State Innovation Director to Visit UMaine Oct. 28

Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571

ORONO — Maine Office of Innovation director Catherine Renault will visit the University of Maine on Thursday Oct. 28 as part of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center Distinguished Maine Policy Fellow Program.

Renault will spend the day at UMaine, meeting with students, faculty members and staff members.

The Distinguished Maine Policy Fellows Program, which began in the spring of 2006, brings Maine elected officials and senior policymakers to UMaine for intensive one-day programs through which they can learn more about UMaine, the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, and the work of the university’s faculty members and students. It is also intended to provide opportunities for UMaine students to have access to high-level public officials, through whom they can learn more about government and the development of public policy.

The Office of Innovation is part of the Maine Dept. of Economic and Community Development.  Renault, who has 16 years of experience in economic development, joined the Maine office in January 2007.  Her prior background includes work in North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle Park, and at the University of North Carolina, where she was senior research associate in the office of economic development.  She earned at Ph.D. frm the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

News coverage possibilities exist during the 9:30-10:55 a.m time frame, when Renault will tour the Advanced Manufacturing Center and the Laboatory for Surface Science and Technology.  She will visit an economics class in 201 Winslow Hall between 11 a.m. and 12 noon, followed in the afternoon by a tour of UMaine Cooperative Extension’s pest management facility at 491 College Avenue.  The latter tour is scheduled for 2-2:40 p.m.