Heather Cave

Heather Cave, director of the FSU Research Foundation, oversees all private and foreign research grant funds to Florida State University. The Research Foundation manages eight buildings that house research labs and centers, six of which are located in Innovation Park.

Cave helps raise awareness about the creativity and innovation of research underway at FSU. She partners with the Leon County Research and Development Authority, as well as state and local economic development groups, to promote the many research assets in the area.

Those efforts are designed to attract businesses to Tallahassee and encourage new research partnerships with Florida State’s high-tech centers. The fundamental goal is to generate more funding for the FSU Research Foundation and create highly skilled jobs for FSU graduates.

Cave has a wide-ranging background in economic development, including eight years of experience at Enterprise Florida, Inc. There, she worked to recruit and retain businesses, provided guidance for seeking grants and supervised organization management.

Cave helped lead a successful plan, developed in partnership with NASA and Space Florida, that brought Space X to Brevard County. She was also instrumental in the administration of state grants to communities with major defense industry installations, many of which helped guarantee compatible land use.

Cave earned a master of business administration that focused on economic development and a bachelor of science in social science education from Troy University. She attended Troy on a full Rodeo Team scholarship. Now as a resident of Tallahassee, Cave looks for opportunities to utilize her background for the benefit of her community.