Business Programs for High School Students

As a leader at the School of Engineering's Gordon Institute here at Tufts, Tina is a serial entrepreneur who enjoys helping companies with product market strategy and development. She is currently working on a new venture in the data-visualization space. She is also the founder/CEO of A Starting Line, a strategy firm whose clients include the Boston Asian American Film Festival. Previously, Tina was the Chief Engagement Officer of GearSay.com, responsible for launch strategy, customer acquisition and engagement. She was introduced to the startup world as one of the earliest employees of VistaPrint.com and Worth Interactive.

Tina has also served as the Director of Lean Startup Challenge, a startup accelerator program that provides guidance and mentoring based on the Lean Startup principles. She has mentored startup teams and judged for the Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition as well as helping student-run startups as an Expert-In-Residence in the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center’s Venture Accelerator. She has also mentored/coached startups at Harvard iLabs, Harvard University’s startup incubator.

Tina previously founded a marketing/technology consulting firm and has also worked at companies such as eBay Enterprise, e-Dialog, and Digitas; leading and managing teams to build/implement marketing and business intelligence solutions. Tina’s earlier career was spent leading technical and cross-functional teams on market analysis, business intelligence/reporting, SAP implementation, and business process re-engineering projects.

Jeff is the Jason and Chloe Epstein Term Professor of the Practice and the Director Certificate in Impact and Sustainable Investing housed at Tufts University’s Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. Jeff currently teaches graduate level courses in Catalytic Capital and Blended Value. Jeff began his professional life in ice cream trucks and spent many years growing and selling food service businesses and serving in senior financial roles for national chains striving to go public. A graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the University of Maine’s School of Resource Economics, Jeff spent 20 years serving as the CFO for the Solidago Foundation. During his time in Philanthropy, Jeff provided board service to several philanthropic affinity groups, including Confluence Philanthropy and Sustainable Food and Ag System Funders. He also collaborated with field partners to design and launch several community investment funds including PVGrows and the Real People’s Fund.