Meet the Team

Meet the Team

We are a 60-person professional staff dedicated to supporting all University of Chicago students, faculty, staff, alumni, and outside small business owners in navigating the complex process of creating and growing a startup or bringing their idea to market. We also serve as an important gateway for industry partners, helping them access new research and technologies from the University of Chicago.

Marketing and Communications

Marketing and Communications

Abigail Prescott

Abigail Prescott

Executive Director, Marketing and Communications

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Abigail Prescott

Executive Director, Marketing and Communications

5807 S. Woodlawn Ave., Suite 207
Chicago, IL 60637
E: abigail.prescott@chicagobooth.edu

Abigail Prescott serves as the Executive Director of Marketing & Communications for the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In this role, she leads the Polsky Center’s internal and external messaging strategies to amplify the brand of the center and advance awareness of the broad suite of entrepreneurship programs available to students, alumni, faculty, and research partners, as well as the University of Chicago’s technology commercialization efforts and bolstering community engagement at through the Polsky Exchange.

Abigail holds over a decade of experience in external communications strategies and implementation. She brings experience in creative storytelling, targeted messaging, and brand identity to this role. Most recently, she held the position of Chief Communications Officer at Urban Gateways where she managed and launched an organizational visual identity rebrand; oversaw the development of a multi-platform mobile app technology solution with a heavy focus on end-user experience; and led a special task force to establish, adopt, and implement organizational core values. In her time with Urban Gateways she built a robust communications team focused on creative storytelling in order to demonstrate organizational impact to supporters and constituents. Abigail believes in the power of stories to help people connect more deeply with their passions and interests.

Abigail earned a master’s degree in arts management from Columbia College of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Illinois Wesleyan University. She believes in the power of the arts and all variety of creative practices as catalysts for change and growth – both personally and professionally.

Abigail lives in Oak Park with her husband, Hayden, and their two children, Beatrix and Isaac. In her spare time she is a vinyasa yoga teacher, is a budding gardener, and makes extravagant cakes for her children’s birthdays.

Melissa Fassbender

Melissa Fassbender

Senior Associate Director, External Relations and Science Communications

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Melissa Fassbender

Senior Associate Director, External Relations and Science Communications

5807 S. Woodlawn Ave., Suite 207
Chicago, IL 60637
O: 773.834.1134
E: melissa.fassbender@chicagobooth.edu

Melissa Fassbender serves as the senior associate director, external relations and science communications at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In this role, she works closely with the Science and Technology team to highlight translational research, IP-based startups, among other groundbreaking innovation and new technologies from across the University. She also is responsible for planning and managing all logistics for external brand-building opportunities and events, engaging with campus partners, media outlets, and external organizations in the entrepreneurial, science, technology, and business community.

Prior to joining Polsky, Melissa was an editor at Xconomy where she wrote about innovation in the biotech space. Before this, she held the same title at Outsourcing-Pharma, a global publication focused on drug development and clinical trials. She also was the editor of an online and print magazine dedicated to design engineering.

Melissa earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas, where she majored in literary studies and minored in communications and journalism.

Melissa is interested in old books, modern art, and coffee in any form.

Darwin Minnis

Darwin Minnis

Associate Director, Media Relations and External Communications

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Darwin Minnis

Associate Director, Media Relations and External Communications

E: Darwin.minnis@chicagobooth.edu

O: 773-834-3026

M: 630-923-2038

Darwin Minnis serves as the associate director of media relations and external communications at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In this role he is responsible for leading, developing, and implementing comprehensive public relations programs and content strategies focused on generating media coverage for the Polsky Center.

Before joining Polsky, Darwin worked at Fortune Brands Innovations, a home and security products company, where he led external communication strategies and media relations for the company. Prior to this, he spent six years at Navistar, a commercial truck and bus manufacturer, where he was responsible for vocational product and bus communications.

Darwin earned his bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University, where he majored in Journalism and minored in Marketing.

Darwin is passionate about storytelling, video production and creating music.

Jessy Tapper, AM ’15

Jessy Tapper, AM ’15

Senior Writer and Content Manager, Marketing and Communications

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Jessy Tapper, AM ’15

Senior Writer and Content Manager, Marketing and Communications

5807 S. Woodlawn Ave., Suite 207
Chicago, IL 60637
E: jtapper@uchicago.edu

Jessy Tapper Derleth, AM ’15, serves as the senior writer and content manager at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She is primarily responsible for writing the Polsky Weekly 10, a weekly email newsletter that shares the most relevant and exciting news in Polsky’s ecosystem to upwards of 25,000 subscribers from around the world every Friday. 

Prior to joining Polsky, Jessy worked as a copywriter for a comprehensive marketing agency, helping to shape the voice and experiential language for a variety of household brand names, from Sour Patch Kids and Wheat Thins to United Airlines and the U.S. Army.  

Jessy earned her master’s degree in humanities from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University where she graduated cum laude with highest honors in English. 

Outside of her work with the Polsky Center, Jessy spends most of her time writing for other mediums, currently trying her hand at fiction. In her spare time, she loves reading a good (and sometimes bad) book, yoga, learning to cook, NFL RedZone, and her adorable French bulldog pup named Hank. 

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