Building an Entrepreneurial University with Dr. Laura Lee McIntyre

In this episode, David Washburn talks with Michigan State University Provost Dr. Laura Lee McIntyre about her path to MSU and how her experiences in research, fundraising, and innovation are shaping her leadership at the university.

Dr. McIntyre shares lessons from helping launch the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health and Launch Oregon, and how those efforts inform MSU’s approach to interdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship, and commercialization. She also discusses the role of seed funding, shared governance, endowed professorships, and why cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset across disciplines is essential to strengthening Michigan’s innovation ecosystem.

Host: David Washburn
Guests: Dr. Laura Lee McIntyre (Provost, Michigan State University; MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professor)
Producers: Jenna McNamara and Doug Snitgen
Music: "Devil on Your Shoulder" by Will Harrison, licensed via Epidemic Sound

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Transcript

Introduction and Guest Overview

David Washburn 0:03

In today's episode of the MSU Research Foundation podcast, I visit with MSU provost Dr. Laura Lee McIntyre. And what a great conversation. We talked about her background as a scientist and her time at the University of Oregon, where she was involved in a lot of things, including Launch Oregon, which is an organization that's similar to ours. So really a great opportunity to talk about the depth and breadth of her experience and how it applies to our organization. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Dr. McIntyre is a provost, and she began this role on August the 4th, 2025. And as part of her roles at Michigan State University, she has the distinct pleasure, these are my words, of serving on the board of directors of the MSU Research Foundation. I hope she feels the same way. But we're delighted to have her here. Welcome, Provost McIntyre.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 1:21

Thank you so much, Dave. And I would say the pleasure is all mine, and I have enjoyed serving on the board of directors of the MSU Research Foundation.

David Washburn 1:31

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. So you've been here about six or seven months. And uh, of course, first and foremost, we have to talk about um the difference between Oregon winters and Michigan winters. Um what are your impressions so far? I know it's cold here, lots more snow.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 1:50

Lots more snow. I think the gray skies are are familiar to me. The Pacific Northwest is is cloudy and rainy, and here we have clouds and snow. So I'm swapping out one form of precipitation for another. Um, but I would say the people in the Midwest make up for it in their warmth that they bring. It's it's certainly been a warm and welcoming community. So although there's some differences, and I would say if it weren't for the wind, it would be much more tolerable. But I'll get used to it.

David Washburn 2:21

Well, I know you got here in August, and when spring and summer comes around, you're gonna say, wow, it's it's fantastic here. You had a couple of weeks before the semester started, and it's probably been a whirlwind. Um, and I know you've you've been doing some touring, uh, listening tours on campus. What have you what have you learned so far? I know uh this is probably an ongoing process, but you've been making your way around campus throughout uh throughout the departments and throughout the many great things. Um what's what's standing out so far?

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 2:52

Well, I had an ambitious goal of finishing all of my listening tour uh tours in fall semester. And I realized that it's not just the 17 colleges that report up to the provost office. Obviously, there's other units. Uh, there's about 35 units in total. And so we've extended the tours through the spring semester. One of the key takeaways for me is that it really gives me an opportunity to meet with faculty, staff, and students and hear from leadership and really understand the breadth and depth of the expertise here on campus. This morning, for example, I was over in ComArtsSci (MSU College of Communications Arts & Sciences) and um learned about all of their programs, their departments, their growing enrollment, but also uh got to speak to folks at WKAR and really learn about how that group in particular offers internship opportunities for students. Um, I was over at the Honors College early, early on in fall semester, and really a takeaway there was how students are engaged in research very early on, and they have uh the flexibility to pursue a program of study that maps onto their interests. So every, and obviously I'm not gonna go over all of the listening sessions, but everyone's been unique and distinct. I've been to Grand Rapids, I've been to Detroit, I've been all over East Lansing, and there is a shared commitment for the work and a true excitement about telling their story, um, as well as having some authentic conversations about some of the challenges that we're experiencing this year, but also uh they're not unique challenges to MSU. Higher education overall is experiencing a set of circumstances that makes it difficult to navigate. And so coming together as a community, reaffirming our values and our mission as a public land grant institution has been really valuable.

