Kathy F. Rocha’s professional experience encompasses higher education entrepreneurship and innovation operations, programs, teaching and mentoring; leadership positions with industry leading computer networking companies; and consulting and mentoring entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. Her expertise includes career guidance, producing operational excellence, creating viable business models and roadmaps, developing funding strategies and establishing strong business partnerships.Kathy is currently associate director for the Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UConn. Their mission is to be the platform that inspires students, faculty, and programs to integrate innovative thinking and entrepreneurial activity throughout UConn. She also leads the Evaluation Board for the UConn Innovation Fund which makes investments in startups with ties to UConn.Kathy is a board member of Day Kimball Hospital which is a regional hospital located in Putnam, CT, a founding member of Pulpit Rock Investors, and a trustee of the KeepSmilin4Abbie Foundation whose mission is to stop anaphylaxis.At Cisco Systems, Kathy was Vice President of Business Strategy and Operations for the Network Management Technology Group. She led a globally distributed team supporting R&D and product management and streamlined operations to significantly improve the efficiency of the organization. Kathy was also executive sponsor of Cisco-wide initiatives that foster diversity and facilitate the successful integration of recent college graduates into the corporation. Previously, Kathy was Vice President and General Manager at 3Com Corp. for their Commercial Networking Products, Small Business and Network Management Divisions. This included P&L responsibility and leading global teams with product management, marketing, engineering, and supporting functions. Kathy also held numerous leadership positions at Bytex Corp. and Raytheon Data Systems.