Farley Center Welcomes Three New Faculty Members
A health care entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, and synthetic biologist each bring diverse experience to Farley classrooms this fall.
The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation has added three faculty members to its roster for fall quarter 2026.
Natika Washington, Nick Marchuk, and Danielle Tullman-Ercek each bring experience building ventures, from a purpose-driven marketing agency to an electronics education startup and a biotechnology company. Their courses expand the ways Northwestern students can explore social impact, hardware, and biotech entrepreneurship.
Natika Washington
Teaching: Entrepreneurship Lab for Social Change (ENTREP 395), offered spring quarter
Natika Washington is founder and CEO of TOBY Agency, which provides marketing strategy and content systems to small businesses and nonprofits. She is active in the B Local Illinois community, supporting the B Corp movement and organizations that balance profit with purpose.
A US Air Force veteran, Washington previously served as director of global programs and gender integration in the US Department of State's Office of Global Women's Issues. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix and an MBA from The George Washington University.
During her course, students choose a social problem and begin designing a venture to address it, blending storytelling, business strategy, community engagement, and financial modeling.
Nick Marchuk
Teaching: Engineering Entrepreneurship (ENTREP 325/IEMS 325) in the fall quarter
Nick Marchuk is a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at Northwestern Engineering, where he manages the Mechatronics Design Lab. He is cofounder and chief product officer of nLab, which makes compact electronics labs and learning tools that allows students to learn circuit design from anywhere.
Marchuk holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern.
In Engineering Entrepreneurship, student teams partner with Northwestern's Innovation and New Ventures Office to develop commercialization strategies for emerging technologies. The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students from any major.
Danielle Tullman-Ercek
Teaching: NUvention: Biotechnology (ENTREP 495),offered winter quarter
Danielle Tullman-Ercek is the James N. and Nancy J. Farley Professor in Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship and a professor of chemical and biological engineering. She is also chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Her lab engineers self-assembling proteins and other biomolecular devices for applications in medicine, sustainability, and biomanufacturing. She cofounded Opera Bioscience, which aims to produce affordable, high-purity proteins for commercial use. She also directs the Master of Biotechnology Program and codirects the Center for Synthetic Biology. She was elected an AIMBE Fellow in 2023.
Tullman-Ercek joined Northwestern in 2016. She earned a bachelor's degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.
In NUvention: Biotechnology, interdisciplinary student teams develop new ventures across a broad range of applications, including food, agriculture, sustainable materials, energy, consumer products, industrial biotechnology, and diagnostics.