Office of Industry-Partnered Initiatives
Connecting expertise, innovation, and opportunity to advance the future of health.
The Office of Industry-Partnered Initiatives helps CHHS faculty, staff, and students turn ideas, external connections, and emerging opportunities into focused collaborations that support learning, scholarship, workforce development, innovation, and community impact.
- Have an idea or opportunity? You do not need a fully developed partnership. The Office can help clarify the opportunity, identify areas of alignment, and determine a practical next step. See how to engage with the Office
What can the Office help you do?
- The office serves primarily as a resource for CHHS, helping faculty and students navigate external opportunities and develop collaborations that advance population health.
What We Hope to Make Possible
The goal is to develop relationships that create useful, visible outcomes for CHHS students, faculty, industry and community partners, and the communities we serve.
Students prepared for what comes next
More opportunities to work on real-world problems, build professional networks, learn from external experts, and develop skills relevant to emerging fields.
Faculty expertise put into practice
More pathways for scholarship and expertise to inform programs, services, technologies, evaluation, implementation, and real-world questions.A stronger workforce
Closer connections between education and changing workforce needs, with greater visibility into emerging roles, competencies, and technologiesInnovation that reaches people
Greater attention to who can access and benefit from innovation, how it is implemented responsibly, and how community perspectives inform the workA more connected CHHS
A clearer picture of external relationships, opportunities, expertise, and lessons learned so promising connections can benefit more than one program.Partnerships grounded in public purpose
Collaborations that create reciprocal value while remaining attentive to equity, ethics, student learning, community benefit, and the mission of public university.
Creating Public Value through Partnership
Industry-partnered initiatives bring together external partners, student talent, and faculty expertise. The aim is not partnership for its own sake, but collaborations that strengthen education, scholarship, workforce preparation, and community benefit.
Have an idea or opportunity? Start Here.
Choose the situation closest to yours. A first conversation is often enough to determine whether there is a useful next step.
I have an external contact or potential partner
Let's think through the opportunity and where it may align with CHHS.
- Start a conversation
I have a research or project idea
Explore whether an external relationship could help move the idea forward.
- Explore connections
I want to create an opportunity for students
Consider applied projects, mentorship, professional exposure, or other models.
- Explore options
An organization contacted me
We can help clarify the request and identify an appropriate pathway within CHHS or SJSU.
- Determine next steps
I want input on workforce or curriculum needs
Explore ways to hear from employers and other organizations about emerging skills and roles.
- Discuss engagement
I am an external organization interested in CHHS
Tell us what you are working on and where you see a possible connection.
- Connect with CHHS
Current Priorities
The first phase of the Office is intentionally focused on building useful infrastructure and practical models that can support CHHS over time.
Build an AI and health technology partner pipeline
Develop a shared view of current and prospective partners, relationship history, opportunities,
internal
owners, and next steps.
- For CHHS: Better visibility into relationships and emerging opportunities across the College.
Define repeatable partnership models
Develop practical models with clear purposes, partner roles, student benefits, faculty roles, operating requirements, and possible deliverables.
- For CHHS: Easier ways to move promising ideas from conversation to action.
Develop Health TechQuity and Entrepreneurship & Innovation learning frameworks
Help identify competencies students need in ethical AI, human-centered problem solving, bias awareness, data privacy, innovation, and responsible implementation.
- For CHHS: A shared foundation for future curriculum and co-curricular conversations.
Strengthen workforce development and access to innovation networks
Create pathways connecting students with industry and community partners, professional
networks,
conferences, mentorship, and emerging opportunities in health, technology, and innovation.
- For CHHS: Stronger connections between student preparation and evolving professional fields.
How We Think About Partnership
A good partnership is not defined simply by who the partner is. We consider what the collaboration is designed to accomplish, how it is structured, who benefits, and whether it advances CHHS values and public purpose.
From Idea to Action
The Office can help promising opportunities move from an initial conversation to a clearly defined next step.
- Start With the Need
- Clarify the problem, opportunity, or question
- Find the Intersection
- Identify where partner needs, faculty expertise, student learning, and CHHS priorities align
- Start at the Right Scale
- Define a practical first step. Is it a project, pilot, research question, student experience, or a conversation?
- Learn and Build
- Assess what was useful, what was learned, and whether the collaboration should continue or grow
About the Director
Marcelle M. Dougan, ScD, MPH, MEng, is Director of the Office of Industry-Partnered
Initiatives in the College of Health and Human Sciences and an Associate Professor
of Public Health at San José State University. Her career spans engineering, industry,
epidemiology, public health, technology, and higher education, providing a distinctive
foundation for building partnerships that connect innovation with education, research,
and community impact.
Before entering academia, Dr. Dougan spent more than eight years at Merck & Co., where her work included pharmaceutical manufacturing automation, vendor management, and cross-functional engineering leadership. That training and experience continues to inform her approach to building productive relationships across universities, industry, healthcare organizations, and community partners.
Drawing on experience in engineering, the pharmaceutical industry, epidemiology, and academic research, Dr. Dougan brings an uncommon cross-sector perspective to developing partnerships that advance innovation while remaining grounded in health equity and public purpose.
As Director, Dr. Dougan cultivates strategic partnerships that integrate the expertise of CHHS with industry, healthcare organizations, nonprofit and community partners, foundations, and public agencies. Through these collaborations, the Office seeks to strengthen student learning, support faculty scholarship, advance responsible innovation, and contribute to healthier and more equitable communities.
Education and Training:
ScD in Epidemiology, Harvard University · MPH in Epidemiology, Columbia University
· MEng (with honors) in Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London · Graduate Certificate
in Technology Management, Stevens Institute of Technology · Certificate in Artificial
Intelligence and Machine Learning, MIT
Connect with the Office
Contact: chhs-partnerships@sjsu.edu
