Ronald Coleman Williams

Ronald (Ron) Coleman Williams has served in higher education for 37 years, spending the past 27 years as a faculty member in the Coppin State University (CSU) College of Business and serving as interim dean from 2013 until 2017. In 2016, Dr. Williams established a formal relationship between CSU and Open Works Baltimore, a 34K sq. ft makerspace. This groundbreaking relationship is the first of its kind in the nation and led to a role as principal investigator in the 2019 “Turning Makerspaces into Greater Places: An Organizational Assessment and Economic Impact Study of Open Works” ( ), another significant innovation as the first comprehensive organizational assessment and economic impact study of a makerspace. He further contributed to the understanding of makerspace value in 2020 as principal investigator in the case study of Open Works’ application of Lean Manufacturing principles during the initial months of the Covid-19 global pandemic, producing over 28,000 face shields in 56 days for over 100 clients. Immediately prior to the 2015 unrest in Baltimore, Dr. Williams coined the phrase “ingepreneurship” (inge… as in ingenuity) in a 2017 Metropolitan Journal article entitled “Creating a University Driven ‘Ingepreneurial’ Ecosystem in West Baltimore: A Strategy for Rust Belt Revitalization.” The concept describes a framework for improving the socio-economic well-being of underrepresented communities and aligns with his work as academic advisor to the Manufacturing Workforce Development Industry & Inclusion Study (a joint research project by The Century Foundation and Urban Manufacturing Alliance), development of the recently approved Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and development of a trust-climate assessment instrument for collaborative economic development across cultural and geographic divides. He is also the faculty advisor of award-winning student teams in local and national innovation competitions and the founding director of the Center for Strategic Entrepreneurship (CSE). Dr. Williams holds a Ph.D. in management and organization from George Washington University with concentrations in organization behavior & development and the management of science, technology, & innovation; a master's degree in human resource development from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; and a bachelor's degree with majors in psychology, social science, and education from the University of Tampa in Tampa, Florida. He also serves on the AAAS HBCU Making & Innovation Advisory Board, the Open Works Board of Directors, and is chair of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance Board of Directors.

Publications

Trust Works: An Ingepreneurial Paradigm for Equitable Access to Entrepreneurial Opportunity
Trust Works: An Ingepreneurial Paradigm for Equitable Access to Entrepreneurial Opportunity
Ronald Coleman Williams, Tammira Lucas. © 2023. 19 pages.
This chapter presents a trust framework for facilitating equitable access to opportunity in an ingepreneurial ecosystem. An ingepreneur is “a person who engages in...
Innovation-Centric Organizational Community (IOC): What Works for the Emerging Workforce
Innovation-Centric Organizational Community (IOC): What Works for the Emerging Workforce
Ronald Coleman Williams, Ericka Covington, Clarice E. Tate. © 2022. 21 pages.
The demand for innovative, solutions-oriented approaches to closing learning competency gaps is leading to the recasting of organizations as learning and innovation-centric...
Local Lessons During a Global Crisis: Inclusive Entrepreneurial Solutions to Supply Chain and Production Deficits
Local Lessons During a Global Crisis: Inclusive Entrepreneurial Solutions to Supply Chain and Production Deficits
Ronald Coleman Williams, Will Holman, Jeff Fuchs. © 2022. 21 pages.
The impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic has been pervasive. From the first report by the World Health Organization (WHO) of a “mysterious pneumonia” sickening dozens in Wuhan...