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Lisa Herschbach, Ph.D. is the director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and Associate Professor and Assistant Dean in the College of Business (CoB). As director of CIE, she oversees a number of resources for teaching and learning and research, including the P.D. Merrill Makerspace and Sustainable Innovation Center, and their programs and professional staff. She also manages the Shaw Innovation Fellows program, which provides financial and creative support for student innovators from across ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ’s academic programs. As Assistant Dean in CoB, Herschbach leads entrepreneurship initiatives including the Maine Innovation Challenge, ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ’s Visiting Innovators and Entrepreneurs Speaker Series, and the Entrepreneur-in-Residence program.

Prior to ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ, Herschbach co-founded Thaden School, a new independent school in northwest Arkansas supported by seed funding from the Walton Family Foundation and the NWA Design Excellence Program. She served as as the inaugural academic director of its high school, then as director of finance and operations, deputy head of school, and most recently as executive director of community relations. She also taught economics, government, and history as a member of the faculty in the social studies department. 

Before her tenure at Thaden, Herschbach worked for over 20 years in higher education and held various academic and administrative roles at Princeton University and Rutgers University, including director of graduate programs, residential college dean, and director of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.

Herschbach earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Stanford University before attending Harvard University, where she earned her doctoral degree in history of science. During her career, she built and expanded several maker education initiatives, including founding a digital learning space within Princeton’s teaching and learning center and expanding a studio lab to support interdisciplinary experimentation and exploration through innovative uses of technology. Several of these initiatives were supported through internal and external granting bodies such as The Steelcase Foundation. Herschbach was voted a 2022 Power Woman of Arkansas for elevating K-12 education in the state and was recognized by the National SEED Project as a new leader in 2021.