Cristina Killingsworth, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, to Visit Vermont Gallium Nitride Tech Hub in Burlington, Vermont

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Department of Commerce announced Cristina Killingsworth will visit the Vermont Gallium Nitride Tech Hub in Burlington, Vermont. The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), designated the Vermont Gallium Nitride Tech Hub, led by the University of Vermont, as a Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hubs) in October 2023.

The Vermont Gallium Nitride Tech Hub highlights the region’s role as an emerging global leader in gallium nitride-based semiconductors.  While there, Tech Hubs program leadership will work with the Hub to strengthen their strategy to meet the immediate and future demands of semiconductor manufacturing while advancing a technology sector critical to U.S. national security.

The Tech Hubs Program is a flagship initiative aimed at advancing U.S. leadership in critical technologies and industries. The designation of the Vermont Gallium Nitride Tech Hub is a strong endorsement of the region’s plan to supercharge its critical technology ecosystem and become a global gallium nitride-based semiconductor leader over the next decade, advancing U.S. national security and global competitiveness.  

“The Vermont Gallium Nitride Tech Hub in Burlington, Vermont, embodies the spirit and potential of the Tech Hubs program to take centers of excellence and make them world-class tech ecosystems through targeted investments,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “That’s precisely why I’ve asked Deputy Assistant Secretary Killingsworth to travel to Vermont with a team to meet with leadership and provide technical assistance on their strategy. The Tech Hubs Program is crucial to ensuring tech industries vital to U.S. economic and national security start, stay, and grow in the U.S., and that’s why I’m committed to future rounds of funding and working with lawmakers to support additional federal resources to support all of our designees.”

The Tech Hubs Program, authorized for $10 billion in the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, is designed to increase the capacity and pace with which Americans make, deliver, and deploy innovative technologies, creating new, growing companies and new, good jobs. 

Read more about the Tech Hubs program at TechHubs.gov.

About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov) 
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation’s regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA invests in communities and supports regional collaboration in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.