East Tennessee State University’s commercialisation arm, ETSU Research Corporation, has appointed Katie Houston as director of commercialisation.
Houston spent the past nine years in corporate R&D and innovation at speciality materials company Eastman.
She will also serve as Commercialisation Counsellor through the Tennessee Technology Advancement Consortium, a statewide initiative that was set up to strengthen tech transfer across Tennessee’s institutions.
“Great universities generate powerful ideas, but those ideas only matter if they reach the world beyond the campus. Katie’s experience working at the intersection of science and industry will help us translate research at ETSU into technologies, companies and solutions that improve lives.”
David Golden, CEO of ETSU Research Corporation
Houston’s appointment builds on ETSU Research Corporation’s growing ambitions in research commercialisation.
In September 2025, the organisation secured $5 million in grant funding to redevelop Valleybrook, originally donated to the institution by Eastman in 2010, into a multidisciplinary research hub spanning public health, biology, and biomanufacturing innovation.
ETSU Research Corporation has also recently hosted the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology for critical dialogue on biomanufacturing and workforce development, and it secured $912,000 through the Defense Industrial Base Consortium to strengthen local biomanufacturing capabilities.
