Innovation Summit - 2025

2025 Featured Speakers

Amber E. Barnato, MD, MS, MPH | Wennberg Distinguished Professor and Chair of Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Director, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice

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Amber E. Barnato, MD, MPH, MS is the John E. Wennberg Distinguished Professor and Director of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is a physician-scientist trained in public health and preventive medicine, health policy research, and hospice and palliative medicine. A practicing palliative care physician, Barnato’s research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of variation in end-of-life intensive care unit (ICU) and life-sustaining treatment use among seriously ill older adults. She uses an array of scientific methods, including claims data analysis, participant observation and interviewing, high-fidelity simulation experiments, and randomized behavioral trials. Her work increasingly focusees on the interplay between organizational norms, provider-patient communication, and implicit cognition, and how these phenomena produce racial disparities in end-of-life treatment. Barnato has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2003, has been the principal investigator or project leader of more than 25 extramurally funded awards, authored more than 190 peer-reviewed publications, and mentored more than 70 pre-doctoral and postdoctoral scientists. Her academic program development work focuses on early career development for clinician-scientists, including establishing and directing the Clinical Scientist Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh and founding the Dartmouth Health Equity Research Pathways Program at Dartmouth. As part of her public advocacy work, Barnato oversees The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care and collects and shares stories from diverse family members regarding their experiences making life-support decisions for patients in the ICU at the website www.ICUStoryWeb.org. Her newest curiosity is how psychedelic-assisted therapy could change the paradigm of medical practice, both by offering novel pathways for treating mental health conditions and existential distress associated with life-threatening illness, and by ameliorating the trauma the health care delivery system on clinicians, thereby increasing their capacity for compassion, empathy, and trust in their patients’ capacity for self-healing.

Carol L. Barsky, MD, MBA | Dartmouth Health Chief Quality and Value Officer

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Carol L. Barsky, MD, was named chief quality and value officer for Dartmouth Health on April 19, 2021. In this role, Barsky is responsible for providing system-wide leadership and strategic oversight for all Dartmouth Health quality, safety, patient experience and value activities and opportunities. She works closely with other Dartmouth Health chief officers to develop policies, programs, metrics, reporting and accountability to implement improvement in regard to safety, quality assurance and operational excellence.

Barsky comes to Dartmouth Health with extensive experience in leading quality and value in health care. She was most recently the executive vice president and chief quality officer for Hackensack-Meridian Health in Edison, New Jersey, and a professor of emergency medicine at Hackensack-Meridian School of Medicine. Prior to joining Hackensack-Meridian, Barsky was the medical director for clinical performance and associate chief, patient safety and quality at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. She has also served as chair of emergency medicine at St. Vincent's Hospital-Manhattan in New York, and as director of clinical operations and vice chair of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, also in New York. Her other academic appointments include assistant professor and clinical instructor in emergency medicine at Yale Medical School; assistant professor of emergency medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical School; and assistant clinical professor of Medicine at Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York.

She earned a medical degree from the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota, and completed her residency in emergency medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Barsky earned a Master of Business Administration from Yale University School of Management. She is a member of multiple professional societies, and is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.

Barsky is recognized as a leader in her field and is a recipient of numerous professional awards, such as the Leadership Award from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. In 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Barsky was named by Becker's Hospital Review as one of 50 experts leading the field of patient safety. She is a sought-after speaker and lecturer who has numerous published works.

Sian Leah Beilock, PhD | President Dartmouth College

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Sian Leah Beilock, PhD, is the 19th president of Dartmouth in the Wheelock succession.

In her first year, she has positioned Dartmouth as a global leader on some of the most critical issues facing higher-education and the world.

Under her leadership, Dartmouth has used a data-driven approach to lead the Ivies in reinstating standardized testing as part of the holistic admissions process; drastically expanded affordability for middle income families; championed the importance of having dialogue across difference; and recommitted to its moniker as the Big Green with a historic $500 million investment in sustainability.

A distinguished cognitive scientist, President Beilock is one of the world’s foremost experts on performance under pressure, receiving the 2017 Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the highest honors in her field.

She has worked closely with Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, and public sector leaders to build high-performing teams and create environments that attract, retain, and get the best out of their talent.

President Beilock has authored 120 peer-reviewed papers, as well as two critically-acclaimed books—Choke and How the Body Knows Its Mind—that have been published in more than a dozen languages. Her 2017 TED talk on performing under pressure has been viewed more than 2.7 million times.

Previously, President Beilock served as president of Barnard College at Columbia University and executive vice provost at the University of Chicago, where she was also the Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology.

Ruth E. Berggren, MD | Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Professor and Professor of Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Ruth E. Berggren, MD, is a professor of medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, specializing in infectious disease and international health. She joined the Geisel faculty in October 2022 after 16 years directing the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

On July 1, 2025, Berggren began a five‑year term as the Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Endowed Professor. This distinguished appointment recognizes her contributions as a physician, educator, and advocate for health equity, and reflects her extensive experience in community‑engaged scholarship and commitment to advancing care for underserved populations.

Throughout her career, Berggren has been committed to addressing health disparities and the social determinants of health, forging sustained partnerships between academic medicine and the communities it serves. As a member of Dartmouth Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement team, she helps shape programs focused on cancer prevention, screening, and care for rural and underserved populations across northern New England. In 2023 she helped launch Health Equity 2.0, an initiative designed to catalyze community‑engaged scholarship and provide learners with opportunities to address real‑world health challenges.

Steven L. Bernstein, MD | Chief Research Officer, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center 

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Steven L. Bernstein, MD, is the inaugural Chief Research Officer for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Associate Dean of Clinical Research and Director of the C. Everett Koop Institute at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth (Geisel).

As Chief Research Officer, Bernstein oversees all aspects of research at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, including serving as the designated Institutional Official for Research, leading Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center's Office of Research Operations, and overseeing development and implementation of a forward-looking strategic plan for growth of the organization's clinical, translational and population-based research portfolio. As the Associate Dean for Clinical Research for Geisel, Bernstein is responsible for growing and supporting the school's clinical and translational research programs, and, working with colleagues from across Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth College, develops opportunities and processes for clinical and translational research that span the organizations. In his role as the Director of the C. Everett Koop Institute, Bernstein leads the Institute's efforts to advance health and well-being through research, education and policy activities to protect the public health and prevent disease. The institute seeks to mitigate threats posed by the unhealthy promotion and use of consumer products, including tobacco, alcohol and highly processed foods, as well as prescription drugs.

Bernstein previously served as Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and Professor of Public Health (Chronic Disease Epidemiology) in the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut. In those roles, he developed screening and treatment interventions for tobacco users in hospital settings and programs to train providers in tobacco control.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, and he earned his medical degree from the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bernstein trained in residencies at SUNY Health Sciences Center and at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York. Bernstein was a fellow in hematology-oncology at SUNY Health Sciences Center and was a visiting fellow in clinical epidemiology at the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale.

Bernstein's research has received funding from a broad range of agencies, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and other agencies and foundations. His work has appeared in journals as diverse as Health Affairs, the American Journal of Public Health, Annals of Emergency Medicine and Nicotine and Tobacco Research. He has strong interests in implementation science and is the founding Director of the Yale Center for Implementation Science. Current work includes studying the efficacy of a brief counseling intervention, nicotine replacement therapy, a telephone quitline service and an SMS texting program in helping adult smokers in the emergency department quit tobacco. Bernstein is also involved in a project using network analysis to model patterns of adherence and abstinence in human health behavior. He has additional interests in teaching the principles of public health, population health and prevention to medical students, residents and practitioners.

