in more than two decades working in Oklahoma City: business experience, legal and entrepreneurial know-how, management and governance expertise. We were fortunate to find someone with the talent and capacity to accomplish the ambitious goals we’ve mapped out for the district.

She’ll build on a wealth of experience in the public and private sectors — she’s practiced law at private firms, Oklahoma state agencies and served as regional vice president of Cox Communications. She’ll now be tasked with setting up the Innovation District’s legal and organizational structuring, branding the district, then creating and implementing programs that will move the district from the drawing board onto the streets of Oklahoma City.

The naming of a leader is a watershed moment for this initiative. With a champion and face for the district, we anticipate gathering speed and momentum that had been difficult to create as a like-minded but leaderless coalition of partner organizations.

Partners in progress

Still, those partner organizations have much to lend the district. Indeed, the second exciting development for the Innovation District is the funding commitment each of the district’s supporters have now pledged.

Going forward, the district’s six founding partners all have agreed to a five-year funding commitment. This will provide the district with a steady and reliable stream of seed funding that ensures this initiative has the means to sustain itself as it incubates. By the end of this five-year period, the vision is that the district will have grown its programs sufficiently to generate income sufficient to support itself.

On the topic of vision, a third important development is launching the process to create a strategic development and land-use plan. This critical step will be led by the international architectural firm of Perkins + Will.

The plan will identify prime locations for commercial and residential use. It will also devise methods for improving pedestrian and bicycle connectivity between the Health Center and Automobile Alley. And it will inform place-making efforts for the kind of events that will provide creative fuel for the district: lectures, festivals, recreational activities, food trucks, pop-up shops and weekend market.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a more vibrant, fully integrated community where creative people from all fields — health, energy, arts, business — live, work, eat and play. This community should be a place where people from these diverse sectors interact regularly, with those interactions fostering serendipitous new opportunities for entrepreneurship and creation.

This is going to be a long process, but it will be a worthwhile one. With a talented new leader, funding stability and a strategic planning process in place, the future looks bright for Oklahoma City’s Innovation District. Stay tuned!

A physician and medical researcher, Dr. Stephen Prescott is president of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and can be reached at [email protected].

Read the article at newsok.com

 

Author

  • Sarah Graves Sarah Graves

More News

Loading...
Black doctor smiling with stethoscope
Blog, i2E
02.09.23

Titan Intake Automates Patient Referrals to Accelerate Care

Read more
man and woman reviewing paperwork at a table
Blog, i2E, News
01.10.23

Stories of Oklahoma Innovation: Building a Startup

Read more
woman in lab conducting a study
Blog, i2E
12.13.22

Bayesic Technologies Improves Effectiveness and Efficiency of Data Analysis in Healthcare

Read more
Bison grazing fields
Blog
11.30.22

Bison Underground Merges Nature, Science, and Technology to Tackle Climate Change

Read more
African American family sitting on couch reading and chatting
Blog, E3, i2E
11.22.22

Fokes Connects Families, Caregivers and Care Agencies for Smoother Communications and Care 

Read more
i2e blog post graphic
Blog, News
11.03.22

Introducing: Stories of Oklahoma Innovation

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.28.22

Oklahoma Grown! i2E Invests in BIO startups

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Moleculera Labs BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma State University BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

ECHO Investment Capital BIO

Read more
i2E

Oklahoma City Office

840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
OKC, OK 73104
+1 (405) 235.2305

Tulsa Office

100 S. Cincinnati Ave – Suite 514
Tulsa, OK 74103
+1 (918) 582.5592

  • Client Portfolio
  • About Us
  • Media
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Resources

© 2022 i2E Privacy Policy

Follow us:

Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Programs

  • E3
  • ACT Tulsa
  • Love's Entrepreneur's Cup
  • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio

Services

  • Access to Funding
  • Venture Advisory Services
  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Values
  • Our Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Media
i2E