Dr. Rebecca Corbin is passionate about community colleges and entrepreneurship as pathways for equity, student success, and economic recovery. She is an optimist who sees opportunity in challenge and loves nurturing partnerships, communities, flowers, and her family. Serving as the President and CEO of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship since 2015, she served as editor at large and co-author of the book, Community Colleges as Incubators of Innovation. She is the publisher of the quarterly Community College Entrepreneurship magazine. She is co-author of the book, Impact ED: How Community College Entrepreneurship Creates Equity and Prosperity. She received her doctorate in organizational leadership & innovation from Wilmington University in Delaware where she also received the Audrey K. Doberstein Award for Leadership in 2016. From 2009 - 2015 she served as Vice President of Institutional Advancement for Rowan College at Burlington County.

My journey to this point has been full of unexpected opportunities. I'm a small town girl who grew up in rural Delaware, went to a small college, and thought my career would be with the local electric company from where I'd eventually retire.

After being laid off from the electric company, YES, LAID OFF from a utility, who'd of thunk, my husband and I made the decision to make a major move from Delaware to Florida. That decision completely changed the trajectory of my life. I decided to leave my career in Public Relations and Marketing and work part time as an instructor at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa. I was bit by the teaching bug! I found my purpose.

A strange thing happened when an opportunity to serve Governor Jeb Bush as his Special Assistant, serving the southwest region of the state, arose. I decided to take a chance and took the job. I learned so much about leadership, purpose, policy, and networks during that time. All very important skills that have transferred into my classroom.

As I found out some time later, many of those skills are a part of the Entrepreneurial Mindset. Working with students on their business ideas over the past 6 years has allowed me to see the power behind the ability to take a chance, be persistent, have self confidence and follow your purpose. I'm thrilled to share these experiences and lessons learned in the writing of the books to share with other teachers, professors and business professionals.

Andy Gold, Ph.D. is a social entrepreneur and purpose driven educator working each day to make the world a better place. He was born and raised in New York City. After a 12 year career on wall street, he left the world of finance and journeyed forward as an entrepreneur for nearly 30 years. Today, Dr. Gold Lives in Tampa, Florida and serves as a full-time entrepreneurship faculty member at Hillsborough Community College. He co-founded the InLab@HCC, an institute for interdisciplinary innovation and the design thinking national center of practice for the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship.

"“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't even happened yet.” —Anne Frank