Ethan Berke, MD, MPH | Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Integrated Care at Teladoc Health

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Ethan Berke, MD, MPH is chief medical officer and senior vice president of integrated care at Teladoc Health, where he is responsible for leading the company’s virtually enabled integrated care practice and driving positive outcomes for clients, providers and more than 100 million members.   A physician innovator with deep expertise in population health, he’s dedicated his career to transforming health systems, with a focus on delivering the highest quality care at the lowest cost. Prior to joining Teladoc Health, Berke served in several executive leadership roles of progressive responsibility at UnitedHealth Group, including most recently as chief public health officer and senior vice president of Optum Health, where he led the company’s Enterprise Integration and Innovation team. While at UnitedHealth Group, he also served as chief medical officer for the company’s Global Research and Development Group, chief medical officer of population health solutions, and vice president of clinical innovation for Optum. Earlier, he was a professor at Dartmouth College researching the role of the built environment in health, educating students, leading the Dartmouth-Hitchcock primary care service line, and practicing as a primary care clinician. Berke is a board-certified family physician and epidemiologist, earning his BS degree in statistics at the University of Vermont, a master’s of public health in epidemiology at the University of Washington, and his MD degree at Albany Medical College. He completed his residency in Family Medicine and a public health research fellowship at the University of Washington. In addition to his leadership role at Teladoc Health, Berke continues his public service work as a medical officer on the Great Lakes-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team as part of the U.S. Health and Human Services National Disaster Medical System (NDMS).

Percy Carter, PhD, MBA, D '92 | Chair, Wood Hudson Cancer Research Laboratory

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Percy Carter, PhD, MBA, has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He served as chief scientific officer at Blueprint Medicines from May 2021 through its acquisition and integration by Sanofi during the 3rd quarter of 2025. He was previously the chief scientific officer at Fibrogen, Inc. and Global Head of Discovery Sciences at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a division of Johnson & Johnson.  From August 2001 to May 2019, Carter held roles of increasing responsibility in drug discovery, covering all therapeutic areas, drug platforms, and stages of discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), including serving as senior vice president and head of discovery. Prior to his experience at BMS, he was senior research scientist in chemical and physical sciences at DuPont Pharmaceuticals, until it was acquired by BMS in 2001. Carter is an inventor or co-inventor on more than 28 U.S. patents, and has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications. He currently serves as president and chair of Wood Hudson Cancer Research Laboratory, a non-profit research institution, and as a member of the board of directors for Cellarity. He received an A.B. in chemistry from Dartmouth College, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University, and an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Emma Dean, PhD, MS | Assistant Professor, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Emma Dean, PhD, is an assistant professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is a health economist whose research focuses largely on the pharmaceutical industry, with a particular interest in the study of high-cost physician-administered medications. Her research covers topics such as drug price negotiations and payments, pharmaceutical price controls, pooled purchasing of pharmaceuticals, and price transparency. Additionally, she studies the relationship between poverty and health, with a particular focus on access to medicine for underserved populations. She earned a BS in biometry and statistics from Cornell University, and an MS and PhD in managerial science and applied economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Liam Donohue TU '95, P '26 | Co-founder and Managing Partner, .406 Ventures

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Liam Donohue, is the co-founder and managing partner of .406 Ventures. He has been a venture investor for nearly 30 years and is the sole managing partner of .406 Ventures, a leading early-stage enterprise technology and healthcare venture partnership with over $1.3 billion under management. At .406, Donohue oversees the firm and leads the firm’s healthcare investing practice, focusing on companies that improve outcomes and reduce costs in US healthcare. .406’s healthcare portfolio includes more than 15 active companies such as Bluebird Kids Health, Big Health, Cortica, Equip, Heartbeat Health, InStride, Laudio, Lynx, Nomad, Redox, Wayspring, and WelbeHealth. Prior investments include Laudio, which was sold to Ascend Learning; Bend, which was sold to Webster Bank; Iora Health, which was sold to One Medical and is now part of Amazon; AbleTo, which was sold to Optum; and Health Dialog, which was sold to BUPA. In addition to his work at .406, Donohue is a trustee of the John A. Hartford Foundation, the largest foundation focused on improving care for older adults. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Donohue started in venture as a principal at Foster Management, a venture capital fund focused on healthcare service investments, and he later co-founded Arcadia Partners, a fund focused on technology-enabled healthcare and education companies.  Earlier in his career, Donohue spent time at Booz•Allen & Hamilton’s Philadelphia office before opening and leading its office in Budapest, Hungary in the early 1990’s. He has a BS in chemistry from Georgetown University and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

Patricia M. Doykos, PhD, D ’86 | Executive Director Health Equity, Bristol Myers Squibb

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Patricia “Patti” Mae Doykos is the executive director for Health Equity at Bristol Myers Squibb. In this newly created role, Patti leads internal and external health equity efforts across the organization to help optimize health outcomes of underserved and increasingly diverse patient populations and communities.

Patti has over 24 years of experience and leadership in transformative corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility, product brand and strategic communications, and health equity and social justice from her roles in the company’s infectious disease business and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation. She has developed and led US and international grant-making and public-private partnership programs for global HIV/AIDS, women’s health, diabetes, cancer, serious mental illness, cardiovascular disease, immunology and COVID19. Among her current service roles are inaugural chair of the board of the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth-Geisel Medical School, Board of Advisors for Dartmouth-Geisel Medical School, Advisory Board for the Center for Global Health at Rutgers University, and Trustee of Phillips Academy Andover and member of its Anti-Racism Task Force.

Patti holds a BA from Dartmouth College for majors in Government and German, MA in German Literature & Language from the University of Virginia and PhD in the same from New York University both with a concentration in Cultural Studies.

Linton Evans, MD, MED '10 | Neurosurgeon, Dartmouth Health & Assistant Professor of Surgery, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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As a neurosurgical oncologist, Linton Evans, MD, strives to provide technically advanced and tailored care to patients with brain and spine tumors. At Dartmouth Health, he works as part of a multidisciplinary and specialized team to ensure that patients are offered the most current and personalized care using state-of-the-art operating rooms and equipment. His team remains focused on the needs of our patients and families throughout their treatment and recovery.

George Faux | Senior Partner, International Advisory Partners

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George Faux is a senior partner at International Advisory Partners, a firm that counsels public and private entities on strategic economic, commercial and infrastructure development and security in their home countries, as well as on opportunities for domestic entities in regional and global markets. In addition, Faux is a co-founder and principal of Bema Holdings, a platform for developing new technologies and funding start-ups in the Upper Valley that primarily have been designed and developed by Dartmouth students and alumni, and is a co-founder and managing partner of Valence Capital Holdings, a holding vehicle for companies and investments in global, regulated industries, primarily insurance related.

A veteran of the global financial services industry, Faux served as group executive for sales and client relationship management with Fortent, a global risk management firm serving the financial industry, before co-founding International Advisory Partners. Prior to joining Fortent, he spent 18 years at Citigroup and the Chase Manhattan Bank. Faux was based in London and Singapore for 11 years, serving as managing director and senior business manager for Citigroup's Depositary Receipt Services and Agency and Trust businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and Asia/Pacific.  He also managed sales and relationship management teams at Chase's Private Bank in EMEA, Latin America, and Asia/Pacific.  