Innovation, Partnerships, and Adaptation

David Washburn 4:52

Well, we were um I was with the president and we had a similar podcast, and we were we were talking about the um sort of the impact of of research and and federal funding and um and how how nervous that can make you know students and faculty and staff here on campus. Uh and uh but he talked about how do we how do we become more entrepreneurial in our thinking and and sort of finding new solutions to these these challenges today?

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 5:20

Absolutely. And I think the goal is not to do things in the exact same way and expect the same outcome because the landscape is changing. So how can we be nimble and really um capitalize on that innovation and entrepreneurship, capitalize on those partnerships with industry as well as nonprofits that share a similar vision and mission and collectively bring um all of our experiences and then sh expertise to bear. So we we need to adapt. And I think we're doing that really well here at MSU. And fortunately, we have the MSU Research Foundation that is providing sort of that um that fuel to our engine.

David Washburn 6:02

Oh, that's thank you, and thank you for saying that. And uh that was not scripted, just so you all know that. Um But you know, one of the things I was curious about um at your time at Oregon, um your involvement with the um The Ballmer Institute for Children's Behavioral Health. And I wondered if you could talk about, you know, what that is and how that came together, because I think that's an that's one of those examples of of just thinking out of the box.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 6:30

Yeah, well, I had um I had the privilege to be a part of a small team that fundraised for an incredible gift, a $425 million gift. Um Connie and Steve Ballmer, um, Steve Ballmer, of course, of Microsoft Fame, and Connie Ballmer, who is a University of Oregon alum.

David Washburn 6:50

Oh, cool.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 6:51

Um, served on the Board of Trustees. And um, you know, they have a uh the Ballmer group, their own uh philanthropic group, and and they focus on issues that um really aligned with some of this the strengths and expertise of the University of Oregon faculty, particularly in the behavioral health space. And so the um the institute that we launched was made possible by a large um gift, but brought together faculty from across campus in two different colleges across multiple departments to really build a new institute in Portland. So the University of Oregon is in Eugene. Portland is two hours north by car, and um it's the largest, you know, metro center in the states, kind of like our Detroit, if you will.

David Washburn 7:44

Yeah.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 7:45

And um we launched a new institute, actually uh bought a campus in Portland and launched an undergraduate training program that focused on training bachelor level behavioral health specialists.

Addressing the Behavioral Health Workforce Gap

David Washburn 7:58

Oh, wow.

Seed Funding and Building Institutes

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 7:59

Now that's unique because most of the time uh behavioral health providers are trained at the master's or the doctoral level. You know, think social workers or psychologists, and that requires advanced training. There is a shortage of mental health trained professionals, and there's also a youth mental health crisis. And so we we came together and identified that preparing students at the bachelor level was an area that would help us with workforce development. Um, certainly master's and doctoral level psychologists and professionals are never gonna go out of style and they're necessary, but we can't produce graduate level folks at the rate necessary to um fill the critical shortage of behavioral health and mental health specialists. So we launched an institute that focused on preparing students at the undergraduate level and at the same time built out the research infrastructure for faculty from across campus that were engaged in this type of work, behavioral health were primarily focused on K-12 children. And so one part was undergraduate training, one part was research and community engagement. And then the third part was thinking about launching a certificate program for in-service teachers. Um so most of the time, and I am a former dean of a college of education, most of the time we train our teachers to be the academic um expert in the classroom, whether they're at the elementary or middle or secondary level, they're teaching, reading, writing, social studies, science, all of the subjects. But depending on when they were trained and where they were trained, they may not necessarily have the arsenal of behavioral health uh interventions and strategies in their toolkit. And so the certificate program was a way for us to basically work with in-service teachers and say, on a Tuesday night, have them in class, and on Wednesday, they're in their classroom applying the knowledge and skills that they're learning in their real world settings. So it was an exciting institute to launch. We hired faculty, we can continue to fundraise. Um, and then the the group of folks wrote large center grants to continue to support this work. So it was a you know, a multifaceted approach, but ultimately it brought in folks from across disciplines to focus on a singular area of um child behavioral health, both from an intervention and treatment side as well as from a health promotion and kind of prevention side. It was really wonderful to be involved in.

