Executive Director of Technology Transfer

(414) 288-0668
kalpa.vithalani@marquette.edu

Dr. Vithalani recently joined Marquette University’s Office of Economic Engagement as the Executive Director of Technology Transfer. As Assistant Director in the Office of Technology Development at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), she facilitated the commercialization of novel therapeutics, diagnostics and devices that bring research to life for public benefit. She managed the intellectual property (IP) life cycle for a large portfolio through evaluation, IP protection, marketing and negotiation of win-win agreements.

Dr. Vithalani taught courses on IP and commercialization at MCW and has taught in Milwaukee’s NSF I-Corps program. She is passionate about building strategic alliances with regional and national networks of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors. She chaired Milwaukee’s first National HHS SBIR/STTR Conference in 2017. She served as the first non-faculty Chair for MCW’s Council for Women’s Advocacy during FY18 and was an elected member of MCW’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Committee. She is an Executive Board Member at BioForward, 11-time judge for the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest and was a judge for the Foxconn Smart Cities Competition.

Prior to joining MCW, Dr. Vithalani contributed to a successful 510(k) application as a consultant to an MCW startup company. As an entrepreneur she founded and sold a women’s wellness business in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood for which she secured competitive business improvement and job creation grants. Dr. Vithalani was formerly a scientific evaluator for Karolinska Innovations. She received a Ph.D. from Duke University and completed her post-doctoral training with a member of the National Academy of Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic.