Maggie Flanagan joined The Lemelson Foundation in 2018, and today she serves as the Senior Program Officer on the Invention & Entrepreneurship team. A seasoned entrepreneur with international development experience, she works to strengthen regional innovation ecosystems in India and Kenya, so that innovation and market-based solutions can be levers for more equitable and regenerative economies. During her time at the Foundation, she has served as an advisor to Kenya’s National Innovation Agency and to the Catalytic Capital Consortium.
Flanagan began her career as a Peace Corps volunteer, working as a Community Health and Development Volunteer in Madagascar. Prior to joining The Lemelson Foundation, she served as a Vice President for Business Development in the Kenya office of Village Industrial Power — a social enterprise startup dedicated to providing clean and cost-effective energy sources for farmers in developing countries — and Director of Entrepreneur Programs at Rocky Mountain Innosphere in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she provided assistance to emerging companies and managed partnerships with universities, government offices and corporations to strengthen Colorado’s innovation ecosystem.
She received her B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a major in Journalism and Mass Communications and a minor in Political Science, and an MBA in Global and Sustainable Enterprise from Colorado State University. She enjoys running, hiking, and camping, and just about any outdoor activity that her three young children are willing to engage in.
