A lot can happen in a year.

Olivia Cook was a newly minted Ph.D. and looking for a job when a meeting with Miles College President Bobbie Knight changed Cook’s life. Knight tapped Cook to create a new Miles College Center for Economic and Social Justice.

Cook is now the executive director of the center and also teaches at the college. In May, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced the Miles College Center for Economic and Social Justice will host one of its Women’s Business Centers. Miles is one of only 10 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the country to do so.

Cook sees the work they’re doing at Miles playing a pivotal role in Alabama’s growing innovation ecosystem.