David Washburn 10:43

Wow. Wow, what a what a great it's an institute today. Um and um you know, I think I think these institutes and centers are another one of those ways to to to think about things differently. And um I know we've we've certainly um through our Strategic Partnership Grants (SPG) program that was kind of re-engineered a couple of years ago, are trying to seed uh faculty, interdisciplinary faculty members to get uh apply for these SPG grants. And um and there's certainly an institutes and centers piece of that where we can provide the initial funding, but with the caveat that you know this should lead to other opportunities to go find other sources of of funding to get these these things built, because it takes a long time to build these up.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 11:34

It does take a long time, and and I think there's some nice parallels. Obviously, um the investment, the seed funding that the MSU Research Foundation provides is really important to fuel that initial kind of pilot work, if you will. But my experience shows that having sustained funding either through institutional commitments and/or, and and and hopefully it's an and um, sponsored research from federal grants, from other partnerships is really important. But faculty need that initial investment, and deans and department chairs need an outside entity to invest in their faculty such that there is dedicated time, space, and resources to come together. And oftentimes the interdisciplinary work is the work that's most compelling to federal agencies, as well as most compelling for solving some of the toughest um problems that we face in society today. So I think there are some parallels, certainly, with the MSU Research Foundation's commitment and seed funds to help launch faculty members uh on a strong trajectory, but also to potentially provide um resources to start an institute or a center that then becomes a hub for those activities in the future.

Endowed Professorships and Faculty Recruitment

David Washburn 12:59

Yeah. Well, and you walked into MSU as um they were sort of three or four months into their sort of public-facing uh capital campaign. And so the fact that you um were able to help uh University of Oregon land the Balmer Institute means you uh you you sort of walked into that too.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 13:19

So Yeah, it's great. You know, um I love connecting with our alumni and our donors because they often have passions and interests that um benefit MSU students and faculty and community engagement. Um I have met a lot of alumni in the last six or seven months. And for me, their commitment to MSU's future is palpable. And their excitement and engagement in the work and their true enthusiasm for what we're doing now and how they could be a part of building something for the future is really exciting. Um, the $4 billion campaign also gives us an opportunity to connect with our friends, alumni, donors in meaningful ways and provide support for faculty and faculty research. So I love the fact that we're fundraising for endowed professorships. Being able to recruit and retain the best and brightest scientists, artists, humanists is very important. At a time when people may be making different choices about whether they want to invest in higher education, uh, it's important for us to say MSU has the resources in place for you to come and make a career here. Those endowed professorships are truly important. I I happen to hold an MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professorship. I know it was important for me to have that title and those resources. Obviously, I'm a full-time academic administrator. Um, but research is so important to moving our institution forward that um these honorifics, these these endowed professorships, either funded through the MSU Research Foundation or through other forms of philanthropy, are critical um to hiring and attracting our top talent.

David Washburn 15:24

Yeah. Well, that that's a program we've we've certainly worked with your office with um for at least 12 years now. Um I think um your I think two predecessors ago and and um and uh the Vice President for Research (VPR) at the time had the same sort of question, which is how do we how do we increase the number of uh sort of um distinguished uh or chaired faculty members? And um we were our board was very, very excited to to jump in here and I think it's been a great program and and I think it's gonna be great going forward.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 15:57

So it's a great program and it is it it makes a difference for the faculty that we hire and the faculty that we um can continue to to have here at our campus. When you're the best and brightest in your field, you'll inevitably have opportunities to go elsewhere. And these resources can be especially beneficial to help us retain those faculty and keep them here at MSU, keep them engaged in the work that makes MSU so special.