Faux is active in philanthropic and non-profit initiatives, such as the King's Academy in Jordan, where he served as the treasurer of the Board of Trustees. In addition, he is president of the Phi Delta Alpha Corporation, and has sat on the boards of TeenAIDS PeerCorps and the Bridging the Rift Foundation.

Faux received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and a master's degree in international economics/international relations with a concentration in Middle Eastern studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Si France, MD, TU'07, MED'08 | Founder & CEO, WelbeHealth

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Si France, MD, is a dynamic entrepreneur and healthcare leader based in Menlo Park, California. As the founder and CEO of WelbeHealth, he has established a pioneering model for elderly care through the PACE program, which emphasizes integrated healthcare solutions. With a strong background in business planning, investments, and mergers and acquisitions, Frances has a proven track record of transforming healthcare services. Prior to WelbeHealth, he successfully led GoHealth Urgent Care, revolutionizing the urgent care experience with innovative designs and a strong focus on patient satisfaction. His tenure at McKinsey honed his skills in operational transformation and strategic consulting for healthcare systems. Frances is a graduate of both the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, equipping him with a unique blend of medical and business expertise. He is recognized by the American Academy of Achievement for his contributions to the healthcare industry. Frances' vision is to continue advancing healthcare accessibility and quality for vulnerable populations.

William Furness MHCDS '13 | Founder & CEO NeuroVitals

William Furness, MBA, MS, is the former CEO of Thriveworks, one of the largest mental health companies in the U.S., and most recently the CEO of a multinational clinical trial company, with a successful track record of fundraising, including a Series B at a unicorn valuation. Furness completed an MBA at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a Master of Science from Dartmouth.

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

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Estevan Garcia, MD, DrPH, MPA, FAAP, 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. Garcia 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.

Pepe Lopez Gallo, TU ’07, Co-Founder and CEO of TuDOC

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Pepe Lopez Gallo is the co-founder and CEO of TuDOC, the first patient-based primary care and urgent care company in Mexico, redefining access to high-quality, efficient, and patient-centered healthcare. TuDOC is projected to receive over 250,000 visits in the current year. Born in Mexico City, Lopez Gallo has over 20 years of experience spanning healthcare services, investment banking, and consumer products industries. Before founding TuDOC, he spent a decade in Healthcare Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS, where he executed more than 40 transactions across M&A, equity, and debt markets.

Lopez Gallo also serves on the Board of Advisors for two healthcare companies in Latin America, supporting innovation and strategic growth across the region’s evolving healthcare ecosystem.

Earlier in his career, he held managerial roles in research and development and supply chain at Unilever, gaining hands-on experience in operations and consumer products development.

He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a BS in chemical engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

Karl Griswold, PhD | Professor of Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

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Karl Griswold, PhD, is a professor of biomolecular engineering at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and he holds an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth. Griswold's work in the field of combinatorial protein engineering has resulted in the development of novel strategies for gene library construction and new approaches to high throughput screening of recombinant enzyme libraries. At Thayer, his research group and collaborators are seeking to develop and utilize tools for computational design and evolutionary engineering of biomolecules. This work is focused specifically on the study and development of biotherapeutic agents.

Griswold studied as a DOW Foundation Scholar at Texas State University, graduating summa cum laude with a BS in chemistry in 1995. After working for two years with Thermo Electron Corporation and two years with Huntsman Corporation, he returned to academia receiving a PhD in chemistry under the direction of Brent Iverson and George Georgiou at the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. He then transitioned to postdoctoral fellowship with George Georgiou in the University of Texas department of chemical engineering before joining Thayer faculty in June of 2007.

Doreen Guillette | Community Health Worker, Dartmouth Health

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Doreen Guillette works closely with Dartmouth Health's Population Health Team to improve cancer screening rates among the Dartmouth Health patient population. To this end, Guillette identifies patients who are overdue for cancer screenings and conducts one-on-one outreach to provide the patients with educational information, support in overcoming barriers to getting screened, and connections to screening services.

Christine M. Gunn, PhD, MA | Associate Professor, Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice

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Christine Gunn, PhD, MA, is an associate professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She also serves as associate director of community outreach and engagement at Dartmouth Cancer Center. Gunn’s research program is focused on risk communication, decision-making, and the utilization of evidence-based cancer screening and prevention. She has conducted a range of studies on how patients and providers negotiate the experience of being at risk for cancer—in particular, breast and prostate cancer—and its impact on the utilization of health services. Gunn’s research has documented how state-level dense breasts notification policies did not meet population literacy needs, and shaped federal policy on breast density communications mandated through the Mammography Quality Standards Act. She has a special interest in creating interventions to improve health literacy to promote engagement in health decision-making.

Michael Heinz, MD | Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Michael V. Heinz, MD, is a research psychiatrist at Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health, with an interest in scalable digital technologies for assessing and treating mental health problems. He is completing a research fellowship at the Artificial Intelligence and Mental Health Lab at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth. His work there emphasizes the use of passively collected data, such as movement and heart rate, to understand mental health problems. Heinz has co-led multiple clinical trials, including an app-based digital intervention for co-occurring substance use disorders and the ongoing Therabot trial, which explores the effectiveness and feasibility of an AI-driven therapy robot. As a member of Dartmouth’s Psychiatry Immunology and Neurology Group, he engages in a multi-hospital collaboration investigating neurological and psychiatric disorders following infections or illnesses. His research has allowed for productive collaborations with various industry partners, including Microsoft Research and Artisight. Heinz sees adult clients at Dartmouth Health’s Hanover Psychiatry, specializing in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders through medications and psychotherapy with training in interventional treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Yina H. Huang, PhD | Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Geisel School of Medicine

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Yina Huang, PhD, is vice chair and professor of microbiology and immunology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a member of the Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy Program at 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.

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 in St. Louis. Huang has been at Geisel since 2013.

Nicholas C. Jacobson, PhD | Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science, Psychiatry, and Computer Science, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Nicholas Jacobson, PhD, is an associate professor of biomedical data science, psychiatry, and computer science at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He directs the Treatment Development and Evaluation Core at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth and leads the AI and Mental Health: Innovation in Technology Guided Healthcare (AIM HIGH) Lab. His work centers on transforming mental health care with artificial intelligence and passive sensing from smartphones and wearables. He develops scalable, personalized interventions for anxiety and depression, with a focus on just-in-time adaptive interventions and the quantitative methods that enable them. He has created Mood Triggers, an Android/iOS sensing platform that integrates ecological momentary assessment and intervention to help users identify and manage triggers in daily life. Across products, his smartphone applications have supported more than 50,000 users in over 100 countries. Jacobson developed Therabot, a generative AI therapy chatbot built over six years (well before ChatGPT’s release). In the first randomized controlled trial of a fully generative AI therapy chatbot, Therabot produced clinically meaningful reductions in symptoms of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and feeding and eating disorders, while achieving therapeutic alliance ratings comparable to human therapists. The program has received international media recognition, including the New York Times, NPR All Things Considered, and NBC Nightly News. Dr. Jacobson has over 120 peer-reviewed publications, more than $21 million in funding as principal investigator, and more than $40 million as co-investigator.

