Alex Waters

Alex Waters is the Executive Director of The Program Labs, a nonprofit helping foundations, and nonprofits to design and implement entrepreneurship and workforce training programs. All of the work aims to create more economic opportunities and drive social impact through effective development and operations of community focused programs. 

Prior to launching The Program Labs, he was the Director of Economic Development and Innovation at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI), where he designed, launched and led San Diego’s first low-to-moderate income and diversity-focused business accelerator program. This City of San Diego and HUD-funded initiative was instrumental in creating jobs, providing physical workspace, connecting businesses to critical resources, and offering the community a free space to have events focused on entrepreneurship and education.

Before joining JCNI, he ran the Collaboratory for Downtown Innovation (CDI), an initiative with the City of San Diego, UC San Diego, and the Downtown San Diego Partnership to inspire, train, and uplift early-stage entrepreneurs in the downtown core. 

Alex also spent close to decade in Education Technology with several roles at 2U focused on supporting the digital transformation of Masters and Doctoral Programs for the USC Rossier School of Education. He has taught business and leadership at the University of San Diego, been an Enterprise Innovation Consultant, mentored for Techstars and currently serves on the Boards of the SDSU Research Foundation and Neighborhood House Association. 

He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Maryland – College Park and an MA in Philosophy from San Diego State University.