AUTM Foundation board members serve to strengthen and enhance AUTM’s mission to advance academic technology transfer by providing the capacity to secure resources for the Association and promote its goals. Our board members have industry expertise that positions them to identify individual, corporate and foundation leaders. They create the vital connections needed to support the Association’s efforts to advance academic technology transfer globally.
Yatin Karpe, PhD, RTTP
Chair
Yatin Karpe is Assistant Vice President for Innovation and Commercialization. Karpe comes to Texas State from Rowan University, where he served as director of technology commercialization and Rowan Innovations for the last six years. At Rowan, he was responsible for facilitating the commercialization of Rowan inventions, encouraging industry engagement and identifying regional and federal entrepreneurial resources for academic innovators.
Before Rowan, Karpe served as the associate director of the Office of Technology Transfer at Lehigh University for 11 years. Prior to that he worked as technology manager within the office of technology transfer at North Carolina State University.
Katherine “Katie” Pollard, MBA
Treasurer
Katherine Pollard is an Associate Director of Licensing with a focus on commercializing medical device technologies developed at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Innovation Partnerships, she served as an Associate Director of Venture Development and Senior Licensing Associate at the University of Toledo. Prior to joining Technology Transfer, she was a Senior Research Technologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Katherine is an active AUTM member and Treasurer of the AUTM Foundation.
Katherine earned her bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Kent State University and her Master’s in Business Administration from Cleveland State University.
Kashmira Kulkarni, PhD
Board Member
Dr. Kashmira Kulkarni is a senior technology licensing associate with research and development as well as startup experience. She has a robust academic background in the life sciences, specifically in preclinical small molecule therapeutics, precision immunotherapy, and microbiome. Kashmira holds an M.S. in microbiology and immunology and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Wright State University. She received her postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Caitlin Long, PhD, PA-C
Board Member
Caitlin Long joins from the AUTM Foundation Board with a plethora of experience in volunteer leadership as the co-chair of the AUTM Small Office SIG and as the Director of Technology Transfer & Innovation Commercialization at Alvernia University.
Laura Savatski, MBA, CLP, RTTP
Board Member
Laura Savatski has directed the patent, licensing, new ventures, and business development activities of academic and healthcare organizations since 1999. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Innovation and Technology Transfer for the University of Louisville.
Prior to joining University of Louisville, Ms. Savatski served on the AUTM Board of Directors and was AUTM Chair from 2020-2021. She led innovation programming at Versiti, Inc. from 1999 to 2022 where she was responsible for building the innovation program, expanding and turning the industry sponsored research lab division called the applied research lab into a profit center, piloting the SBIR and research grants electronic submission processes for the NIH, and in many other roles at the Versiti’s Blood Research Institute. In her early career, she co-founded Prodesse, a biotech company that developed the first multiplex PCR method for infectious disease detection based on research she conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
She is a guest lecturer on economic development through innovation programming, technology transfer administration, and business development. Ms. Savatski earned an Honors BS in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Marquette University and an Executive MBA from University of Wisconsin Madison. She holds the Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) credential and Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) certification.