Barbara C. Jobst, MD | Chair, Department of Neurology, Neurocritical Care, Dartmouth Hitchcock Mecical Center, and Chair and Professor of Neurology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Barbara C. Jobst, MD, PhD, is professor of neurology and the Louis and Ruth Frank Endowed Professor of Neurology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, vice chair and section chief in the Adult Neurology Department at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and director of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Epilepsy Center. She has extensive leadership experience and is a graduate of ELAM (Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine). She has served on the Board of Trustees of DHMC.

She received her medical degree in Germany and trained in epilepsy surgery. She was an exchange student at Dartmouth Medical School in 1992. Jobst came to DHMC in 1996 for her residency and has been on the faculty since 2001. She established the Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring Program where she gained experience in the operative environment. She also established the Women’s Seizure Clinic at DHMC and in 2007 assumed leadership of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Epilepsy Center. Under her leadership, the Center became the only nationally recognized level 4 epilepsy center in northern New England.

She established multiple interdisciplinary clinical and research initiatives, many of them representing truly translational projects from bench to bedside. She is well recognized nationally and internationally for her expertise in epilepsy surgery including responsive brain stimulation and cognition in epilepsy. She is well published in the field of epilepsy and frequently invited as a speaker to national and international conferences.

She has participated in multiple multi-center clinical trials. Jobst has worked on public health concerns of epilepsy in conjunction with the CDC. She currently is the principle investigator of the Managing Epilepsy Well Network, one of the thematic research networks of the Center of Disease Control. In addition she has developed a cognitive-behavioral program for memory problems (HOBSCOTCH= home-based self-management and cognitive training changes lives) that is currently distributed and tested in the North East. She has been an active member of professional organizations such as the American Epilepsy Society and the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). She currently serves as Chair of the American Epilepsy Society meeting. She is on the editorial board of Neurology and Epilepsy.

Aaron V. Kaplan, MD | Professor of Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Interventional Cardiologist, Dartmouth Health’s Heart and Vascular Center, and Co-Director of 3D Initiative.

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Dr. Aaron V. Kaplan is Professor of Medicine and of Community & Family Medicine and Director, Dartmouth Device Development Symposia at Dartmouth Medical School and Director of Research, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Kaplan supervises cardiology fellows, chairs the Dartmouth Device Development Symposia and lectures regularly at the Tuck School. Prior to joining the Dartmouth Faculty, Dr. Kaplan was director of Interventional Cardiology at the Palo Alto VA and served on the faculty at Stanford. Dr. Kaplan has more than 40 publications and is on the editorial board of Cardiac Catheterization and Intervention.

Dr. Kaplan has been an active medical device entrepreneur for more than 15 years and has been on the founding team of a number of venture-backed medical device companies including LocalMed and Perclose. In addition, Dr. Kaplan has consulted to NMT Medical, Guidant Corporation, Johnson & Johnson and was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Three Arch Partners. Dr. Kaplan has authored 18 U.S. Patents.

He received a B.S. from Tufts University, M.D. at Wake Forest University, medical training at Northwestern University and cardiology training at Stanford University.

Margaret R. Karagas, PhD | Professor and Chair of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine

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Margaret R. Karagas, PhD, is the James W. Squires Professor and founding chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and director of its Centers for Molecular Epidemiology and Children’s Health. Her research seeks to identify the causal influences on human health during critical periods of development, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, autism, and allergies, among others. As one of the largest pregnancy cohorts in the nation-wide Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, her studies take a comprehensive, life course approach, leveraging hundreds of thousands of human biospecimens, epidemiologic data accrued over decades of investigation, advanced, multi-omic technologies and rapidly evolving data analytic tools and AI methods. The ultimate goal of her research is to inform health policies, clinical practice change, and health innovation strategies. As an educational trailblazer, she has served as a multiple PI on an NCI postdoctoral training program to inspire and cross-train the next generation of biomedical scientists in bioinformatics, biostatistics and epidemiology, which created the conceptual framework for the Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (QBS) graduate program at Dartmouth—the only one of its kind in the U.S. She participates and leads international consensus panels (e.g., for the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Program and European Food Safety) and expert committees (e.g., for U.S. NIH, EPA and NASEM). She received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Washington.

B. Justin Krawitt, MD, MHCDS | Medical Director of Utilization and Clinical Documentation, Dartmouth Heath and Assistant Professor of Medicine,Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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B. Justin Krawitt, MD, MHCDS, is an assistant professor of medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and is the system medical director of utilization and clinical documentation at Dartmouth Health. He is the president and founder of Hanover Physician Advisors, a consulting firm assisting health care systems in utilization, CDI, and revenue cycle operations and the president of the NH-VT Chapter of the Society of Hospital Medicine and serves on the Board of Trustees for New England Life Care, Home Infusion Therapy Services.

Krawitt trained in internal medicine at Dartmouth. He obtained his MD at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, MS in Healthcare Delivery from the Tuck School of Business and Geisel, and his bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont.  
He is a practicing hospitalist with focus on COPD and ultrasound.  

Responsibilities include operations across the health care delivery spectrum including revenue cycle, contracting, reimbursement, risk adjustment, utilization, clinical documentation, compliance, population health, pharmacy and therapeutics, and physician engagement.

Kim LaFontana, TU '97 | Senior Vice President, Enterprise Commercialization at Teladoc Health

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Kim LaFontana leads strategic growth for Teladoc Health, where she focuses on expanding the company’s market presence and its partnerships with health plans, large employers, and provider organizations. LaFontana has a passion for helping high growth companies formulate and execute product strategies that address unmet market needs, and building the teams and tools needed to deliver on those promises. She brings over 20 years of healthcare experience to Teladoc Health, having worked for both high-growth and mature businesses in the space. Prior to Teladoc Health, LaFontana worked at Livongo where she helped bring chronic care solutions to the health plan segment. In her role as a managing director at The Advisory Board Company, she helped some of the leading health systems with clinical and financial challenges. Earlier in her career, LaFontana spent 8 years in operations, business development and M&A roles at athenahealth. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences, and an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Steven Leach, MD | Interim Dean, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Steven D. Leach, MD, is the interim dean of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. A nationally recognized leader in cancer research and academic medicine, Leach served as director of  Dartmouth Cancer Center from 2017 to 2025. He is a nationally recognized leader in cancer research and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. His leadership has expanded clinical services, advanced research initiatives, and deepened community engagement. As dean, he brings a deep commitment to excellence and collaboration across Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health.

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. 

Richard Levy, PhD, D '65 | Former CEO, Varian Medical Systems, Philanthropist

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Richard Levy, PhD, has spent more 50 years 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 of Health Policy & Clinical Practice, academic programs at Stanford University, 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 $13 billion healthcare system comprising 24 hospitals in Northern California, and board chair of the School of Public Health at the University of California 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 University, where he focuses on business and healthcare ethics.

Levy holds a Bachelor's degree from Dartmouth and a PhD in nuclear chemistry for UC-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.

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

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Lisa A. Marsch is the founding director of the Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH), 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 and chair of the National Steering Committee of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network. And she is the Andrew G. Wallace Professor within the Departments of Psychiatry and Biomedical Data Science at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

CTBH is a national interdisciplinary center housed at Dartmouth and includes affiliates within Geisel School of Medicine, the School of Arts and Sciences, Thayer School of Engineering, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. CTBH also includes interdisciplinary partners across the U.S. and internationally. CTBH uses science to inform the development, evaluation, and sustainable implementation of digital health tools (that leverage mobile, sensing and data analytics approaches) for health behavior targeting a wide array of populations and health behaviors, with a particular emphasis on substance use and mental health disorders. These digital tools are designed to scale up access to science-based treatment and collectively lead to transformations in the delivery of science-based health care.

