Building Community, Supporting Entrepreneurs: Inside the IGNITE Program Manager Role

The IGNITE Program Manager is the person who connects the IGNITE clients to the larger community in northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the resources held by The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce.

The role was held until September 2026 by Mary McDermott. McDermott brought her own insights and experiences to a role that requires flexibility, professionalism and a collaborative, understanding personality.

What Does the IGNITE Program Manager Do?

The primary objective of the IGNITE Program Manager is planning programming around the entrepreneurs that are operating from IGNITE’s three incubators — the Scranton, TekRidge, and Carbondale enterprise centers.

The programming offered by IGNITE can take many forms. At times, it might look like a group coaching session with a local business expert. In other cases, individual mentorship with the entrepreneurs might be the more effective path.

Networking events and community-building efforts that allow the entrepreneurs to talk to each other are also facilitated by the IGNITE Program Manager, and that only scratches the surface of what they do each day.

In short, the IGNITE Program Manager must be a reflection of the entrepreneurial spirit.

“Being the program manager, you need to stay as flexible and nimble as the entrepreneurs in our program,” said McDermott. “Flexibility is an important strength to have as an entrepreneur, and I think a lot of the characteristics and qualities that entrepreneurs have, the program manager holds as well because we work with the entrepreneurs so much.”

The Connection Between Affiliates

As an employee of The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, the IGNITE Program Manager is responsible for helping IGNITE clients understand the value of The Chamber’s massive network. In this way, collaboration is key.

For example, IGNITE collaborates with the Skills in Scranton to highlight entrepreneurship as a valid career path for students. Likewise, IGNITE works with Leadership Lackawanna to help educate the community about the entrepreneurial footprint of Lackawanna County.

Even beyond the Chamber’s infrastructure, the IGNITE Program Manager is at the center of a larger incubator network in Pennsylvania and across the United States. Keeping in regular contact with other incubator managers allows the IGNITE Program Manager to identify best practices in the incubation landscape.

Building relationships between those in the IGNITE orbit is some of the most gratifying work for an IGNITE Program Manager, who usually has a hand in building those relationships in the first place.

Informing the Position

The IGNITE Program Manager has a great amount of control of the direction of the incubator’s day-to-day operations, and each person who is an incubator manager has the chance to bring their own personality to the job.

For instance, in the case of Mary McDermott, connection and community were core elements of the IGNITE Program during her tenure as the incubator manager.

“I am a yogi, and I find the importance of finding a community with that part of my life, and I think that remains constant in any avenue or network that you’re a part of,” said McDermott, who added that she emphasized binding the unique cultures that were formed in the three incubator buildings.

McDermott moved from the IGNITE Program to the Wilkes University Small Business Development Center, which kept her in contact with the entrepreneurs of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Or, in her own words during her last week with IGNITE: “I’m not leaving the entrepreneurial ecosystem. I’m just taking a different seat at the table.”

Therein lies just one more example of IGNITE’s tent growing even more inclusive across the region.