Heather Ferguson

Heather Ferguson’s career has always focused on helping professionals transition into new roles, build transferable skills, and learn complex topics in an approachable and actionable way. In her time at the UW-Madison SBDC, Heather has supported the Center’s classes and training opportunities, including pivoting all courses online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, working with instructors to adapt and/or develop new classes, and enhance external communication through the Center’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and newsletter.

She was also heavily involved in:

• the creation of the Center’s Navigating the New Normal COVID response/strategic planning guide in 2020
• adapting – and revamping! – a fully online Introduction to Financial Management  course that could support the learning of business owners who were new to financial management terminology and concepts
• supporting the content development of the Beginner’s Guide to Financial Projections, a no-cost, on-demand course to help entrepreneurs build their financial projections online course
• redesigning the Center’s long-running Entrepreneurial Training Program to offer a hybrid course format and a brand-new, course-specific workbook
• serving as an “AI Explorer” on the UW-Madison team to learn AI basics and present to entrepreneurs how they can experiment with the tools and capitalize on the early stages of the 4th Industrial Revolution

Heather also received an inaugural national ASBDC 40 Under 40 award in 2022, and was nominated for Wisconsin SBDC State Star in 2021 and 2024.

In addition, Heather has presented on giving effective feedback, leadership, organizational operations, conflict transformation, and partnership development at the local, regional, and national levels and has taught university career and seminar courses. Heather has a B.A. in English and Journalism from Northern Illinois University and an M.S.Ed. in Higher Education from Western Illinois University.