Alex Waters is the Executive Director of
The Program Labs, a nonprofit consultancy providing design, development and operations support for entrepreneurship and workforce training programs. Previously he was the Director of Economic Development and Innovation at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI), where he designed, launched and led San Diego’s first low-to-moderate income and diversity-focused business accelerator program. This award-winning City of San Diego and HUD-funded initiative served as a convergence point for community economic empowerment through an innovative 4-month business accelerator program and resource center that created jobs and helped small business owners receive over $3M in investment.
Before joining JCNI, he ran the Collaboratory for Downtown Innovation (CDI), an entrepreneur support initiative between the City of San Diego, UC San Diego, and the Downtown San Diego Partnership. He spent close to decade in Education Technology with several Director roles at 2U that focused on operations, support and innovation for teacher education programs.
Alex has taught business and leadership at the University of San Diego, served as an Enterprise Innovation Coach, supported business professionals through Seth Godin’s AltMBA program, mentored for Techstars, and currently serves on the boards of the SDSU Research Foundation and San Diego Neighborhood House Association.
He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Maryland – College Park and an MA in Philosophy from San Diego State University.
