NEW: RI Foundation Innovation Awards Honor Gagnon, Taylor Tonight
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
The Rhode Island Foundation has announced its 2013 Rhode Island Innovation Fellows, Adrienne Gagnon and Lynn Taylor, who will each receive $300,000 to develop, test, and implement ideas focused on eradicating Hepatitis C, and expanding "design thinking."
The awards celebration will take place tonight at 5:30 P.M. at Slater Mill in Pawtucket.
The annual program, now in its second year, is designed to stimulate solutions by Rhode Islanders to Rhode Island challenges. Made possible through the generosity and vision of philanthropists Letitia and John Carter, the Fellowship provides two individuals with up to $300,000 over three years to develop, test, and implement innovative ideas that have the potential to dramatically improve any area of life in Rhode Island.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe two winners, Adrienne Gagnon and Lynn Taylor, were chosen from a pool of 180 original proposals by a selection panel chaired by President and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation Neil D. Steinberg.
Gagnon‟s project, Innovation by Design, will help foster the next generation of Rhode Island innovators by bringing the transformative tools of “design thinking” to students across the state. Her program will send out mobile design labs – repurposed from retired shipping containers – to parks, school yards, and vacant lots in Rhode Island‟s core cities, and engage students in free, hands-on design programs that will improve Rhode Island communities.
“I believe that by offering Rhode Island youth the tools of design thinking, we can create a generation of entrepreneurs, of creators, of engaged citizens who see challenges as opportunities and work together to solve them,” said Gagnon, who also co-founded the non-profit organization DownCity Design in 2009. “This fellowship will fund not just one great idea, but an entire generation of Rhode Island residents full of great ideas.”
Taylor's project, Rhode Island Defeats Hep C, aims to make Rhode Island the first state to eradicate the Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV). Taylor – a physician, researcher, public health advocate, and HCV expert – calls HCV a “time bomb in Rhode Island” and says the epidemic will peak in the state over the next two decades unless dramatic action is taken.
“At no other time in history have we had such opportunity to eradicate this harmful, costly epidemic,” said Taylor, assistant professor of medicine at Brown University and director of Miriam Hospital's HIV/Viral Hepatitis Coinfection Program. “Rhode Island has the optimal size epidemiologically, cooperation between stakeholders, scientific acumen, and medical establishments that make it possible to be the first state to defeat HCV."
“We congratulate Adrienne and Lynn on their forward-thinking and creative approaches to addressing challenges and creating change in Rhode Island,” said Steinberg. “The Foundation is grateful for Letitia and John Carter's dedication to and passion for Rhode Island and is proud to have transformed their dreams into one of the Foundation‟s boldest programs.”
Additional Finalists Recognized for Merit and Potential
In addition to the two winners, the selection panel also named five finalists, recognized for their merit and potential.
Lynae Brayboy proposed creating Girl Talk, an interactive smartphone app with validated, comprehensive sexual health information for girls ages 12-17, aimed at reducing high-risk sexual behavior in Rhode Island. .
Laura Briggs, Domenico Pacifici, and Jonathan Knowles suggested developing, manufacturing, and marketing Solar Sail, an affordable, easily replicable, textile photovoltaic system.
Al Dahlberg’s Project Get Ready Rhode Island would create a statewide electric vehicle charging network for plug-in electric vehicles to help transform Rhode Island‟s transportation infrastructure.
Angela Jackson proposed working in collaboration with the Rhode Island Roadmap to Language Excellence team to create a pipeline of world language opportunities in Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and Spanish for all K to 12 students.
Leo Pollock suggested creating The Compost Plant: the first commercial compost facility in the state attached to a microbrewery contract facility. Heat from the composting process would help provide the hot water needed for the brewery, demonstrating that Rhode Island‟s waste resources can serve as a catalyst for economic development.
The seven-member selection panel looked for proposals that represented pioneering work, exceptional leadership, bold vision, risk-taking, potential to scale up, and statewide impact. In addition to Steinberg, the selection panel included David Dooley, president, University of Rhode Island; Ann-Marie Harrington, president and founder, Embolden;
Charlie Kroll, founder and CEO, Andera; Marie Langlois, retired managing director, Washington Trust Investors and director, Rhode Island Foundation; Lisa Utman Randall, executive director, Jamestown Arts Center; and Don Stanford, chief innovation officer, GTECH.
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