Nakia Melecio is a Senior Research Faculty member of Georgia Tech Innovation Enterprise Institute and Principal in Venture Lab. In this role, Nakia helps researchers commercialize their Biotechnology, Energy, Defense, Military Technology, Education, Government Technology, and Aerospace Technology. He also helps them secure investments from a network of federally funded laboratories, universities, and corporations. Nakia also is the Founder/Director of MedTech Center of Excellence, created to support and address the unique needs of early-stage medical device technologies where they provide expertise in product realization, technology, medical device manufacturing, biotechnology, life science, and therapeutic innovations to early-stage entrepreneurs.
Throughout his career, he has worked with industry, academia, and government which has provided him with a unique and deep understanding of the early-stage innovation ecosystem and technology transfer, proven scientific and technical ability, and decades of operational experience in technology-driven, high-growth companies. He has successfully helped startups and develop businesses worldwide in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Nigeria, Thailand, South Korea, Colombia, and Ghana.
Nakia is an active member and mentor of the technology community and a frequent contributor to many business organizations, including the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). He is a longtime technology startup mentor, having served in that role at Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Institute of Technology, the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps), the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), Georgia Tech Create X mentor, MIT Hack Medicine, DOD lab mentor, NSF I-Corps Core Faculty Instructor at Georgia Institute of Technology, Hack for Defense Instructor (H4D), Defense Innovation Accelerator Mentor (DIA), and StartMe at Emory University. He is a board member for several startups and is involved in two Health-tech Medical Device startups, which are actively funded by SBIR Phase I NIH and SBIR Phase I NSF.
Nakia received a master’s degree at Ashford University in Education, Teaching, Learning, and Educational Technology where he also received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science. Additionally, Nakia received a Doctor of Psychology Educational Psychology, Educational Leadership from the University of Arizona.