I joined the Hannah Grimes Center in December 2024 to help grow our biotech programming – a local and national effort to support biotech start-ups and entrepreneurs in rural areas (versus the urban hubs where this industry dominates), providing them with the resources they need to create healthy businesses within our ecosystems. This happens at the state level – working with our partners across New Hampshire who are also trying to find ways to support this industry – at the local level, where we all want good jobs and thriving communities for our families, neighbors, and future generations – and nationally, through Radically Rural biotech (RRb). On that front, we’ve partnered with nine like-minded, similarly rural “entrepreneurial support organizations” (which are exactly what it says on the tin).
Most of the time, what this looks like in practice is a monthly virtual meet-up to share best practices, resources, and come together to troubleshoot – sometimes on our behalf, sometimes on our clients’. Occasionally, though, we get to see each other and our spaces in person. Like last month, when Alison Chisolm (long-term HGC freelancer) and I headed down to southern Virginia to visit three of our RRb partners.
Our first stop was Farmville (population 7,500) to visit SEED Innovation, the innovation hub led by Jacob Dolence, Director of Educational Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. It’s got everything from 3D printing and podcasting equipment to sewing machines and carpentry tools. We met some of his team and community members and saw how a place like this can completely change the role a college plays in a small town by creating collaborative spaces where ideas and businesses can grow.
Next stop was Lynchburg (population 80,000), where we visited Vector Space, an incredible makerspace and community workshop that’s all about building an open, collaborative community around innovation and creativity. We saw, smelled, and felt what that means in practice and were reminded how essential community engagement and co-creation really are. We also met Stephanie Keener from the SBDC and C.Entre, who told us about the entrepreneurs they’re supporting and the programs that have worked best locally.
Finally, we arrived in Buena Vista (population 6,500) to meet Nickie Hawkins, Director of The Advancement Foundation’s Virginia Innovation Accelerator. For months, Nickie has been reporting from the construction site this huge vision is emerging out of. Seeing it in person was something else. Her team is revitalizing the old Mundet-Hermetite manufacturing plant (where cigarette papers were printed until as late as 2015), and the scale of it is immense. They’re updating utilities, doing interior renovations, adding flexible retail and manufacturing spaces, a commercial kitchen, modern infrastructure… It’s a huge vision, and it’s on track to become a hub of innovation, business acceleration, and economic revitalization for the region. Seeing the scale of the project, and the vision behind it, was humbling and inspiring.
The two and a half (jam-packed) days were humbling, inspiring, and deeply instructional. Our monthly two-hour calls are rich and always leave me with something to think about, but there’s nothing like seeing these places and people in person – not to mention the unique rural flavors of the communities and landscapes they serve. We were joined by our partners at AgLaunch (Katie Ellis and Rebecca Kaufman), which added an extra layer of richness. I’m already looking to find the excuse to go visit Katie and see AgLaunch in action, but even just the time spent together over meals and car rides helped us understand each other’s organizations – and connect at a human level – that much better.
We dug into the kinds of conversations we all want more of as RRb partners: how we can share programming, how the nuances of our clients and contexts compare, and what challenges we each face. We talked about AI, the ethics of it all, and what stance our organizations are taking regarding whether or how to integrate it into our work, about data centers, about rural leadership, about how to better integrate farmers and their needs into our programming.
On a personal note: I’m not from this country and only arrived four years ago (I married an American). I haven’t travelled very widely across the U.S. Driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains, watching the mist rise from the Maury River, with Virginia creepers draping the forests around us, I realized how much I want to see more of this country and meet more of its people.
This trip gave me a lot to bring home. I’m grateful to our Virginia hosts for their generosity of time and spirit, and to my colleagues for the camaraderie on the road. It’s experiences like this that make me so excited about the role Hannah Grimes and our region can play in the wider rural biotech story.
By Katia Knight, Director of Biotech Initiatives
