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.