In addition to directing this national center, Marsch has been principal investigator on 43 grants, largely from the National Institutes of Health. She has led the development, evaluation, and implementation of digital therapeutics for substance use prevention and treatment, HIV prevention, mental health, and chronic pain management. 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—which became the first FDA-authorized “prescription digital therapeutic” in the U.S. (prescribable software which provides gold standard behavioral treatment).

She additionally maintains a priority focus on mentoring investigators, including pre-doctoral fellows, postdoctoral fellows, medical students, medical residents, undergraduates, high school students, and junior faculty. 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, the United Nations, and for the U.S. Surgeon General). Her work has been covered by numerous media outlets across the world, including The New York Times, BBC World News, Wired magazine, the Associated Press, ABC, NPR, and U.S. News & World Report. 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.

Will McConnell, D '15 | Principal, Qiming US

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Will McConnell is an early-stage biotech and digital health venture capitalist. He joined the Qiming US team in early 2020 and is now a principal with the $550 million AUM fund. He joined from Biomatics Capital, an early-stage, life sciences-focused venture fund, where he was an investment analyst with responsibilities in pipeline evaluation, diligence activities, and portfolio support. Prior to Biomatics, McConnell worked at L.E.K. Consulting, where he was dedicated to the life sciences practice. McConnell holds a B.A. in biology and computer Science from Dartmouth (class of 2015), where he was also a member of the basketball team.

Ellie McGuire | Polaris Partner

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Ellie McGuire is a partner in the Polaris Boston office and also manages the Polaris Innovation Fund. She currently serves on the Boards of Muna Therapeutics, Montis Biosciences, Delphia Therapeutics, Satellite Biosciences, FIRE1, FOLX Health, and Volastra Therapeutics, the latter of which she was the founding president. She is an expert in residence for the Harvard Office of Technology Development. Prior to co-founding the Polaris Innovation Fund, McGuire was the head of business development at Lyndra. She previously held leadership and consulting positions in business development, operations, and strategy in multiple life science companies including Arsia Therapeutics, SQZ Biotechnologies, and XTuit Pharmaceuticals.

Vishva Natarajan, MED ’28 | Second-year student at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and Bioinformatician, Center for Precision Health & AI

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Vishva Natarajan, MS, is a bioinformatician and medical student at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth developing generative AI tools for neuropathology. His work integrates deep learning and computational pathology to accelerate translational discovery, including VirtualPNN, a generative framework that enables label-free visualization of neuronal microstructures in brain tissue. His research has been recognized with the Jack & Fay Netchin Medical Student Summer Fellowship from the American Brain Tumor Association, the Innovative Solutions Award from the New England Neurosurgical Society, and multiple national and institutional honors spanning bioinformatics, oncology, and surgical research.

Before Dartmouth, Natarajan earned his MS in bioinformatics at Georgia Tech, where his published thesis applied ensemble machine learning to molecular dynamics simulations to uncover drug-binding mechanisms in VHL-associated cancer, earning both the Best Paper and Outstanding MS Bioinformatics Student Awards. He aims to advance computational frameworks that bring data-driven precision to patient care.

Andrew Obenshain D '96 | CEO Inventiva Pharma

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Accordion content.Andrew Obenshain brings more than 20 years of global leadership in drug development, regulatory strategy, and commercialization across the United States, Europe, and international markets. He was previously the CEO of bluebird bio, recently renamed Genetix Biotherapeutics, where he led the company’s transformation into a global commercial-stage gene therapy enterprise, successfully securing multiple regulatory approvals across major geographies. Prior to bluebird, Obenshain held senior leadership roles at Shire and Genzyme/Sanofi in France, with a focus on rare diseases and specialty therapeutics. He holds a BA in genetics, cell & developmental biology from Dartmouth and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Sherri C. Oberg, MBA | CEO and Co-founder of Particles for Humanity PBC

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Sherri C. Oberg, MBA, is CEO and co-founder of Particles for Humanity PBC, which is developing a stable form of vitamin A for large scale food fortification, a proven strategy for addressing micronutrient deficiencies at scale. Vitamin A deficiency is a devastating public health problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where it is a leading cause of death in young children and night blindness in pregnant women. Particles for Humanity’s innovation is based on technology licensed from MIT and funding from the Gates Foundation. Oberg has 30 years of experience leading innovative life sciences companies through all stages of development. She has co-founded three companies, translating early-stage academic research into product development. Oberg has raised more than $300 million, including venture capital, an initial public offering, public equity, international partnerships, joint ventures, and philanthropic grants. She is currently a Trustee at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the largest academic medical center in northern New England. She also serves on the Global Board of Directors of Grassroots Soccer, a non-profit organization reaching 25 million adolescents, primarily in Africa, with lifesaving health information and access to services. She is on the Board of Advisors of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth. For eight years, she served on the Board of Trustees at Dartmouth College, where she was Chair of the Audit Committee. For 20 years, she served on the Board of Overseers at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth. She has also served on the Board and Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. She is a recipient of the Dartmouth Alumni Award and the Tuck Overseers Medal. She received a BA from Dartmouth and MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.

Grace Fu Palma | Principal, China Med Device

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Grace Fu Palma is a principal at China Med Device, part of Accel Groups, founded in 2011 with offices in the U.S., China, and Japan. She helped launch hundreds of medical devices across diverse indications. She is a national speaker and trainer on US and China Medical device regulations for RAPS and AdvaMed and NMPA. She is bilingual and bicultural, with 30 years’ experience in U.S. and China regulatory, clinical, commercial affairs, and strategic partnership.  She holds a BS from Beijing University and an MBA from Yale University. 

Matthew T. Provencher, MD, CAPT, MC, USNR (Ret.), MED '98 | Shoulder, Knee, and Sports Orthopedic Surgeon, The Steadman Clinic and Co-Director, Steadman Philippon Research Institute Sports Medicine Fellowship

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Matthew T. Provencher, MD, MBA, CAPT MC USNR (Ret.) is an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in shoulder, knee, and sports medicine at The Steadman Clinic and Co-Director of the Steadman Philippon Research Institute Sports Medicine Fellowship. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with highest honors in Electrical Engineering, he was a varsity oarsman and First-Team All-American. He earned his MD at Dartmouth Medical School (AOA) and completed his orthopaedic residency at Naval Medical Center San Diego, followed by a fellowship at Rush University. Provencher is a prolific researcher with more than 450 peer-reviewed publications, eight textbooks, and numerous national and international presentations. He has received major awards from AOSSM, AJSM, AAOS, and Arthroscopy, and secured over $12.8 million in competitive research funding, helping establish initiatives such as MOTION (Military Orthopaedic Tracking Injuries Network), MPOWR (Mobile Platform for Optimizing Warfighter Rehabilitation), and BISS (Balboa Instability Severity Index Scores). He serves on the Executive Steering Committee for the $42 million DHA MOTION project.  He served as head orthopaedic team physician for Navy SEAL Teams 1, 3, 5, and 7, director of sports surgery at MGH, and medical director for the New England Patriots during their 2014 Super Bowl season. He has also cared for the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, and U.S. Ski Team, and is a 2nd opinion orthopaedist for the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA. Provencher has most recently been recognized with the 2025 AAOS Kappa Delta Award for shoulder instability research over 25 years and the 2025 AOSSM George D. Rovere Award for Education.

