Erika Smith is the Deputy Director at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, where she helps to expand entrepreneurial opportunities for students, faculty, and alumni. Erika was formerly the senior director of investments with the Center for Innovative Technologies in Virginia. In addition to a strong early stage investment background, she has worked for a number of years in establishing ties with technologists at the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and other universities and has taught commercialization courses on medical product development at the National Institutes of Health to the organization’s intramural research teams. Erika holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.