The OU Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth is opening a new branch at the OU-Tulsa campus and beginning work with Tulsa businesses in January.

The CCEW has teams of students working with businesses to implement marketing strategies for local technologies, according to its website. The group has been a part of the Norman campus since 2006.

“We want to make sure the impact that CCEW can have is felt statewide,” programs director Val Myers said. “We’re incredibly excited because there is so much talent up in Tulsa.”

OU-Tulsa President Gerry Clancy said he has seen CCEW in action through his son, who worked with the Norman group as an undergraduate.

“I was amazed at what the students accomplished,” Clancy said in an email. “CCEW will provide the Tulsa region the same thing with a great resource for taking innovations and putting them into action.”

The team announced the expansion Wednesday at a kick-off reception in Tulsa and already has received a lot of interest from students, faculty and staff, Myers said. For the first semester, the program will be small with just one team of a few students.

Coordinators are still talking with inventors to decide what project to work on during its inaugural semester.

“We will be looking for inventors committed to … making sure their technologies will have a big impact on the community and even the world at large,” Myers said.

The group will be working in a space called The Shed, an industrial-type building revamped for students, Myers said. She and the director of the Norman program will oversee operations the first semester.

The Norman group has three levels of staff, including fellows and team leaders, Myers said. Fellows are OU alumni who were previous interns and work full-time at the center. Team leaders are former interns and current students who take the lead on a project.

Because OU-Tulsa does not have people who meet these descriptions, the center is calling on OU alumni and previous CCEW interns living in Tulsa to volunteer to fill both roles in the evenings.

OU alumna Taylor Krebs Potter currently works for ConocoPhillips in Bartlesville and is one of the students serving as a mentor. She graduated from OU in 2011 with degrees in economics and international studies.

“CCEW was by far one of my best experiences at OU,” Krebs Potter said. “I am excited to have the opportunity to give back right after graduating. A lot of young alums think they can’t give back because they don’t have funds or aren’t in the position to do it.”

Working as a team leader gives her the opportunity to not only serve as a mentor and spread the CCEW experience but also to get back into learning about new technologies herself, Krebs Potter said.

The OU-Tulsa campus differs from Norman because it mainly houses graduate programs, and the students have developed niches, Myers said.

OU-Tulsa students and faculty also have a lot of expertise in medical areas, such as health interventions and mental illnesses, and can provide a unique perspective on projects, Clancy said.