She was honored for founding VetStart, a program to help military veterans start their own businesses, in 2012. UofL’s Office of Military Initiatives and Partnerships and Nucleus, Kentucky’s innovation center and an arm of the UofL Foundation, are program collaborators.

So far, 26 veterans have been through VetStart, which offers 10 weeks of intensive entrepreneurship training, some business start-up expenses and a year of follow-up meetings with UofL business school mentors.

Kerrick, one of five Kentuckians honored as small business advocates this year by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Kentucky District Office, will be recognized in Washington, D.C., May 15-16 and at a Kentucky Celebrates Small Businesses event in Lexington in June.