Tracy Lea

Tracy Lea serves the J. Orin Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute as Director, Venture Development. In her role, she leads the ASU Venture Devils program around four pillars of support: Venture Mentors, seed funding, training + development network, and Place-based Innovation Spaces for over 1000 student, faculty, community, and alumni startups, including the prestigious Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative. Edson teams have raised over $45 million in external funding and have filed over 40 patents since its inception.  As part of the Venture Devils program, Tracy manages over 40 Venture Mentors designated as faculty associates to leverage their entrepreneurial expertise to further the ventures they serve.   

Currently, Tracy is a reservist in the U.S. Navy, Petty Officer First Class, previously serving as an avionics technician with fighter jet squadron VAQ-209 in Whidbey Island, WA,  and currently cross-assigned to VR-57 in North Island, CA.  During her 13+ years in the Navy, Tracy was selected as the 2016 Navy Reserve Jr Sailor of the Year for the Southwest region.  Tracy holds a bachelor's degree in marketing, an MBA from ASU, and an Innovation in Global Development Ph.D. candidate at the College of Global Futures.

Prior to joining E+I, Tracy entertained Phoenix as a top-rated radio personality for more than 17 years, managed artists, and negotiated licensing agreements and contracts for national broadcasts.  Tracy also owned a multi-faceted entertainment business and full-service recording studio, Dreamcatcher Recording, specializing in artist development and marketing strategy.