Scott Morris, executive director of UMSL’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, speaks to the crowd during the grand opening of the UMSL Innovation Center. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)

The University of Missouri–St. Louis’ campus transformation celebrated yet another milestone on Thursday night with the official grand opening of the UMSL Innovation Center.

The newly renovated and newly renamed facility is one of nine key projects for the $110 million Transform UMSL initiative, which is nearing the finish line as it heads into the 2026 calendar year. The initiative has been fueled by $80 million in capital funding from the state of Missouri through the American Rescue Plan Act along with university dollars and donor investments.

The Innovation Center houses three primary tenants – the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, the Supply Chain Analytics Center of Excellence and the Center for Excellence in Financial Counseling – but reminders of what UMSL has meant to so many alumni in the St. Louis area are all over the building. During the renovations, donors were offered – and many accepted – the opportunity to put their names on the different areas in the facility, such as the Mary and Joseph Stieven Collaboration Suite, or the Terry and Stan Freerks Student Innovation Hub.

UMSL alums Terry and Stan Freerks pose outside of the Terry and Stan Freerks Student Innovation Hub at the grand opening of the UMSL Innovation Center.

Many of the donors were in attendance for the grand opening. John Sabourin, for example, was there to see the John Sabourin Coffee Bar meeting the needs of the event’s attendees. He couldn’t help but feel grateful as he looked around the new facility.

“I owe a lot to this university because I didn’t just graduate from UMSL, but the people here helped me find a job and that really was the catalyst to what I feel was a successful career and life,” said Sabourin, who worked at Bunge for nearly 30 years. “I came from a working-class family, and sometimes I get a little bit emotional when I think about what the university has done for me, so I like to give back. I want to make sure that the foundation stays strong and that there are opportunities for younger people, from all walks of life. The faculty here at UMSL is fantastic, and the facilities are fantastic, and if you put your mind to it, you’re going to do well here.”

Though the grand opening and dedication was celebrated on Thursday, the UMSL Innovation Center has been open since the start of the fall semester, and the new facility is already making a rather dramatic impact.

“It’s a huge part of our program,” said Scott Morris, the director of the EIC. “Like, unspeakably huge because we had the programming, and what we needed was the physical space to kind of bring it all together. We’re going into Cohort 6 for our Anchor Accelerator program right now, and many of our mentors have told me how they would love to help out, but they’re going to be out of town over the winter. Well, we now have a new facility with multiple rooms that are high-flex, so whether we’re in the theater or somewhere else, the mentors can be virtually sitting right there, right next to the founders so they can hear the content and work with the team.

“With this facility, we’re able to bring in the exact right resources and make these perfect matches with mentors and founders and students. Now we can work with people that you know can be anywhere on the earth, and they can meet virtually.”

Jill Bernard Bracy, the director of the supply chain center, pointed out another benefit that’s already been on display on a regular basis.

“It’s been exciting to see students, faculty and industry partners already using the space in such meaningful ways,” Bracy said. “The renovation really supports hands-on learning, brings some of our key college initiatives together under one roof, and creates a professional environment that reflects the level of engagement we strive to provide for our students and the business community.”

That sentiment was echoed by Mark Fetters, the director of the financial counseling center.

Chancellor Kristin Sobolik chats with (from left) UMSL alum Peter A. Racen, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Lisa Capone, Linda Racen and UMSL alum Laura Burkemper at the grand opening of the UMSL Innovation Center.

“This is a very comfortable, convenient place for people to come together,” he said. “We’ve been able to bring in student groups and other student orgs. We’ve had business meetings with college leadership. It’s just a great resource to have available for a variety of purposes, for faculty, staff, students and our broader community.”

Turns out, having three distinct centers with similar goals fosters a great sense of collaboration.

“The thing about each of our three centers is that we work with students, but we also work with the community,” Morris said. “There is this huge nexus point of the community and students all kind of mashing up. We collaborate, we talk with each other and we’re finding projects to work on together, where we need each other’s expertise. It’s great that we have all three of the centers located in one spot. There’s just a ton of crossover with what we’re each doing in the community.”

Another important element of the building renovation and renaming: Giving the three centers this new home reflects how highly UMSL values what they contribute to the university’s mission. The supply chain center, for example, had been in the developmental stage for several years, and one of the challenges – along with designing a center built with three foundational pillars of research, education and outreach – was finding the right home.

Now, the brand-new center has a brand-new location.

“Having the Supply Chain Analytics Center of Excellence in the new space highlights the university’s commitment to our mission to serve as the nexus of academia, industry, and government who collaborate to pursue cutting-edge research, supply chain workforce readiness and strong social impacts,” Bracy said. “Also, with all three college centers located together, it reflects the collaborative spirit of our college and supports our ability to work across teams, engage industry partners and create meaningful opportunities for students.”