John Puziss, PhD | Deputy Director, Technology Transfer Office Dartmouth College

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John Puziss, PhD, is the deputy director of technology transfer at Dartmouth, where he leads a team of professionals who are responsible for the advancement and commercialization of technologies developed at Dartmouth. He is a recognized expert in licensing university technologies and in academic-corporate research collaborations.  Prior to Dartmouth, he was executive director of business development at Yale Ventures, the Technology Transfer office for Yale University. He has served on the Board of Directors of ReNetX, Inc, a biotech company developing therapies for spinal cord injury, stroke, and glaucoma; and MindNest Health, a digital health startup developing behavioral training for parents. Before joining Yale, he was an associate in business development and marketing at Proteome, Inc., and a Senior Research Investigator in anti-infective drug discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Puziss received his BS (cum laude) in microbiology from the University of Rochester, and his PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Duncan Reece T '08 | Co-Founder, Liza Health

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Duncan Reece is a serial health technology entrepreneur with a passion for building high impact companies rooted in enduring cultures. The Dartmouth community played an instrumental role in launching his career in healthcare, initiating his learning in value-based care and helping him land his first job at Health Dialog in 2008. From there he has been on a journey of joining or co-founding early stage businesses at the intersection of value-based care delivery, technology, and data. Notable successes include Iora Health, where Duncan built and ran the Medicare business that was the core asset One Medical acquired when it bought Iora for $2.1 billion in 2021. He also co-founded Cohere Health, a Boston-based clinical intelligence AI platform that has raised $200m through Series C. Most recently Duncan returned to primary care and co-founded AI-native Liza Health with Iora co-founder Rushika Fernandopulle and Tuck School of Business alumnus and serial entrepreneur and investor, Andy Palmer.

Kim Rosenfield, JD | Director of Technology Transfer, Dartmouth College

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Kim Rosenfield, JD, joined Dartmouth's Office of Entrepreneurship & Tech Transfer in 2017 and became director of Technology Transfer in 2020. She has served as a strategic legal and business advisor to universities, medical centers, companies, and entrepreneurs for more than 35 years. She previously worked at MIT and Partners Healthcare Innovations in Cambridge, and served as general counsel and board secretary of the UAB Research Foundation and the SUNY Research Foundation, which manages all sponsored projects and intellectual property for SUNY’s 32 research campuses. Rosenfield worked in industry, as general counsel for Stereotaxis, a NASDAQ-listed university spin-off medical equipment company, and as vice president of commercial transactions for a NYSE pharma company, as she was a co-founder and member of the management team of BioHorizons,. Rosenfield represented universities, start-ups, and publicly traded companies as a member of Mintz Levin in Boston, and before that, as head of the IP practice at Sirote Permutt in Birmingham, AL. Rosenfield is a graduate of Yale College and University of Virginia School of Law. She is board chair of Camille A. Brown & Dancers in NYC and active in community service organizations in New Hampshire.

Uciane Scarlett, PhD ’11 | Life Sciences Venture Firm Principal and Investor

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Uciane Scarlett, PhD (Guarini ‘11), is a principal at MPM BioImpact, a leading life sciences venture firm with more than $1.5 billion in active funds, a track record of more than 50 FDA-approved drugs, and a long history of starting new therapeutics companies. At MPM BioImpact, Scarlett focuses on venture investing, company creation, and operations within several of MPM’s portfolio companies. Uciane also manages MPM’s novel venture philanthropy collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as well as several LP relationships for MPM BIoImpact’s various funds. Scarlett sits on the board of several stealth-stage companies within MPM BioImpact’s portfolio.

Prior to joining MPM BioImpact, Scarlett held investment roles at global-leading firms. She was a principal at Oxford Sciences Enterprise (OSE, UK), an Oxford-affiliated firm, that raised ~$1 billion in 2015/6, where she initially co-led the life science sector. While at OSE, Scarlett led financings and drove company creation efforts for several companies including T-Cypher Bio, where she served as interim Executive Chair, PepGen (NASDAQ:PEPG) and Endlyz. She represented OSE on the boards of T-Cypher Bio, PepGen (NASDAQ:PEPG), Miro Bio (acquired by Gilead), Scenic Bio, and DJS (acquired by AbbVie).

Prior to OSE, Scarlett was on the investment team at Atlas Venture where she drove company creation, operations, and financings activities for Dyne Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DYN) and Quench Bio and served in operational roles for AVROBIO (NASDAQ:AVRO) and KorroBio (NASDAQ:KRRO).

Scarlett was the director of business development and strategy at Compass Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CMPX) and started her career after graduate school as a consultant at the life sciences consultancy, Clarion (now Clarion|Lumanity).

She holds several advisory board roles, including for the Prix Galien USA and affiliated Awards. The Prix Galien Awards were created in 1970 to honor biomedical research and medical technology products that improve the human condition. Scarlett also sits on the board of the Massachusetts Life Science Center and is the founder and host of the annual industry fundraising summit, Emerging Frontiers in Oncology.

Scarlett holds a PhD in cancer immunology from Dartmouth. She received her BSc, first-class honors, in biotechnology (major) and zoology (minor) from the University of the West Indies.

Charles L. Sentman, PhD | Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Director, Center for Synthetic Immunity

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Charles Sentman, PhD, directs the Center for Synthetic Immunity and is a professor of immunology at Dartmouth. His research is focused on the development and use of novel immune cell engineering approaches as treatments for cancer, neurodegeneration, and other diseases. He and his team have been working with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) since 2003 with a focus on NK cell and T cell-based therapies. He has thirty issued US patents, more than one hundred scientific publications, and has co-founded two therapeutics companies. He trained at UT Southwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, and the Karolinska Institute.

Parth Shah, MD | Director of Genome Informatics, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

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Parth Shah, MD, is a physician-scientist and director of genome informatics at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He spearheaded the creation of the Dartmouth Cloud, a HIPAA-compliant platform designed to support both clinical workloads and research development. He also co-led the design and implementation of a clinical genomics informatics suite for somatic exome and transcriptome sequencing, covering all solid and hematological cancers. Additionally, he serves as an assistant professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and holds board certifications in hematology, medical oncology, and internal medicine.

Corey Siegel, MD, MS | Director, Center for Digestive Health and Co-Director, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program, Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center; Constantine and Joyce Hampers Professor of Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Corey A. Siegel, MD, MS, is the director of the Walter and Carole Young Center for Digestive Health, section chief of gastroenterology and hepatology, and the co-director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He is the Constantine and Joyce Hampers Professor of Medicine and a professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. DSiegel attended college at Tufts University and then received his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed his residency in internal medicine at DHMC where he also served as chief medical resident. He then completed a fellowship in gastroenterology at DHMC followed by a fellowship in IBD at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Siegel’s research interests include understanding risk-benefit tradeoffs in IBD, developing models to predict outcomes in Crohn’s disease, creating tools to facilitate shared decision-making, expanding telemedicine services to patients with IBD living in rural locations, and improving the quality of care delivered to patients with IBD. He has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust for this work. Dr. Siegel has lectured nationally and internationally and published numerous journal articles and book chapters on this and other topics in IBD. He is the founder of the BRIDGe group, an international research collaboration of IBD investigators, and is currently the co-chair of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Quality of Care Program (IBD Qorus). Siegel was inducted into the International Organization for the Study of IBD (IOIBD) in 2013 and received the Sherman Prize in 2023.

David A. Silbersweig, MD, D '82 | Chairman Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry  
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

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David Silbersweig, MD,graduated from Dartmouth with high honors in philosophy and studied medicine at Cornell University Medical College. He then trained in both psychiatry and neurology at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center. His research training was in the emerging field of functional brain imaging research at The Medical Research Council Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, London. Silbersweig then returned to Cornell to found and co-direct the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory. Silbersweig was also the founding director of the Division of Neuropsychiatry (including a multidisciplinary specialty clinic), as well as the founding director of the Neurology-Psychiatry Combined Residency Program. At Cornell, Silbersweig was the Tobin-Cooper Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Neurology and Neurosciences, and was vice chairman for research, in the Department of Psychiatry. He also developed new translational research educational programs at the medical school.  

Silbersweig was then recruited to Harvard University to become the chair of the department of psychiatry at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, chair of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Institute for the Neurosciences, then co-director of the Center for the Neurosciences. He recently stepped down from these positions and is focusing on his academic neuropsychiatry work, teaching and mentoring, transdisciplinary initiatives at Harvard and beyond, and policy.  He is Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and was an academic dean of Harvard Medical School (for Mass General Brigham).  He is on the steering committees of the Harvard Brain Science Initiative, of the Harvard Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative, and of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics.

Silbersweig has been active in developing the field of functional neuroimaging research in psychiatry, and in advancing the evolving field of neuropsychiatry. He and his colleagues focus upon the design and application of new neuroimaging techniques to localize and characterize brain circuitry dysfunction underlying major psychiatric disorders. They have developed novel methods and paradigms for both PET and MRI imaging, and have identified neural circuitry abnormalities associated with a number of major psychiatric disorders. Particular areas of focus are the characterization of fronto-limbic modulation abnormalities across the neuropsychiatric spectrum, and the identification of final common neural pathways underlying neuropsychiatric clinical phenotypes. Silbersweig and his colleagues have published a large number of scientific articles in major journals, including first reports localizing brain abnormalities associated with hallucinations in schizophrenia, and with tics in Tourette syndrome. They have also made contributions to neural circuit models of depression, PTSD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and borderline personality disorder. The aim of Silbersweig’s systems-level neuropathophysiology work is to help provide a foundation for the development of novel, targeted, biologically based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to aid those suffering with mental illness.

Silbersweig has lectured widely, linking a human brain-mind science to larger philosophical and societal issues. He has secured substantial NIH research funding and received recognition with numerous awards. He has had significant involvement (including leadership roles) in national/international research consortia, was founding vice chair of the Governing Board of the National Network of Depression Centers, and is vice chair of the Advisory Board of the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies at Dartmouth, where he was a Montgomery Fellow. Silbersweig is president-elect of the American Neuropsychiatric Association, where he is a fellow and consulting editor of the association’s journal, the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinic.

Sladjana Skopelja-Gardner, PhD, D '11, PhD '17 | Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

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Sladjana Skopelja-Gardner, PhD, received her bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Dartmouth in 2011. She then spent a year at the biotech company Celdara Medical in Lebanon as a research assistant before joining the Immunology graduate program at Dartmouth. She earned her PhD from the lab of William Rigby in 2017, studying the development of autoimmunity in chronic lung infection diseases. Skopelja-Gardner then moved to Seattle, WA where she trained as a fellow with Keith Elkon in the rheumatology division at the University of Washington. Her postdoctoral work focused on defining innate immune mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of lupus, including kidney disease and photosensitivity. Here, she continues to pursue these questions using relevant disease models and in studies of human primary tissues.

Mark S. Speers D'80 P '11 P '17 | Co-Founder, Health Advances

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Mark Speers has been advising senior life sciences executives for nearly 40 years. He co-founded Health Advances, LLC with his wife, Paula Ness Speers (DC ’80), in 1992 after gaining ten years of strategy consulting experience in the healthcare industry as a Partner at Bain & Company, an international management consulting firm.

Health Advances focuses on helping executives and investors evaluate the commercial potential of new medical technologies and then develop winning go-to-market strategies. The firm is approaching 200 professionals located in offices in Boston, San Francisco, Zug (Switzerland), and Hong Kong. It has been an independently operated division of Parexel International Corporation since 2016.

Speers is a Board member of the DHMC and Clinics and will become Chair of the Boards in January. He also serves on the Geisel School Board of Advisors. 

Speers graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth with a degree in engineering and was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was honored as an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Paula Ness Speers, D '80,  P '11, P '17 | Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, Health Advances

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Paula Ness Speers co-founded Health Advances more than 25 years ago and now advises senior-level client engagements, focused on strategies to evaluate and optimize the value of developmental and marketed products and services, business units, and companies in the health care arena.

She is a frequent advisor for comparative effectiveness and pricing/reimbursement/market access projects for clients, as well as developing overall growth strategies for companies and new products in development.

Ness Speers has worked with clients of all sizes across the device, therapeutics, diagnostics, health IT, and services sectors, as well as with investors and non-profit organizations participating in these sectors. She brings strong quantitative skills to bear on projects, while applying her 32+ years of strategy, project management, and client advisory skills to ensure insightful and actionable results. Ness Speers has also played a leading role in designing and helping to build Health Advances’ knowledge management function and process. This includes the development of proprietary databases and analytic tools, as well as the codification of external and internal health care resources and knowledge, which enable the firm to provide the most insightful, data-driven, and efficient insights on all its projects.

Ness Speers started her strategy consulting career at Bain & Company, where she led engagements across a range of industries, including health care, with a particular focus on technology-driven businesses, manufacturing, and international ventures. Prior to business school, she served as a tuberculosis (TB) control worker with the U.S. Peace Corps in South Korea, followed by work with Samsung Shipbuilding and the Atlantic Richfield Northern Light Project at Daewoo Shipbuilding Company, also in South Korea.

Ness Speers graduated from Dartmouth with a bachelor degree (with honors) in international government. She received her master of business administration from Columbia University, where she earned beta gamma sigma honors and was an international fellow.

Tammy Tarsa, MBA, BSN, RN | President and Chief Executive Officer, Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire (VNH)

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Tammy Tarsa, MBA, BSN, RN, is the president and chief executive officer at Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire (VNH). Tarsa is an experienced clinician and healthcare leader with deep leadership experience in the fields of home health, hospice and palliative care, including operational strategy and change management.

As CEO, Tarsa oversees the clinical, operational and philanthropic work of Dartmouth Health’s home health and hospice organization. She also guides the organization's day-to-day operations while setting the strategic direction and long-range priorities to meet the increasing demand for complex community-based healthcare services.

Tarsa joined VNH in 2022 as chief clinical operations officer, successfully leading clinical operations during transition and organizational restructuring. Her work included leading a process improvement plan for financial sustainability, collaborating with organizational leaders to prepare for national accreditation and establishing new safety and educational platforms.

Prior to joining VNH, Tarsa served as the executive director of Home Health, Hospice and Palliative Care for Jefferson Healthcare in Washington and Director of Palliative Care at Hospice of Michigan. She holds a BSN from Ball State University and an MBA from Spring Arbor University. She is currently a Doctor of Health Administration candidate at Central Michigan University.

