Tanaga A. Boozer

 Tanaga A. Booze, Gender Summit 5 Africa speaker
Program Advisor, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Education and Outreach, USA.

Panelist
Knowledge Exchange Forum: Entrepreneurship by Women STEM

Tanaga A. Boozer, MBA, JD has several years of experience developing and promoting innovation and technology transfer programs in the U.S and abroad. The Program Advisor in the Office of Education and Outreach directs and coordinates intellectual property (IP) educational outreach programs and partnerships with external organizations, academic institutions and federal agencies. Ms. Boozer conducts invention education seminars for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) administrators and educators. She also develops and implements new educational programs in conformance with the policies, mission and goals of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Prior to joining the USPTO, Ms. Boozer was the Director of Technology Transfer at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and held a faculty position in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She developed and taught the graduate Intellectual Property Course for scientists and engineers. While also working at FAMU, she invented the “Virtual Technology Transfer Office” (U.S. Patent No. 8,117,131), which was funded by two Innovation Grants—Leon County Research Authority Technology Commercialization Grant and a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Science Foundation.   Ms. Boozer serves as a technology transfer reviewer for the Department of Defense (DOD), Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program and an education reviewer for NASA’s Space and Education Programs. She served as an Assistant Vice President for Membership for the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and an instructor for the Essentials of Academic Technology Transfer Course.   Ms. Boozer gained extensive innovation experience early in her career while working for Procter & Gamble, Insmed Biopharmaceutical Company, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a Chemical Patent Examiner.  She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Rust College, an MBA from Prairie View A&M University and J.D. degree from the University of Mississippi.