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Topic: Entrepreneurship

Nicole Predki

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Nicole Predki, is a senior lecturer and the co-director of the Dance Program in the Theatre and Dance Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include general dance, dance and the brain, dance and holistic health, entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurship and the arts, creativity/multidisciplinary creative process, and community engagement through the arts.

Predki helped create and is currently co-directing an innovative MSU Denver dance program in collaboration with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company. She presented “Dancing Our Way to Certainty” in 2021 and co-presented “The Power of Movement” in 2019 at the TEDxMSUDenver event. She authored “Dance Education, Creative Process, and Entrepreneurial Mindset” featured in the Dance Education in Practice Journal. Her contributions also extend to the Small Business Institute Journal, which published a piece she co-authored: “Preparing Business Students for Success in the 4th Industrial Revolution.”

Predki has received several accolades, including the Entrepreneurial Mindset Facilitator designation, Association of College and University Educators Effective Teaching Practices designation, CU Boulder ATLAS Innovator Residency, ACE performance grant, and Charlotte York Irey Award for talent in performance, choreography and teaching.

Predki earned her Master’s of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Colorado Boulder and Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Science from Columbia University in New York City.

Adam Melnick

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Adam Melnick, J.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Management at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include entrepreneurship, small business, “conscious” business, social entrepreneurship, social impact business, sustainable business, and access to funding. Currently, he teaches Small Business Entrepreneurship, Organizational Management, Entrepreneurship Feasibility, and Entrepreneurial Business Plan.  

In addition to teaching, he is a consultant at the Colorado Small Business Development Centers Network, Rebel Bread, and FMK Agency, and a licensed attorney in both Colorado and Pennsylvania. As an active participant in the Denver community, Melnick is the co-founder and organizer of the Denver Good Business Week and is a board member for Blue Star Recyclers and committee chair for the CBUS Small Business Development program.  

Prior to joining MSU Denver, Melnick served as senior entrepreneurship officer and in-house counsel at Colorado Lending Source.  

Melnick earned his Juris Doctorate in Environmental Law from Pace University, a Master’s from Yale University, well as a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Science from Muhlenberg College. 

Jeff Lewis

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Shellie Kark

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Shellie Kark, B.A., is the program manager of the Meeting and Events Incentive Program for the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. In addition, Kark serves on the Culinary Council of Sterling Rice Group where she innovates and creates new product lines for the food and beverage industry. She is also the co-founder of KitchenCUE™, a series of technique-based videos that teach the fundamentals of food preparation and presentation through a simple, step-based approach. The KitchenCUE™ methodology has been utilized as a foundation for the development of an array of culinary programs spanning across diverse populations and has national recognition in a variety of publications, including O Magazine.

Prior to working at MSU Denver, Kark was a culinary professor at Johnson and Wales University Denver Campus and worked to establish the Cook Street School of Fine Cooking, where she was the Chef de Cuisine. She has spoken at the American Personal Chef Association annual summit, routinely develops and tests recipes for published cookbooks and consults with health and wellness organizations around nutritious, cooking and eating.

Kark received her bachelor’s in finance and accounting from Simmons University and procured her license as a CPA working for Arthur Andersen & Co. She graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and has worked in a number of renowned restaurants including La Folie in San Francisco, Seattle’s Dahlia Lounge and The Palace Kitchen.

Mick Jackowski

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Mick Jackowski, Ed.D., is a professor in the Department of Marketing at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise lie in brand management, reputation management, relationship management, entrepreneurship, franchise and small business. Jackowski teaches primarily in the MSU Denver Center for Professional Selling. He teaches Principles of Marketing, Business Communication and Personal Selling.

Jackowski has been with MSU Denver since 2003. From 2007-13, he worked as the director at the Center for Innovation; since, he has returned to teaching. Jackowski chairs the Department of Marketing’s Assessment Committee and the Center for Professional Selling Advisory Board. He was awarded the Innovative Teaching Award and the Excellence in Teaching Award from MSU Denver’s College of Business. He also received the Best Practitioner Paper Award from the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

His written work has been published in the Journal of Selling and the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice. Jackowski has given several presentations with the Western Decision Sciences Institute, the Marketing Educators’ Association and the Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing. His current research projects are “Selling Sales Education: Proposing a New Major in Professional Selling” and “The Importance of Social Selling Proficiency and the Development of a Social Selling Class.” He is also conducting ongoing case-study research in professional sales.

Jackowski received his doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado in 1998, a master’s from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1996 and a bachelor’s from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1990.

Lynn Hoffman

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Lynn Hoffman, Ph.D., is an emeritus professor in the Department of Management at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He developed the course Organizational Management and Consulting, which prepares student teams to form a partnership with local companies. Additionally, Hoffman helped developed the entrepreneurship curriculum for the College of Business at MSU Denver and is the recipient of the College of Business Dean’s Excellence in Scholarship Award. In addition to teaching, he has served in a variety of officer positions for the Westminster Rotary Club and is an active member of the Small Business Institute. Hoffman’s areas of interest are in human resources, entrepreneurial business planning, social entrepreneurial management consulting and strategic management.

Hoffman received his Ph.D. in industrial relations and human resource management from the University of Iowa.

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