Watch: How DC higher ed is building the DMV’s entrepreneurship communities

Maryland funding entity TEDCO is exploring DC universities’ reach in the DMV ecosystem in the latest upload of its speaker series.

TEDCO CEO Troy LeMaile-Stovall just spoke with Ronald Mason, the president of the Univesity of the District of Columbia (UDC), about the university’s role in entrepreneurship communities in both DC and Maryland.

The episode is the latest in the state-affiliated funding org’s TEDCO Talks series, in which LeMaile-Stovall interviews leaders of Maryland- and DMV-area higher education institutions, tech companies and financial firms about the broader region’s innovation ecosystem — and its future potential.

In this most recent chat, Mason described how he feels about the historically Black university — the only public one in the district —as well as its availability to DC’s startup ecosystem. At present, he feels that UDC boasts “seamless, multi-credentialed pathways, with multiple on and off ramps.”

“It’s where higher education should be and is struggling to get there,” Mason said. “But because we’re young, we’re agile, we’re mobile, we’re able to build it almost from scratch in a way that I think is going to lead the way for higher education in the future.”

Watch the full conversation via YouTube: