Innovation Summit Recap

Leading Voices of Innovation

Keynote Speaker: 
Reed Jobs | Founder, Yosemite Venture Fund

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Reed and his team launched Yosemite in August 2023 to make cancer nonlethal in our lifetime. Yosemite works in late-stage academic research and for-profit company creation to invest in the most promising science from across the world to achieve this mission. Prior to starting Yosemite, Reed was the Managing Director of Health at Emerson Collective for eight years. Reed holds a B.A. in history and international security and an M.A. in history, both from Stanford University.
 

Sian Leah Beilock, PhD | President of Dartmouth

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Sian Leah Beilock is the 19th president of Dartmouth. She is the first woman to have been elected president of Dartmouth by the Board of Trustees and began her tenure on June 12, 2023.

Beilock previously served as the eighth president of Barnard College at Columbia University. 

During her tenure at Barnard, Beilock enhanced STEM research and teaching programs to parallel the college's renown in the arts and humanities; implemented Feel Well, Do Well, a campus-wide health and wellness initiative; and launched Beyond Barnard, a one-stop shop for career resources at Barnard and beyond. Building on Barnard's relationship with Columbia, Beilock has established options for students to transition directly from Barnard into a range of master's programs at Columbia through unique five-year BA/MS degrees. Beilock has also led Barnard to record fundraising, increased applications for admission, and increased diversity among students, faculty, and staff. Almost half of Barnard students identify as women of color.

Before joining Barnard, Beilock spent 12 years at the University of Chicago, where she was the executive vice provost, serving as an officer of the university, and the Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology. As executive vice provost, Beilock oversaw and had budgetary responsibility for major academic centers including the university's library system, the University of Chicago Press, the university's art museum, and its professional theater. Beilock was also responsible for campus-wide space allocation and oversaw several major building projects. She played the lead role in developing a system to account for how income (such as tuition and grants) and expenses flowed across the undergraduate college, the graduate, and professional schools, and UChicago Medicine. She created and led UChicagoGRAD, a university-wide initiative designed to prepare the university's 10,000 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for leadership roles in academia, government, industry, and the nonprofit sector.

Beilock is one of the world's leading experts on the brain science behind "choking under pressure" in business, education, and sports. In the last several years, her research has focused specifically on success in math and science for women and girls and on how performance anxiety can either be exacerbated or alleviated by teachers, parents, and peers.

She is the author of the critically acclaimed Choke and How the Body Knows Its Mind, which have been published in more than a dozen languages, and she has published 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers. She works closely with individuals, Fortune 500 companies, sports teams, and government organizations to help them build high-performance teams and use research-driven strategies to create environments that attract, retain, and get the best out of their talent. Beilock is an independent director on the Bridgewater Associates Operating Board of Directors.

Beilock's research has been featured in media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, and CNN. She was chosen as one of 25 "Women to Watch" by Crain's Chicago Business and won several awards from national and international societies devoted to psychology, sports psychology, and education. Most notably, Beilock is the recipient of a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and, in 2017, she won the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences for her "fundamental contributions to our understanding of human skill learning and performance breakdowns in high-pressure and anxiety-provoking situations." Her 2017 TED Talk has been viewed more than 2.5 million times.

Beilock earned her bachelor of science in cognitive science from the University of California, San Diego, and doctorate degrees in psychology and kinesiology from Michigan State University.

Bret Anderson, D '05 GR'13 TU'14 | Partner, The Chartis Group

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Bret Anderson is a Principal with The Chartis Group with nearly two decades of experience in the healthcare industry. At Chartis, he has advised academic medical centers, community hospitals, specialty providers, and accountable care organizations on enterprise and digital health strategy, artificial intelligence offerings, population health management, precision medicine initiatives, and institutional affiliations. He is the current segment lead in artificial intelligence at Chartis, with several prominent media references to his thought leadership in Healthcare IT News, HFMA, MobiHealthNews, and The Scottsdale Institute. In 2023, Bret gave the opening keynote address on digital transformation and artificial intelligence at the HIMSS New England annual conference and presented on a similar topic at the Global HIMSS conference in Chicago. Bret has also presented extensively on the impact of digital technologies in advancing health equity goals of provider organizations, including at the National Association of Health System Executives in October 2023. During his decade-long tenure with Chartis, Bret has also focused on developing innovative strategies to deploy digital health technologies across providers, including across international organizations, and to enhance the patient experience through the implementation of value-driven engagement platforms that transform the delivery of healthcare.

Previously, Bret worked at Booz Allen Hamilton where he advised Federal clients such as the Military Health System, Veterans Health Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid on care delivery reform, change management, patient engagement technologies, and health insurance exchanges. Bret was recognized by senior leadership as the winner of the 2011 Booz Allen Ideas Festival for his innovation in developing predictive modeling systems to detect improper payments within next generation Medicare reimbursement models. Prior to his tenure at Booz Allen, Bret worked at the Advisory Board Company as a technology and service line specialist in diagnostic imaging and cardiovascular services for hospitals and health systems across the country.

Bret holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Healthcare Delivery Science from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he also received his undergraduate degree. 

Errik Anderson, D '00 TH '06 TU '07 | CEO and Founder, Alloy Therapeutics, Inc.

Bio coming soon

Austin Boesch, PhD, GR '16 TH '16 | Co-Founder and CEO, Zepteon, Inc.

Bio coming soon

LaMar Bunts | Chief Transformation Officer, Dartmouth

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LaMar Bunts is the inaugural Chief Transformation Officer for Dartmouth where he focuses on growing revenue and expanding impact for the institution. Since joining Dartmouth in 2023, LaMar has partnered with internal and external stakeholders to launch initiatives that grow revenue by creating new revenue sources as well as by augmenting revenues of current programs. Through the Dartmouth Transformation Office, LaMar also pursues initiatives that expand the reach and impact of Dartmouth by expanding geographic impact, increasing brand awareness, and supporting greater academic and scholarly reach.   

LaMar reports directly to Dartmouth’s president and is a member of the university’s senior leadership team. The scope of his work includes both academic and non-academic facing initiatives.  LaMar serves as a catalyst for innovation through collaboration across all of Dartmouth including its professional schools.   

Prior to Dartmouth, LaMar held leadership roles in several global technology companies, such as Silicon Graphics (SGI), Dell, and ITM Software (acquired by BMC Software) where he launched new businesses and worked on business transformation within the companies and for their clients. More recently, LaMar has focused on “future of education” and “future of work” technologies and business models.  He drove innovation at large organizations within the education sector such as ACT, Inc. and the California Community College System.  LaMar has also been a leader in several high growth startup companies that focused on expanding opportunities for people through technology.  

LaMar graduated with Honors in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Greg Chittim, D '01 TH '02 TH '03 | Partner and Managing Director, Health Advances

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Greg co-leads Health Advances’ Health IT and Digital Health practice, based on nearly 20 years of experience in strategy, management consulting, marketing, operations, and technology leadership. 

A computer engineer and manager by training, Greg’s career has included software development and technical project management; strategic growth consulting to the Fortune 500 in biotech, high tech, and government; product management; B2B strategic marketing and communications; and senior operations leadership. 

Prior to Health Advances, Greg held multiple senior executive roles at Arcadia.io, a healthcare data and software company dedicated to healthcare organizations achieving financial success in value-based care, working with health systems, providers, payers, and life science companies, including some of the largest, most complex, and influential health systems and health plans in the country. Greg founded and ran a Strategic Marketing team after an initial round of growth equity and drove company-wide business planning, performance improvement and measurement programs as the Strategic Operations leader. Earlier in his tenure, he was the product director for the core Arcadia Analytics platform and a principal consultant in Arcadia’s legacy consulting business. While at Arcadia, Greg also served as a subject matter expert to the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT on health information exchange (HIE) under the federal HIE, Regional Extension Center, and Beacon Community grant programs. 

Greg began his career as a case team leader and technical project manager at Monitor Group (now part of Deloitte), serving clients in the biopharma, high tech, and government sectors. 

Greg holds a Masters of Engineering Management degree from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, a collaborative program with the Tuck School of Business. He holds a BE and BA in Engineering and Computer Science, also from Dartmouth College. 

Brock Christensen, PhD | Professor of Epidemiology and of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Brock Christensen is currently a Professor of Epidemiology and Molecular and Systems Biology and serves as the Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives at Dartmouth Cancer Center. His research is focused on combining advances in epigenomics and bioinformatics with the powerful techniques of modern epidemiology and data science to characterize epigenetic states in human health and disease. He and his team have developed methods for DNA-based cell typing that leverage cell-specific DNA methylation signatures and are applying these advances to clinical questions in multiple domains including healthy aging for precision cancer prevention, response to cancer immunotherapy, and immune monitoring.  

Dr. Christensen received his BS in medical microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin and then his PhD in Biological Sciences in Public Health at Harvard University. After postdoctoral training in molecular cancer epidemiology at Brown he joined the faculty at Dartmouth in 2011.  

Michael Cole, PhD | Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

Bio coming soon

Carrie Colla, PhD, D '01 | Health Economist and Susan J. and Richard M. Levy 1960 Distinguished Professor, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice

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A health economist, Carrie Colla focuses on physician payment, health insurance markets, and insurance benefit design. Her work is aimed at improving the quality, accessibility, and cost of health care. 

Colla’s investigator-initiated research is dedicated to examining health system performance and the effectiveness of payment and delivery system reforms, including accountable care organizations. Her empirical studies include the effects of changes in Medicare reimbursement for physicians and institutional providers on high-need, high-cost patients; the prevalence and drivers of low-value health care services; and labor market effects of health insurance expansions, among others. 

Colla has been an investigator for the annual National Survey of Accountable Care Organizations (NSACO) since its inception in 2012, and she is a lead investigator in Dartmouth’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Center of Excellence to Study High-Performing Health Care Systems. She teaches health economics and policy at Dartmouth College. Dr. Colla was chosen to participate in the 2017-2018 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows program, with placements in the House of Representatives and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In 2020, Dr. Colla was selected as an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar by the National Academy of Medicine. From 2021 to 2023, Dr. Colla was the Director of the Health Analysis Division at the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, D.C. The Congressional Budget Office provides non-partisan, objective information to the Congress about the budgetary and economic effects of potential legislation. 

Colla received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, and her MA in economics and PhD in health policy from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the past recipient of a SYNERGY Career Development Award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

Duane Compton, PhD | Dean, Geisel School of Medicine

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Duane Compton, PhD, serves as Dean of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where he is also the Senior Associate Dean for Research and a Professor of Biochemistry.

Dr. Compton received his PhD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1988 and completed his postdoctoral training in the field of cell biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was recruited to the faculty at Dartmouth in 1993 and is a leader in graduate and medical student education and a distinguished National Institutes of Health-funded researcher.

In his research program, Dr. Compton focuses on understanding how cancer cells acquire abnormal chromosome numbers and how those alterations influence cancer cell growth. He has published more than 70 articles, and images of his work have been displayed on the cover of 15 different journals. He serves on national committees with the American Society for Cell Biology and American Association of Medical Colleges and reviews grant applications for the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2013 he earned a MERIT award from the NIH to provide long-term support for his research program.

Dr. Compton is committed to graduate and medical education. He has graduated 18 PhD students and has served on committees for more than 50 graduate students. He received the Graduate Faculty Mentor Award in 2007. He spent six years as Biochemistry course director for the first-year medical student curriculum and received the Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2004. He was a member of the inaugural class of faculty elected to the Geisel Academy of Master Faculty Educators in 2012. Dr. Compton is an avid snowboarder who lives with his wife in Lyme, New Hampshire.

John Connolly, PhD, GR '01 MED '01 | Chief Scientific Officer, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

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John Connolly, PhD, is the chief scientific officer (CSO) at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), where he designs and executes PICI’s overall research strategy in close collaboration with the institute’s leadership team, center directors and scientific steering committee.

As a human immunologist, his research interests focus on immune monitoring and immunometabolism. Dr. Connolly previously served as CSO of Tessa Therapeutics, a clinical stage cell therapy company focused on solid tumor immunotherapy, and one of PICI’s strategic partners. He is an associate professor at National University of Singapore and an adjunct associate professor of Immunology at Baylor University, where he served on the Board of Governors for the Institute of Biomedical Sciences.

He is also a senior principal investigator and director for translational immunology at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB) A*Star. Additionally, Dr. Connolly serves as director for the IMPACT Program, a multi-disciplinary national initiative focused building cell therapy manufacturing, clinical and regulatory capability for Singapore.

Dr. Connolly received his PhD in Immunology from Dartmouth Medical School and studied human dendritic cell biology under Dr. Michael Fanger. During this time, he was involved in the development of immunotherapeutic preclinical models and clinical trials for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). He moved to the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, a fully translational research institute dedicated to rationally designed vaccines against cancer and infectious disease. Dr. Connolly served as the director of Research Initiatives for the Baylor Research Institute, leading a large integrated translational research resource and multi-institutional programs that involved a number of international sites. During his tenure at Baylor, he was the central core facility director of the NIAID Centers for Translational Research on Human Immunology and Biodefense, an NIH-funded consortium of basic, translational research and clinical trials focused on vaccine design. Dr. Connolly is the past president of the Board of Directors of The American Cancer Society in N. Texas and founding director of the Singapore Immunology Network’s Immunomonitoring Platform.

Jamie Coughlin | Executive Director, Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth

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Jamie Coughlin is the Director of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth, where he oversees the development of entrepreneurial programming and the growth of new venture creation and incubation through the greater Dartmouth Entrepreneurial community for students, faculty, staff and alumni. Jamie has a 16-year history in entrepreneurship, both as an entrepreneur and as an incubation professional. Previously, Jamie was the CEO and Entrepreneur in Residence of the abi Innovation Hub, NH's oldest business incubator.  Jamie serves as the Chair and board member of the International Business Innovation Association (formerly the National Business Incubation Association), the world’s leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship serving 2,200 members worldwide. As an entrepreneur, Jamie has founded and managed a variety of ventures, including an edutech solution focused around audience response systems and an online funding platform for the social venture market. Jamie received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University. 

Tyler Curiel, MD, MPH | The Victoria Hall Gmelich 1991 and Justin G. Gmelich Professor, Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Cancer Immunotherapy Pioneer, Dartmouth Cancer Center

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Tyler Curiel is a physician-scientist, currently the Gmelich Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy at Dartmouth Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology at Dartmouth Medical School. He received his BS summa cum laude from the University of Georgia, his MPH from Harvard and his MD from Duke with election into Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed internal medicine training at Yale, Infectious Disease training at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and Medical Oncology training at the University of Colorado. His NCI-funded lab group investigates mechanisms for barriers to effective cancer immunotherapy in four major areas: PDL1/PDL2 signals, engineered IL2, age effects and repurposing FDA-approved drugs for rapid clinical translation of discoveries. Cancers under current investigation include those of prostate, breast, ovaries, bladder and melanoma. His lab has an active trial using telmisartan to improve front-line treatment of metastatic prostate cancer, with additional trials testing novel treatments for ovarian and breast cancers in the regulatory process.

Shontay Delalue | Senior Vice President and Senior Diversity Officer, Dartmouth College 

Bio coming soon

Kirsten Detrick, TU '92 | Adjunct Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Global Partner - Scilentia LLC, CEO - Kommodo Therapeutics

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Kirsten Detrick is a senior biotech executive who pursued a distinguished career with Fortune 10 biopharma organizations and who now serves as a strategic adviser for life sciences start-ups in the US and abroad. Detrick has more than 30 years of experience as an established P&L leader, a strategic marketing and sales expert, and a general manager. She has successfully commercialized and launched multiple new therapeutics and built corporate drug pipelines for global biopharma organizations including Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Takeda. Detrick’s career included eight years working in Europe as a global commercial portfolio leader and, later, as a general manager for businesses located in Eastern Europe and Austria. Detrick has particular expertise in immunology, oncology, cardiovascular and rare diseases, having led multibillion-dollar therapeutics including Enbrel, Entyvio, Plavix, and Prolia during her career. She has also served on several public and nonprofit boards of directors, including roles as both member and chairman. 

Ronald Dixon, MD, MED '98 | Chief Executive Officer, CareHive 

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Dr. Ronald Dixon is an internal medicine physician, entrepreneur, and advocate for bridging technology, data, and medicine to improve patients' access to care. He is the founder and CEO of CareHive Health, a health technology company that uses smart navigation to help solve some of the most challenging access, cost, and quality issues in healthcare.
 
CareHive’s personalized, digital-first experience—backed by human support—builds relationships that drive behavior change and help patients get the lightest doses of high-quality care for less money.
 
Dr. Dixon has been a pioneer and innovator in healthcare technology his whole career. In the early days of email, when most of us were uncertain of its potential, Dr. Dixon incorporated it into his medical practice to follow up with patients asynchronously, providing a non "face-to-face" option. He developed telemedicine booths 12 years ago to allow communities to visit with their doctors without coming to the office. He leveraged the value of data to improve healthcare outcomes, becoming the inaugural director of Massachusetts General Hospital's Virtual Practice Project, as well as the director of its Center of Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology. Dr. Dixon has served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and was CEO of Onduo Physicians Group, the clinical organization of a diabetes tech startup from Verily (Google) Life Sciences.
 
Dr. Dixon's work led to the original development of Healthcare 360, a technology platform that continues to aid physicians in monitoring and managing large patient populations. He is an expert on data-driven virtual care and is passionate about chronic disease management.

Gunnar Esiason, TU '21 MED '22 | Cystic Fibrosis Patient Advocate and Head of Patient Engagement, RA Ventures

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Gunnar Esiason is a cystic fibrosis and rare disease patient leader, who is passionate about early-stage drug development, patient empowerment and health policy. He is the head of patient engagement at RA Capital's venture group, RA Ventures.

Professionally, he developed a patient engagement platform for a medical nutrition company, assisted the development of a cystic fibrosis-specific mental health and wellness screening tool, built a venture philanthropy practice at the Boomer Esiason Foundation, and led patient operations at a health technology startup. He has not only supported clinical trial design, but also participated in several registrational clinical trials. Gunnar has been the face fundraising efforts for the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which has yielded more than $170 million raised for the fight against cystic fibrosis since he was diagnosed with the disease in 1993. His blog has amassed nearly 1 million page views since 2015, and recently hosted a podcast, The State of Health with Gunnar Esiason, that featured sitting US Senators and Governors.

In 2019, Gunnar delivered the pre-commencement address at the St. Louis University School of Medicine commencement exercises.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Gunnar was a leading voice for equitable vaccine access for people with underlying health conditions. 

Gunnar holds an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he was a Wilson Scholar and received the Julia Stell Award, an M.P.H. from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, and a B.A. from Boston College.

His health policy opinions have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Hill, and STAT News.

Ed Feris, PhD, GR '19 | Research Scientist, Dartmouth Cancer Center and CEO and co-founder of cosMYC

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Edmond J. Feris, PhD, is a visiting scientist at Dartmouth Cancer Center and the CEO and co-founder of cosMYC, an early-stage biotechnology start-up. He conducts groundbreaking research in the lab of Michael Cole, PhD, a professor of molecular and systems biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Currently, Feris is focused on developing innovative strategies to target the MYC gene, a notorious driver of unchecked cell growth in many deadly tumors. He earned his PhD in experimental and molecular medicine from Geisel School of Medicine, where he studied how certain genes can transform normal cells into cancer cells, with a particular interest in the MYC gene and its interactions with other cellular components.

In 2021, Feris and Cole participated in the Dartmouth Innovations Accelerator for Cancer (DIAC), where their innovative approach to targeting the "undruggable" MYC gene earned them the first $200,000 DIAC award. This funding enabled them to expand their research and establish cosMYC. Additionally, Feris received funding from the Lymphoma Research Foundation in 2022 for his research on transcriptional dysregulation in carcinogenesis, further highlighting his contributions to cancer research. He also completed the Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the Thayer school of Engineering as the first post-doctoral fellow in 2022. More recently, he received an early-career investigator small-business transition award from the NCI. Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Feris completed his undergraduate studies at Boston College, majoring in economics and biochemistry. His diverse background, entrepreneurial spirit, and scientific expertise have positioned him as a promising figure in molecular therapeutics and drug development, with a focus on developing new cancer treatments.  

Lynn Fiellin, MD | Professor - Department of Biomedical Data Science, Department of Medicine, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Faculty Affiliate - Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Dr. Lynn Fiellin is a professor with faculty appointments within the Departments of Biomedical Data Science, Medicine, and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She was previously a Professor of Medicine at the Child Study Center and the School of Public Health at Yale. She is the founding director of the play2PREVENT Lab, established 14 years ago with NIH funding. Specifically, her work focuses on developing and testing novel videogame interventions to promote health and reduce risk in youth and young adults. She has received funding from the NIH, the FDA, and the CVS Health Foundation to conduct this work. She and her team of researchers, game developers, youth and community partners have created and evaluated interactive evidence-based digital games addressing mental health, opioid misuse, smoking/vaping, and sexual health and HIV/STI prevention. 

Most recently, she was awarded a five-year UG3-UH3 from NIDA as part of their national Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative to develop/evaluate a digital health game targeting opioid misuse prevention and mental health promotion in older adolescents. Her digital health game interventions are designed and built with input from adolescents at every step of development. They are evaluated by adolescents using established scientific methods, demonstrating that these engaging and evidence-informed games work in impacting the most critical health outcomes in adolescents. 

Dr. Fiellin earned her MD degree from the Yale School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Yale/Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) and was recognized for her excellence by being chosen as one of the Internal Medicine Chief Residents. She was then awarded NIDA Physician Scientist K12 career award and a prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholar Program Award, which helped to launch her successful 21-year career as a clinical researcher. Dr. Fiellin rose through the academic ranks at Yale, while holding critical positions as one of the YNHH Firm Chiefs as well as leadership roles within the YNHH medical staff. She was named professor in 2020. 

Dr. Fiellin has excelled in mentorship, particularly in mentorship of women. She has been a mentor to over 50 individuals, 90% of whom have been women, and in 2017, created the ForAGirl Summer Internship Program, an intensive summer program for community high school girls engaging them in hands-on research training and mentorship in the areas of STEM, medicine and research. She is a strong advocate for girls and women, was recognized as one of the Women of Innovation in the Research Innovation and Leadership Category by the Connecticut Technology Council, and just honored at the national Women in Medicine Summit with an IStandWithHer award in the category of SheforShe, an honor for women greater than 10 years from completion of training who have made significant contributions to fellow women in medicine. 

Finally, Dr. Fiellin is an innovator and an entrepreneur. She is the founder of Playbl, Inc., a start-up company that focuses on the marketing and distribution of her portfolio of the 5 evidence-informed digital health games developed in her Lab with the goal of getting them into the hands of all adolescents in an effective and sustainable way. 

Estevan Garcia MD, DrPH, MPA, FAAP | Chief Health and Wellness Officer, Dartmouth College 

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Estevan Garcia is board certified in general pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) and has been practicing for nearly 30 years.  Prior to joining Dartmouth, he served as Chief Medical Officer of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, a regulatory, policy and operational role with a focus on implementing and evaluating statewide behavioral health interventions.  In addition to his public health and clinical experience, he held hospital and health system senior leadership positions at Cooley Dickinson Health Care, Mass General Brigham, Brookdale University Hospital, Maimonides Medical Center and Hospitals Insurance Company.  Estevan's academic positions include founding PEM fellowship director and Designated Institutional Official.  He earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas, where he also completed a general pediatric residency and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship.  Additionally, he earned an MPA in healthcare management and policy from New York University and a DrPH from the CUNY School of Public Health.  His dissertation focused on the impact of living in urban health care deserts on medical and behavioral health.

Irene Georgakoudi, PhD, D '93 | Co-Director, Translational Engineering in Cancer Research Program, Dartmouth Cancer Center 

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Irene Georgakoudi has been working on the use of lasers for therapeutic and diagnostic applications since her undergraduate years. She started as a physicist at Dartmouth College and continued her graduate studies in biophysics at the University of Rochester. Her interests in spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging using endogenous sources of contrast were founded during her postdoctoral years at the MIT Spectroscopy Lab. After working on the development of fluorescence-based in vivo flow cytometry while an instructor at the Wellman Laboratories for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Georgakoudi joined Tufts in 2004, where she was a professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Tufts Advanced Microscopic Imaging Center. She returned to her alma mater in June 2024 as a professor at the Thayer School of Engineering and co-director of the Translational Engineering in Cancer research program of the Dartmouth Cancer Center at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Her work aims to develop technologies that harness the natural “glow” of cellular and extracellular tissue components, to enable a new level of understanding of tissue function and dysfunction over multiple scales and across the continuum of processes involved in aging and the development of diseases. The tools rely on endogenous fluorescence and scattering contrast, are non-invasive (or minimally invasive), do not require exogenous contrast agents, and yield information with single cell resolution. The goal is to generate high resolution (microscopic) images of tissues that provide not only morphological, but also functional information about the tissue by bringing the microscope to the patient, instead of using current approaches that rely on excising the tissue and processing it before looking at it under a microscope. These optical methods obviate the need for a biopsy and enable the study of the same patient dynamically over time. They do not interfere with the physiology of the subject and they do not suffer from artifacts. Our expectation is that these tools will yield critical new insights regarding how conditions such as cancer, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases develop and will provide a new paradigm for disease detection and treatment monitoring. 

She is the author of several patents on the development and use of spectroscopy and imaging to characterize tissues or to detect specific populations of cells, and has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, review articles, and book chapters on these topics. She is the recipient of a Claflin Distinguished Scholar, an NSF Career Award, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar award, and an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry.  More recently she was selected as a speaker for the NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Optical Society of America and has served on the Editorial Boards of Biophotonics Discovery, Optica, and PLoS. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Optica (previously the Optical Society of America) and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).  

Daniel Gottlieb, TU '99 | Director, Broadview Ventures, Inc.

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Daniel is a Director of the MedTech practice at Broadview Ventures, a mission-drive investment organization focused on improving human health in the areas of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Prior to joining Broadview, Daniel was Vice President of Corporate Development at Proteon Therapeutics, and held strategy and operational roles at Abbott Vascular and Guidant. Daniel was a key member of Guidant’s corporate venture and business development group, Compass, where he led investments in early-stage cardiovascular device companies. 

Daniel holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Daniel currently serves on the boards of XII Medical, Cardiosense, and CroíValve, and holds board observer roles at Nyra Medical and CorFlow. Previously, Daniel held board observer roles at Nido Surgical (acquired) and Puzzle Medical, and as a member of Guidant Compass at CardioMEMS (acquired) and Neovasc (acquired). 

Richard Greenwald, PhD, GR '88 TH '88 | Founder/Past-President and CEO, Simbex

Bio coming soon

Matt Hand, DO | Pediatric Nephrologist, Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester

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Dr. Matthew Hand is the Section Chief of Pediatric Nephrology and an Integrative Medicine Specialist at Dartmouth Health Children's. He did his residency and chief residency at Maine Medical Center and his Pediatric Nephrology fellowship at Children's Hospital, Boston. He completed Andrew Weil’s Integrative Medicine fellowship at the University of Arizona. Dr. Hand has spent the last 20 years bringing integrative care into children's health at the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital, the Elliot Health System, and now Dartmouth Health Children's. He has presented internationally on integrative medicine and has been featured on 20/20, Discovery channel/TLC and the Oprah Winfrey show. Most importantly, he has developed and is instituting a novel approach to embedding integrative health into Dartmouth Children's health system with a unique sustainability model. Ultimately, he and his team are developing what will be the first integrative Children's Hospital/service line and a program that can be used across the country. When completed, the program will be the biggest shift in pediatric health care in decades with a complete shift in health care delivery. 

Tyler Hartman, MD | Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Dr. Tyler Hartman is a neonatologist and director of the Transitional Long-term Care (TLC) clinic. He did his pediatric residency at Mayo Clinic and his neonatal fellowship at the Harvard combined program. He and his team develop and run remote care programs that allow children to be home with their families with conditions that traditionally require hospitalization. These programs range from relatively healthy preterm babies on tube feeds to children with tracheostomies on ventilators. Unlike app base RPM, his programs use real time data streams from the patient’s home combine with proprietary code that optimize patient care and allows for earlier risk detection. His Hope Grows at Home (HGH) program alone has enrolled almost 200 patients since 2020 with an average length of stay reduction of 20 days while reducing growth failure by 60%. 

Katherine Hixon, PhD | Assistant Professor of Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering and Clinical Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Dr. Katie Hixon earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Saint Louis University. Her research broadly included tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, focusing primarily on scaffold fabrication for the treatment of critical-size defects as well as craniofacial/maxillofacial congenital conditions. In 2018, Dr. Hixon began a post-doctoral position in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. She was awarded the NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) to study bone healing following fracture and develop a clinically relevant animal model to test therapeutic interventions. Dr. Hixon joined Dartmouth College as an Assistant Professor of Engineering in January of 2022 and was recently appointed a Clinical Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics in 2023. Her research focuses on tissue engineering/regenerative medicine strategies to improve treatment and facilitate healing in patients with congenital and traumatic craniofacial anomalies, as well as those with delayed or failed musculoskeletal healing. This work will continue to contribute cutting-edge research utilizing orthopaedic and craniofacial models to drive the development of novel tissue engineering/regenerative medicine therapies, impacting dental, oral, craniofacial, and musculoskeletal health.

Yina Huang, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Cancer Center

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Yina Huang is Vice Chair and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and a member of the Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy Program at the Dartmouth Cancer Center. Her research focuses on uncovering ways that T cells in the immune system attack pathogens and cancer and using that knowledge to engineer new immunotherapies against solid cancers including melanoma and glioblastoma.

Dr. Huang received her BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and her PhD in Immunology from the University of Iowa. She conducted her postdoctoral training at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation and the Scripps Research Institute before joining the faculty at Washington University. Dr. Huang has been at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth since 2013. 

Nick Jacobson, PhD | Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science and Psychiatry, Director - Treatment Development & Evaluation Core, Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Nick Jacobson is an associate professor in the departments of Biomedical Data Science and Psychiatry within the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He directs the Treatment Development and Evaluation Core within CTBH. He directs the AI and Mental Health: Innovation in Technology Guided Healthcare (AIM HIGH) Laboratory.

Dr. Jacobson researches the use of technology to enhance both the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression. His work has focused on (1) enhancing precision assessment of anxiety and depression using intensive longitudinal data, (2) conducting multimethod assessment utilizing passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices, and (3) providing scalable, personalized technology-based treatments utilizing smartphones. He has a strong interest in creating personalized just-in-time adaptive interventions and the quantitative tools that make this work possible. To date, Dr. Jacobson’s smartphone applications which assess and treat anxiety and depression have been downloaded and installed by more than 50,000 people in over 100 countries. Dr. Jacobson is the principal investigator of an R01 Awarded from the National Institute of Mental Health studying the use of personalized deep learning models to predict rapid changes in major depressive disorder symptoms using passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices. 

Priti Jain, MD, P '25 | Medical Director and Chief Executive Officer at Nao Medical LLC 

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Dr. Priti Jain is the Founder and CEO of Nao Medical, a forward-thinking healthcare provider in New York City committed to transforming healthcare delivery through advanced technology with a commitment to inclusivity. Under her leadership, Nao Medical has emerged as a leader in tech-enabled healthcare, operating over 13 clinics and employing more than 200 professionals to serve diverse communities across the New York City metro area.

Driven by a passion for healthcare equity and innovation, Dr. Jain has pioneered a multidisciplinary approach at Nao Medical, offering a comprehensive range of services, including primary care, urgent care, women’s health, mental health, nutrition, substance abuse, and telemedicine. She has driven the development of innovative programs such as the Zero Zip Code Wellness initiative, which provides vital healthcare services, like no-cost mammogram referrals and Pap smears, to underserved communities. By integrating AI-driven platforms and mobile apps into patient care, Dr. Jain has enhanced the delivery of high quality personalized healthcare, improved patient engagement, streamlined care processes, and ensured equitable access to healthcare for all.

Dr. Jain's visionary leadership in leveraging technology to promote health equity has earned her numerous accolades. She has been recognized as a Crain's New York Business 2022 Notable Healthcare Leader and was a finalist for the Ernst & Young 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year New York Award. Her efforts to innovate healthcare delivery have also led to her being named a 2023 Entrepreneurial Woman of Impact by the Women Presidents Organization (WPO) and Women Elevating Women (WEW), as well as the Top Chief Award for Long Island. In 2024, she was recognized as an Enterprising Woman, highlighting her significant contributions to healthcare innovation and accessibility. Additionally, she was included in the Women’s Roll of Honor in the Town of North Hempstead and received multiple citations from Nassau County and New York State for her community leadership.

Her entrepreneurial journey has been marked by a focus on high quality medical care through the integration of innovative technologies in clinical settings. She holds an M.D. degree from Sawai Man Singh Medical College in Jaipur, India, and completed her residency training at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, where she gained critical experience in addressing healthcare disparities in emergency settings. Her advanced skills in business management and healthcare innovation are further supported by her graduation from the prestigious 10KSB Goldman Sachs program, which has enhanced her ability to lead in the rapidly evolving healthcare
landscape.

Currently, Dr. Jain is leading efforts at Nao Medical to expand access to healthcare in
underserved areas, particularly healthcare deserts. She is pioneering the use of AI and
telehealth to reduce wait times and extend care to those who need it most, enhancing patient outcomes through timely and accessible interventions as well as patient education. Her initiative using personalized, AI-driven care plans and community-based programs address the specific needs of diverse populations, including mental health support and addiction counseling in a cost-effective manner.

Dr. Jain’s journey as an immigrant and a physician deeply informs her commitment to healthcare equity and innovation. As an immigrant and physician, Dr. Jain’s experiences have deeply informed her commitment to healthcare equity and her advocacy for interdisciplinary collaboration in solving complex healthcare challenges. Her experiences working in emergency rooms, where she confronted the realities of systemic healthcare disparities, have driven her passion to provide accessible, high-quality care to all, especially marginalized communities. Beyond her professional achievements, she is dedicated to empowering the next generation of healthcare leaders, particularly women, through mentorship and advocacy for gender equity in medical leadership roles.

Dr. Jain continues to drive change in healthcare, promoting a future where AI and innovative technologies are ethically integrated into healthcare practices to improve patient outcomes and equity. Through her leadership at Nao Medical and her active engagement with the broader community, she is committed to shaping a more inclusive, patient-centered healthcare system that meets the evolving needs of all individuals, regardless of their socio-economic status

Masashi Kiyomine, D '01 | Founder & Managing Partner, Kicker Ventures

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Masashi is the Founder & Managing Partner at Kicker Ventures and a veteran healthcare venture capitalist.  

Kicker Ventures is a US based healthcare-focused venture capital firm dedicated to transforming the future of healthcare through early-stage investments. With a strategic focus on digital health, medical devices, biopharma, and healthcare services, Kicker Ventures partners with visionary founders to develop novel technologies that address critical global healthcare challenges. 

The firm is renowned for its proactive, hands-on approach to value creation, drawing on its deep expertise in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Israel. Kicker Ventures is committed to fostering innovation that enhances patient outcomes, improves access to care, and advances sustainable healthcare solutions worldwide.   

Prior to founding Kicker Ventures, Masashi spent 13 years at Mitsui Global Investment and served as the Head of Global Life Sciences Venture Investment. Masashi has an appointment as a Specially Appointed Professor (Visitor) at Tohoku University [tohoku.ac.jp] and advises several healthcare and innovation programs, including Innohub by METI and AMDAP by Tokyo.  Masashi is a columnist at Nikkei Beyond Health and holds a dual BA in Engineering and Asian Studies from Dartmouth College. 

An avid beer enthusiast, Masashi is a co-owner of Wursthall, a California take on the German Beerhall in San Mateo. 

Masashi has served as board member and/or observer of more than a dozen healthcare companies, and currently serves as a board observer for Swing Therapeutics and CareX.ai. 

Steve Leach, MD | Preston T. and Virginia R. Kelsey Distinguished Chair in Cancer, Director, Dartmouth Cancer Center

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Steven D. Leach, MD, a surgical oncologist, and pancreatic cancer researcher, leads Dartmouth Cancer Center, a joint enterprise of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health. Leach serves as a professor in multiple departments within Geisel and Dartmouth’s Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. 

Recruited from Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2017, Leach previously held the David M. Rubenstein Chair and was the inaugural director of the Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Research. In that role, Leach directed a large research team focused on the biology, genetics, and treatment of pancreatic cancer. Prior to that, Leach spent 14 years at Johns Hopkins University, where he served as the Paul K. Neumann Professor in Pancreatic Cancer, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, and vice-chair of academic affairs in the Department of Surgery. 

In addition to his clinical and administrative roles, Leach continues to lead a highly productive research lab focused on pancreatic cancer biology. Among his many scientific contributions and professional honors, Leach was named a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 2018 and in 2023 was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Leach has also served as chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Board and as a member of the Princeton University Board of Trustees. 

A graduate of Princeton University, Leach earned his medical degree at Emory University, followed by a residency at Yale University. There, he served as chief resident in general surgery and completed a research fellowship in surgery and cell biology. Leach completed an additional fellowship, in surgical oncology, at MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

Lindsey J. Leininger | Clinical Professor of Business Administration and Faculty Director, Center for Health Care, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

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Dr. Lindsey Leininger specializes in data-driven health policy, with a focus on the health care safety net and community health. She has a longstanding interest in publicly funded health insurance programs, with related research spanning quality measurement, risk segmentation, and program evaluation. Her community health work focuses on health education and promotion initiatives. Highlights include leading an award-winning crisis communication campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic; designing and delivering a nationally recognized curriculum for public benefits navigators; and leading the data and research efforts for a home-visiting program for high-risk pregnant women in Wisconsin. At Tuck she teaches courses on data-driven decision-making in the health sector. She also serves as Faculty Director for the Center for Health Care. Prior to Tuck, Lindsey spent a decade designing and leading research and technical assistance projects for Medicaid agencies, both as an academic and as a think-tank researcher. She holds a PhD in health policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. 

Richard Levy, PhD, D '60 | Former CEO, Varian Medical Systems, Philanthropist

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Dick Levy has spent over 50 years involved in health care on the supplier/business side, the provider/oversight side, and the academic/reformer side.

He was former Chairman and CEO of Varian, the world leader in cancer management equipment and services. He lead the introduction of linear accelerators which established radiation therapy as a major tool in the fight against cancer, and helped build the company from a small engineering project with about 30 employees to a $4.5 Billion public company with over 4000 employees.

As an advisor to the Dartmouth Institute, academic programs at Stanford, and national think tanks, he has focused on the need for reform in U.S. healthcare.

As a former Board Chair of Sutter Health, a $13B healthcare system comprising 24 hospitals in Northern California, and Board Chair of the School of Public Health at Berkeley, he has focused on mechanisms to achieve improvements in cost, quality, and access in healthcare.

He also has served as Chair of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara U. where he focuses on business and healthcare ethics.

Levy holds a bachelors’ degree from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry for the University of California at Berkeley.

He was married to his wife Sue from 1964 to 2023 when she passed away. He has two sons, three grandchildren and one great grandchild. He umpired Little League baseball in Palo Alto for thirty years and enjoys snorkeling in Hawaii, hiking with his dog, and mentoring students and employees.

Betsabeh Madani-Hermann, TU '13 | VP and Global Head of Research, Philips

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Betsabeh Madani-Hermann is the Global Head of Research at Philips. She is the first female Head of Research in the company's 133 history. In this role, Betsabeh is the executive responsible for building, managing, and funding the breakthrough and exploratory innovations across all business segments. She joined Philips initially as the Global Head of Strategy and Business Development for Philips' 6 businesses in Connected Care at 7Billion Euro in revenue.

Betsabeh's career spans strategy, operations, scientific research in proteomics and biophysics, entrepreneurship, and early-stage investment across healthcare, biotech, and robotics.

Before she Joined Philips, Betsabeh held operating and investing hats in Robotics, Healthcare, and Biotech ranging across $5M-30B market cap. At Cerner, she led corporate strategy for healthcare predictive analytics and managed population health programs in diabetes and heart failure. As Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at EquicareHealth, she led both market positioning and vertical growth across chronic illnesses with a focus on the oncology care space.
  
Betsabeh holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, a Master’s in bio-mechanical engineering and graduate research in proteomics from the University of British Columbia, and holds bachelor's in physics and in biochemistry from the University of Victoria. She has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of Engineering teaching Tough Tech Innovations and is a Brain Trust at #XPRIZE.

Lisa Marsch, PhD | Andrew G. Wallace Professor, Founding Director, Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth

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Dr. Lisa A. Marsch is the Founding Director of the Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, a designated “Center of Excellence” supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

She is also the Director of the Northeast Node of the National Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network based out of Dartmouth and the Andrew G. Wallace Professor within the Departments of Psychiatry and Biomedical Data Science at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

The Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) is a national interdisciplinary Center housed at Dartmouth and includes affiliates within the Geisel School of Medicine, the College of Arts and Sciences, The Thayer School of Engineering, and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. CTBH also includes interdisciplinary partners across the U.S. and internationally.

This Center uses science to inform the development, evaluation, and sustainable implementation of digital health tools (that leverage mobile, sensing and data analytics approaches) for behavior change targeting a wide array of populations and health behaviors. These tools are designed to deliver engaging and effective health monitoring and health behavior interventions and to collectively lead to transformations in the delivery of science-based health care.

In addition to directing this national Center, Dr. Marsch has been Principal Investigator on 40 grants, largely from the National Institutes of Health. She has led the development, evaluation and implementation of digital therapeutics for addiction treatment, HIV prevention, mental health, chronic pain management, substance abuse prevention, smoking cessation, and binge eating disorder. Her work in technology and addiction treatment has been particularly pioneering, as she is widely recognized as having led the development of one of the most widely tested and evidence-based mobile intervention for addiction treatment.

She additionally maintains a priority focus on mentoring investigators, including junior faculty as well as students and post-doctoral fellows.

Dr. Marsch publishes extensively and is a regular keynote speaker at national and international scientific meetings (including invited presentations at the White House, U.S. Congress, the World Bank, and for the US Surgeon General). She has served as a consultant to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization and on the National Advisory Council to the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) in Singapore.

John Parker, D '89 TU '94 P '21 | Managing Partner and Founder, Springhood Ventures

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John Parker is the Founder and Managing Partner of Springhood Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in life science and healthcare companies transforming the health and care of children. Mr. Parker founded Springhood following his success creating and managing CH Innovations, the impact-first venture capital subsidiary of the Charles H. Hood Foundation, a Boston-based family foundation that supports pediatric research, where he also serves as a trustee. 

John is currently a director or observer on the boards of Xploro, Inc, Plakous Therapeutics, Deck Therapeutics, SmolTap, Argus Cognitive, Anida Pharma, Mesentech, Inc., and Prapela, Inc.. He also serves on the advisory boards of multiple nonprofit entities, largely around mission-driven healthcare investing. He is a frequent speaker on pediatric innovation and mission investing. 

Previously, John spent 25 years in the alternative investment industry, including senior roles in venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds. Early in his career he worked in international merchant banking. Although currently living in the Boston area, John spent portions of his career in New York, Tokyo, and Sydney and has done business in over 20 countries on 6 continents. John has a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. 

Melanie Peck, PhD Candidate | Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies at Dartmouth, Innovation PhD Fellow, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

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Melanie Peck is a third-year PhD Candidate and Innovation Fellow in Dr. Yina Huang’s lab. Her research combines bioengineering with immunological strategies to develop innovative treatments for solid malignancies. She is currently focused on evaluating the therapeutic potential of a novel nanoparticle-ribocytokine intratumoral immunotherapy in both primary and metastatic melanoma. Melanie’s dedication to translational science drives her efforts to bridge the gap between research and real-world clinical applications. 

