Sharon Kerrick, PhD is an Associate Professor & Assistant Vice President Digital Transformation Center at the University of Louisville. (U of L 2002-present). She currently is the lead principal investigator on over $10M in grant funding. She teaches as well as publishes in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology. She previously was Associate Director Entrepreneurship programs at U of L and Dean of Bellarmine University’s Rubel School of Business. 

She was a founding member/co-owner of a technology firm that grew to employ over 300 full time staff in a 5-state region for over 20 years. In addition to software development and technical integration services the company’s technology group trained between 11,000-13,000 students each year. 

A past 40 Under 40 Business First Leadership recipient she was also named to Business First’s Hall of Fame. She’s a recipient of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Kentucky Hall of Fame award and in 2018 the NAWBO EPIC leadership award. Today’s Woman magazine named her “Most Admired Woman in Education” and in 2019 Business First named her one of five Enterprising Women “Mentor of the Year”. In 2020, she was named “Mentor of the Year” by the national Small Business Institute (SBI) for founding VetStart, a program she started to help military veterans start/expand businesses. 

Dr. Kerrick is an accredited angel investor who has been quoted in Forbes and has rung the bell at NASDAQ stock exchange twice!