Background & Experience

Bernadine Hawes is an executive level, nonprofit professional and economic development specialist working in the areas of project management, manufacturing strategy small business growth, and workforce development. She retired as Vice President from the University City Science Center where her career spanned over 25years in the areas programming large-scale databases, research and analysis, and incubating more than 100 information technology and biotech start-ups.

Bernadine is leader in the national and regional manufacturing sector as the immediate Past Chair of the National Advisory Board for the federal NIST-Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP), Chairwoman of the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC) and a member of the Board of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance and the Peoples Emergency Center Community Development Corporation with over $65 million invested in neighborhood initiatives and affordable housing.

She is a diversity advisor for several businesses in the growing cannabis sector and has been a consultant on workforce challenges in medicinal cannabis at Jefferson University’s Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis and Hemp

Bernadine has authored a best practice manual for growing start-up businesses which was funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the American Cities Foundation.

Bernadine is a native of Washington, DC, is a summa cum laude graduate of Lincoln University (PA) and has a Master’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Areas of Expertise

  • Equity and Inclusion
  • Economic and Community Development
  • Workforce Development

Boards, Affiliations, Awards

  • Hollings Manufacturing Extension, National Advisory Board Chair
  • National Science Foundation, SBIR Peer Reviewer
  • National Cancer Institute, SBIR Peer Reviewer
  • U.S. Department of Commerce, SBTO Peer Reviewer
  • Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC), Board Chair
  • People’s Emergency Center (PEC CDC), Board Chair; former President
  • Quest for Educational Excellence, Board Member
  • Saunders Park, LP, Board Chair
  • School District of Philadelphia, Career Technology Advisory Committee
  • Comcast, Inc., Community Advisory Board for Digital Inclusion
  • Sustainable Business Network, Social Venture Institute Faculty
  • National Association of Negro Business & Professional Women’s Clubs, Sojourner Truth Award
  • Women’s Heritage Society, Movers and Shakers Award