SIRTI board asks for report card

Board members at SIRTI have asked a Bellevue consulting firm to provide a detailed report card on how the Spokane-based agency is doing its job.

SIRTI — the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute — has been in business 10 years. It was created by the state to help boost the area’s technology-sector growth.

In the past year, SIRTI went through a “period of turmoil” that prompted the desire to hire an outside evaluation, said Board Chairwoman Nancy Isserlis. Several unhappy SIRTI staff members filed concerns with the board over the management of former Executive Director Patrick Tam. After an investigation and after placing Tam on administrative leave, the board accepted his resignation in November.

SIRTI has hired an interim director, Kim Zentz, to fill the job for one year.

“When you go through that kind of change, it’s helpful to get an outside eye to examine how you’re performing,” Isserlis said.

She described the study as a “top-to-bottom” evaluation of what SIRTI is getting done and how it can improve its results.

Doing the SIRTI study is Alta Biomedical Group, which has done similar work for other regional groups, according to SIRTI board member Jon Eliassen.

Alta Biomedical Group researcher Lynnor Stevenson has spent about a week or more meeting SIRTI staff and talking with board members and others in the community, Eliassen said.

Isserlis said the hope is for Stevenson to submit her evaluation to the board by mid-March. That would coincide with the arrival of Zentz, who is concluding a two-year stint as executive director of the Spokane Transit Authority.

SIRTI has evolved over its history from a university-focused lab to a business incubator and business-service provider.

It has been receiving about $1.4 million each year in state money.

Eliassen said he recommended Stevenson and Alta Biomedical after seeing the work done for both the Washington State University Research Foundation and the Washington Technology Center.

“Lynn really understands the tech-transfer process very well,” Eliassen said.

The board approved a contract for up to $20,000 for the Alta study, said Isserlis.