Laura Rippy, D '89 | Managing Partner and Board Member, Alumni Ventures

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Laura Rippy is a Managing Partner and Board Member at Alumni Ventures. She runs the  the Dartmouth-focused fund (Green D Ventures), the Women's Fund at Alumni Ventures, and the Harvard-focused fund (The Yard Ventures).  Alumni Ventures ($1.4B raised) is the third most active VC in the world, per Pitchbook (2021, 22, 23).   
 
Previously, Laura was a 3x CEO, Chairman, Board Member, Advisor, and Executive in high-technology companies. Her experience spans consumer to enterprise, mobile to fintech, SaaS to eCommerce, seed to Microsoft.  
 
Business Insider ranked Laura in the top 100 Best Early Stage Investors of 2024-5. 
 
Laura Rippy holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB in Government from Dartmouth College.

Regina Salvat, PhD, GR '15 TH '15 | Principal, Sofinnova Investments 

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Regina Salvat adds a business development perspective to the Sofinnova  team which is central to our discussions with pharma companies in understanding potential assets ready to be spun out and building relationships with our current company exits. She focuses on therapeutics investments and has been essential to our investment team.  Regina is currently a board observer for Alkeus, Atsena, BioAge, and OnCusp. 

Before joining Sofinnova in 2020, Regina held the position of Associate Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at Rubius Therapeutics. Prior to her tenure at Rubius, she provided strategic consulting support to a diverse range of bio-pharmaceutical companies at Huron Consulting Group, which is now part of Oliver Wyman.  Regina’s extensive industry experience also includes a role as a Senior Associate Scientist in Cell Line Development within Bioprocess R&D at Pfizer, adding a valuable bioprocess dimension to her versatile skill set. 

Regina is a distinguished alumna of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, where she was honored as a Clare Boothe Luce Fellow and Innovation Fellow. During her graduate studies at Dartmouth, Regina’s research in Protein Engineering paved the way for commercialization in the form of Stealth Biologics, which was later acquired by Insmed. Her academic journey also includes a B.S. in Biological Engineering and an M.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, both earned at Cornell University. 

Kimberley Samkoe, PhD | Associate Professor of Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth 

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Kimberley Samkoe is an associate professor of engineering at Dartmouth and was previously an assistant research professor in the Department of Surgery at Geisel School of Medicine. Dr. Samkoe’s current research interests involve molecular fluorescence imaging for quantitative assessment of in vivo molecular expression of proteins for cancer diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring and surgical resection. Her research takes a biological systems engineering approach to medical imaging by studying how microscopic molecular information can be interpreted at a macro-scale for cancer identification and diagnosis. Other research interests include photodynamic therapy, spectroscopy, and the physical chemistry of fluorescent molecules.

Liya Shuster-Bier, D '10 | Founder and CEO, Maia Oncology

Bio coming soon

Neil Smiley, D '82 | Founder and CEO, Loopback Analytics

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Neil Smiley is the founder and CEO of Loopback Analytics which provides software and services to improve access to life-saving specialty medications on behalf of over 100 leading academic medical centers and health systems.  Loopback also supports health systems and life sciences with real world data for over 70M patients to provide insights to improve the patient journey, assess comparative effectiveness of treatments and drive therapy specific outcomes.

Prior to Loopback, Mr. Smiley was founder and CEO of Phytel, a provider-led population health improvement company for more than 30 million patients. Phytel was acquired by IBM as part of the launch of Watson Health in 2015.   

Mr. Smiley began his professional career in management consulting with Accenture and later as a Partner with Ernst & Young, working with Fortune 1000 clients across a variety of industries.

Mr. Smiley also serves as President of the Charles H. Hood Foundation, a $100M foundation supporting child health research, and serves on the board of the Carson Leslie Foundation which seeks to advance new cures for children with Medulloblastoma.

Mr. Smiley lives in Dallas with his wife and has three children and nine grandchildren.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Dartmouth College.

Angelo Volandes, MD, MPH | Vice Chair for Research, Department of Medicine at Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Dr. Angelo Volandes is a physician, researcher, and author. He is a Professor of Medicine and Vice-Chair of Research for the Department of Medicine at Dartmouth Health, and co-Founder of ACP Decisions Nonprofit Foundation. He is an internationally recognized expert on the use of video decision support tools, decision science, and ethics. He leads an internationally recognized group of innovators and video artists who create video support tools to better inform patients about their options for medical care.  

His work has been funded by the NIA, NCI, NINR, NHLBI, NIH Common Fund, AHRQ, the Alzheimer’s Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, among others.  

Dr. Volandes’ work has been featured in major publications and national media and he is the author of The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-Life Care. He lectures widely around the country. 

Laura Yecies D '85 | CEO, Bone Health Technologies

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Laura Yecies is a CEO and board director with a successful track record of developing and marketing award-winning products, building teams, creating profitable business models, and scaling global organizations. She brings over 30 years of leadership experience in the technology and medical sectors and helps her companies who are deep in the science and technology space to accelerate pace, drive results, and capture market value. Yecies is a recognized thought leader who is frequently sought to speak on health technology, neuroscience, cloud, mobile, security, and collaboration.  

Yecies currently serves as CEO & Board Member at Bone Health Technologies, a medical device and digital therapeutic company and maker of Osteoboost, the first and only FDA-approved non-pharmacological prescription treatment for low bone density. Osteoboost is poised to be the standard of care for postmenopausal women with osteopenia.  She also serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at DigitalDX Ventures, a majority woman-owned impact fund leveraging AI and big data technologies to diagnose major global health issues. 

Previously, Yecies served as a strategy, marketing, and business development consultant at Akili Interactive, a digital therapeutics company. She also served as CEO and Board Member at NeuroSync, a next-gen neurotechnology company which delivers a VR-based digital health platform for assessing brain health including concussion and ADHD, managing recovery, and optimizing performance. 

Yecies formerly served as CEO of Catch, a leader in collaborative mobile notetaking. Yecies was instrumental in developing the company's strategy, enhancing the product line, developing the business model, and ultimately achieving a profitable exit by selling the company to Apple. As CEO and Board Director of SugarSync, Yecies led the pre-revenue venture-backed startup and grew the company to over $20 million in sales in just over four years, yielding multiple 9-figure offers before its acquisition by J2Global. 

Yecies completed her undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College, holds an MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and an MBA from Harvard University. A multilingual internationalist, Yecies speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Hebrew. Yecies currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area where she is actively involved in several non-profits in the community. She has 4 children, 6 grandchildren, and is also an accomplished violinist and avid hiker.