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Abigail Ingram
Leading Community-Facing Entrepreneurship Initiatives at the University of Chicago as Executive Director of the Polsky Exchange
Abigail Ingram is the Executive Director of the Polsky Exchange at the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.13 She oversees a 34,000-square-foot incubator space that focuses on supporting local business owners and entrepreneurs on the South Side of Chicago.1
Abigail is passionate about entrepreneurship as a pathway to opportunity and the importance of measuring impact.1 Before joining the Polsky Center, she founded and directed the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI) at DePaul University's Driehaus College of Business for three years.12 At WEI, she developed a model to measurably increase economic empowerment for women entrepreneurs.1
Abigail is also an entrepreneur and practicing attorney. She launched her first venture, a music studio in Denver, Colorado, in 2009.1 She currently runs a boutique law firm providing legal counsel to entrepreneurs.1 Academically, Abigail holds a J.D. and an M.A. in English from DePaul University, and she completed her undergraduate studies in English at Eastern Illinois University.1
Highlights
Join us in celebrating 10 new Small Business Growth Program graduates at the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago.
With all of the city pride bubbling through Chicago this week, it’s worth noting that Chicago supports new ventures and business owners like no other city. With 140+ business services organizations (BSOs) and hundreds of programs across stages and industries, we are simultaneously lucky to have an incredible ecosystem and constantly aware of how much more can and should be done to support businesses.
In entrepreneurial terms, what are this particular program’s differentiators?
- Our partner JPMorganChase and connections with Phylicia Manley and Joanna Trotter. JPMC’s Racial Equity Commitment to help close the racial wealth gap and advance economic inclusion not only makes loans available for businesses and mortgages (amongst other initiatives), but supports programming like ours. We could not do it without you.
- Experienced business coaches including Dr. C. Adam Callery, Brandon Pendleton, Adam Farmer, Dr. Rhonda H., Jared L. Kelly, Sarah Ware, Javon Nicholas, Watchen Nyanue Hampton, and Vince Beachum. Their expertise and ability to translate between the classroom and real world operations makes this program work #period
- We earmark grant funds so entrepreneurs can access capital to execute their plans. Each business has $5K in professional services to move strategy - developed with their coaches and the brilliant University of Chicago students on their consulting teams - into action.
Congratulations to those who finished this 9-month commitment! We look forward to continued celebration of your successes.
Thanks to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Ericka White, MBA, MA and team, we are able to provide individual, confidential, and ongoing advising for business owners. Two new advisors at our SBDC, led by Vincent Beachum, are absolutely top notch: Major Purnell, operations expert and food industry specialist, and Dima Elissa, MBA, strategy wizard and health/tech oracle. It is a labor of love that brings them to continue work with us, and I could not be more appreciative!
"Entrepreneurship is lonely" is a (true) statement we hear far too often - but at the Exchange at the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago we are working to build out connections and resources to support our community of South Side entrepreneurs and innovators. We know that a massive missing piece has been 1:1 relationship-based advising - i.e. having that one consistent person you can always email or pick up the phone and call for advice.
Learn more about the Illinois SBDC at the Polsky Exchange in the link in the comments.