David Washburn 16:29

Yeah, one one thing that I w found interesting was uh at your time at Oregon, you you were the you were the sole faculty member on the board of trustees. Um so you your your experience there is interesting. Um and it's it's um it it sort of gets into that sort of shared governance question where you're you you you know at times you put on your trustee hat, but other times you're sort of a dean representing the faculty. But what what an interesting position to uh to be sitting in.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 17:00

It was it was interesting. So for a long time, the University of Oregon was governed by the Oregon University system and so didn't have an independent board of trustees. And um maybe 13, 14 years ago, the University of Oregon and several other research-intensive Oregon State University, the public land grant um institution in Oregon, um, broke out of that Oregon University system and established their own boards. Okay. The trustees are were governor appointed in Oregon. So it's a little bit different uh here in Michigan. Obviously, they're uh publicly elected. That's right. And they were uh governor appointed. And um I served two terms on the Board of Trustees, and it was interesting because I was a fiduciary of the institution, I was a faculty member, but didn't represent the faculty, and um had a similar role to the at-large members. However, I brought the perspective of being a you know highly engaged uh scholar, researcher, um, had been at the University of Oregon, uh, I guess at that point for 10 or so years and seen the evolution of establishing a board and how important that board was for promoting the institution's best interests. And so now, um, of course, um, that was a while ago. Now there are uh a faculty member, a staff, a student, an undergraduate student, and a graduate student, and then um 12 out at large members. So structurally, it's a little bit different, but in terms of you know, the original observation about governance, um, the Board of Trustees plays an important role, obviously, in governance, as do faculty and as do administrators. So uh I like to talk about shared governance as opposed to faculty governance, although governance pertains to all of us. Shared governance really highlights that um there's decision-making authority across a range of constituents. And the Board of Trustees often signs off or approves things. Board of trustees also delegates their authority um on many matters to the president and the president's delegates, that sort of the day-to-day um running of the university, but then does retain control in a number of different areas. Uh, here at MSU, of course, we have Board of Trustees' policies, the Board of True uh approves many actions. And um it was incredibly useful and valuable for me to be in that role and understand how things like faculty senate and our academic governance really um lends itself to a shared governance model. Faculty are the architects of the curriculum. Faculty are the drivers of our research and innovation, um, enterprise, and faculty play a critical role, but of course, there's there's other roles that um administrators and and the board hold as well. So to see it come together um and and to be able to serve two terms was uh incredibly valuable. I figured that would either make or break my career as an academic administrator. I I think that was my litmus test. Um survived. I survived and um yeah, it it was a it was an interesting and and and valuable experience.

Launch Oregon and Commercialization Pathways

David Washburn 20:27

Well, I was excited about it selfishly because um you know the Foundation ha we have our own board, but that experience bringing that experience to to bear uh within our organization to me is just um it's just huge because you it's a different it's a different angle. You're kind of, you know, um you can go into the weeds if needed, but you know how to sort of view things holistically. I was just excited to see all that coming along with you uh because I knew that would be a value to our our board of directors at at the Foundation and and it um that was one of the many things. Uh I I think the other thing that I was excited about upon your arrival and and learning more about your background is is um something near and dear to my heart, which is the time you spent helping to launch uh Launch Oregon or Launch Oregon Ventures. We're really interested in entrepreneurship and new venture creation here at the Foundation, working with the MSU Innovation Center. And lo and behold, you show up and you've got several years under your belt doing this too. So can you tell us about um Launch Oregon Ventures and its relationship to the University of Oregon Foundation? I mean, just what a great setup.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 21:41

Yeah, it it has actually been a very valuable experience to be a part of the initial board that launched Launch Oregon. And Launch Oregon at University of Oregon is actually housed under the University Foundation, but works hand in glove with the university and hand in glove with the research office and innovation technology transfer and provides a pathway from start to finish for faculty who are interested in taking their scientific discoveries and commercialize some of their work. And so I served as dean of the College of Education, and it was unusual for a college of education to have so much intellectual property (IP) and so much licensing revenue. So actually, my unit that I used to lead had the most licensing revenue than any other unit on campus. And so we were a highly entrepreneurial unit. And so when leadership at the time, the president at the time came together with the foundation and also some key leaders on campus, we really wanted to make sure that this innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem really reflected the broad range of faculty and expertise. So oftentimes you think of entrepreneurship and innovation that, and it's more disciplinary bound. You think about folks in business or you think about folks in maybe biomedical engineering, uh, different devices, or you think about computer science or whatever it is, certainly some of the natural sciences, but we wanted to think broadly about how we introduce the elements of entrepreneurship and innovation to people who wouldn't naturally be inclined to that type of work. Most faculty, you know, they establish their hypotheses, they test those hypotheses, they publish their findings. Uh, if they're lucky, they have sponsored research. And we were interested in creating a socialization ecosystem, if you will, for how to take these ideas and bring them to marketplace. Launch Oregon was a part of that. Um, so the the university and the tech transfer office and the research office really was intentional about fostering opportunities for people to uh to learn about entrepreneurship, to learn sort of the business acumen that that comes along with taking an idea and pitching it and putting together a business plan and so on. Launch Oregon would then, as an independent investor, identify um which uh which faculty or postdocs or labs or ideas they would invest in. So they had um they had outside investors providing the resources to launch some of these um researchers. The priority was to focus on the university faculty and postdocs, but really serving the state. So there's a lot of parallels. I I would say the MSU Research Foundation has been doing it for longer and doing it to scale. Um, certainly um with the with the Pitch MI uh series and and really thinking broadly about how to capture the innovation and and entrepreneurial space within the state of Michigan. Um, you've got a lot of years on Oregon, but it was important to be able to establish a separate set of funding and then a pathway for faculty and postdocs across all of the ranks and across all of the disciplines to really see themselves in this innovation ecosystem. So we hired a director, we uh set up, you know, kind of the bylaws, we worked with the investors. Um, it was wonderful and it was it was valuable and actually has served me well just in the the short time I've been here at MSU.

Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset

David Washburn 25:42

Well, it's great that uh you can bring that to bear also for our organization and for our university to have um uh someone who who knows her way around sort of inventing things and and um bringing these things to market through, you know, because it's hard. It's it's really hard. Um what what might be mature research is not necessarily a new product or service yet. There's a lot of heavy lifting that has to happen and and these types of organizations can help with that piece um much more. So um well

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 26:16

I agree. And in fact, most faculty don't see all that goes on under, you know, underwater. You you see the the kind of the tip of the iceberg, but you don't see everything that happens in order to launch that um that that research discovery into a product or a service. And so um again, it is sort of a socialization, but it's something that's learned. And somebody has to have the propensity, the desire, the motivation to see themselves in that work. So um it was fun to be in that space and actually bring it to folks that perhaps wouldn't have considered an entrepreneurial pathway. But I think entrepreneurship is a skill set that serves us all well. Even if you never bring a product to the marketplace, having an entrepreneurial skill set um turns out is really valuable.

David Washburn 27:06

You went with the uh iceberg metaphor, not the duck metaphor.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 27:10

So Well, I I am uh I am a Spartan.

David Washburn 27:12

You're now a Spartan. I love it. I love it. Well, I the only other question, you know, you're you're a psychologist, and so um talking about the entrepreneurial mindset, maybe this is a a longer conversation. Do you think entrepreneurs are are born or made? Is it innate? Or uh is this something that one can learn over time and uh and and sort of plow through?

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 27:37

I think it's a false dichotomy, Dave. Um it's sort of like the nature versus nurture, you know, which is it?

David Washburn 27:44

Yeah.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 27:44

Uh I think there's something to be said about perhaps an innate propensity to this type of work. But I say that, and I also wonder like, has it been socialized? What have they been exposed to? What have what have their experiences been? Um, so some people might be quote unquote naturals, but really have more experiences in that area. I think it's a skill set that frankly can be taught. And we've got a wonderful minor, we've got the Burgess Institute, we've got a group of faculty and staff who are creating um opportunities to instill those values, but also the skills that go along with entrepreneurship. So I think it's a both and

David Washburn 28:27

Yeah, I agree with you. I agree.

Closing Remarks

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 28:29

And I frankly, I would love for all of our students to have an opportunity to learn these skill sets and for faculty who are interested in engaging in this work. We want to have an entrepreneurship um sandbox that holds all of us. And we want to be building and selling our sandcastles and uh demonstrating the value in our work. And I really see MSU as a place that not only values entrepreneurship and innovation, but actually put those values into practice.

David Washburn 29:00

Yeah. Well, this has been fantastic. My guest today has been Dr. Laura Lee McIntyre. She is the provost at Michigan State University and uh board member of the MSU Research Foundation and an MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professor. So thank you very much for being here.

Laura Lee McIntyre, PhD 29:20

Thank you. It's been a pleasure.