Rebecca Thomson D '20 | Founder and CEO, NovaGyn and Post-Doctoral Researcher, Dartmouth College

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Rebecca Thomson, PhD, recently graduated with her PhD from the Center for Surgical Innovation at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. Her work focused on biomaterials characterization, medical device design, and surgical improvements in women's health applications. During her graduate studies, she applied to the center with the hopes to learn the tools necessary to bridge the gap between research and innovation, specifically with regenerative medicine applications. Through the center, Thompson gained the business and technical knowledge necessary to found her own company based on her research, NovaGyn. She currently splits her time as a part-time postdoctoral research fellow and part-time entrepreneur as the founder and CEO of NovaGyn, a women's health tissue engineering company, where she is dedicated to pioneering innovative solutions in surgical interventions for women. Recognizing the commercial potential and clinical need for her innovations, Thompson successfully secured a small business grant from the NIH and is currently pursuing the next Phase II round of funding to advance her research through preclinical testing and initial functional large animal studies. Her research at Dartmouth and work at NovaGyn revolve around pushing the boundaries of surgical innovation and tissue engineering to improve the quality of care for women.

Mary Jo Turk, PhD | O. Ross McIntyre, M.D. Endowed Professor and Co-Director, Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy Program,
Dartmouth Cancer Center

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Mary Jo Turk, PhD, is the O. Ross McIntyre, M.D. Endowed Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Dartmouth. She serves as co-director of the Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy Program at Dartmouth Cancer Center. Turk earned her B.S. from John Carroll University and her PhD from Purdue University, followed by postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She joined Dartmouth’s faculty in 2004. Her research focuses on tumor immunology and T-cell memory, with an emphasis on understanding and promoting durable tumor-specific memory T cell responses. Her work highlights the role of autoimmune mechanisms in maintaining T-cell memory and identifies tissue-resident memory T-cells as key players in long-lived cancer immunity. Turk is also involved in the Immunology and Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate programs and teaches courses in microbiology and immunology.

Linda T. Vahdat, MD, MBA | Breast Oncologist and Deputy Cancer Center Director, Dartmouth

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Linda Vahdat, MD, MBA is a Breast Oncologist and Deputy Cancer Center Director at Dartmouth. Prior to her appointment in 2022, she was a senior member of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Evelyn Lauder Breast Center. She earned her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management. She has performed clinical and translational research in breast cancer for over 25 years with a focus on new therapies in patients with high risk of relapse and metastatic disease. Dr. Vahdat’s pioneering work in metals and their role in breast cancer has opened the door to new and innovative treatments for triple-negative breast cancer.

Over the course of 15 years, Dr. Vahdat directed and built an integrated Breast Cancer Research Program at Weill Cornell Medicine whose strategy was not only to treat breast cancer metastases, but to try to prevent them through novel drugs targeting minimal residual disease. Her particular research interest in triple-negative breast cancer led her to establish a clinic dedicated to the research and treatment of triple-negative breast cancer at Weill Cornell Medicine in January 2014. Her major research focus continues to understand the process of tumor metastases in breast cancer patients at high risk of relapse and to develop drugs to interrupt that process.

Matthew Vestal, MD, MBA, MHS | Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine

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Matthew Vestal, MD, MBA, MHS, is the director of pediatric neurosurgery and an associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He joined Dartmouth in 2025 and holds key educational leadership roles including associate director of the Neurosurgery Residency Program, Neurosurgery Clerkship director, and Neurosurgery sub-internship director. Vestal also leads a Doctoring group and serves as a clinical mentor in Learning Collaboratives.

He completed his medical degree at Yale University School of Medicine, followed by neurosurgery internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He further specialized with a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Boston Children’s Hospital. Vestal also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MHS from Yale University. Board-certified in neurological surgery, his clinical focus includes pediatric neurosurgery with involvement in Dartmouth’s Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic and Cancer Program.

Issac Wells D '27 | Dartmouth Student and Evergreen Student Researcher

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Currently pursuing a Computer Science degree at Dartmouth College, contributing to AI-driven innovations through roles in academia and industry. At Project Evergreen Dartmouth, developed scalable Dialogflow CX pipelines and robust intent/page/webhook infrastructures to support an AI-driven student support assistant. Core competencies include conversational AI, back-end development, and technical translation.

Previous work as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at FINN Lab involved data collection and programming for functional imaging analysis. As a Crisis Line Volunteer, demonstrated empathy and effective communication in critical situations. Passionate about integrating AI with human-centric solutions, aiming to foster impactful collaborations within multidisciplinary teams.

Thomas Westerman Wolf D '71 | Former Governor of Pennsylvania

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Thomas Westerman Wolf is the former 47th governor of Pennsylvania. He served two terms, from 2015 to 2023, and was re-elected to his second term with approximately 57% of the vote. Previously he served as chairman and CEO of his business, the Wolf Organization, in which he was the sixth generation of Wolfs to run the company, which founded in 1843 as a dry goods store in York, Pennsylvania.

He received a BA from Dartmouth, M.Phil from the University of London, and PhD from MIT. His wife Frances Donnelly is an accomplished oil painter who has held exhibitions in the Lancaster Museum of Art, York College of Pennsylvania and the Artists’s House Gallery in Philadelphia. Their two daughters attended Dartmouth: Sarah ’04 and Katie ’06.

Westerman Wolf made major achievements as governor across education, healthcare, prison and criminal justice reform, election reform, environmental reform, support for farmers, economic development, job creation and fiscal responsibility, support for veterans, seniors, farmers, and, especially during COVID, support for first responders. Highlights include:

1. Added $144 million funds for science, computer science, career, and technical education programs;
2. expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and establishment of a state-based insurance exchange (PENNIE) bringing Pennsylvania’s uninsured rate to its lowest ever;
3. Community Health Choices to provide 400,000 seniors and Pennsylvanians with disabilities the support to lead independent lives and age in place; and
4. healthcare systems weathered the substantial increase in service demand during COVID.

Iris Yunshi D'26 | Dartmouth Student and Evergreen Student Researcher

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Early-stage AI model training for student mental health using anonymized behavioral data. Cross-functional collaboration integrating cognitive science, UX design, and AI ethics into system architecture and deployment.

Parking

Parking and Shuttle Information

As parking in Hanover can be challenging—and with the municipal parking garage currently closed for renovations—we invite you to park in the Dewey Parking Lot near the Geisel campus and take our free shuttle to the Hanover Inn.

Shuttle service will be available for both the Wednesday evening dinner and the Thursday Summit.

Wednesday Evening Parking

No parking pass required

• Shuttle hours:
• 5:30-6:15 PM (to the Hanover Inn)
• 7:45-8:30 PM (return to Dewey Lot)

Thursday Parking

PARKING PASS REQUIRED* (see below)
Shuttle hours:

• 7:30-9:30 AM (to the Hanover Inn)
• 3:00-6:00 PM (return to Dewey Lot)
• Shuttle will also be on call throughout the day

*Parking Pass Details

• Passes may be picked up at the dinner on Wednesday night for those who will park at Dewey on Thursday.
• For those not attending Wednesday’s dinner, the shuttle driver will have passes available for distribution to Summit attendees.
• PLEASE NOTE: The parking pass must be displayed on your dashboard or you will be ticketed.

ACCOMMODATIONS AND LODGING

Below are the hotels where a set number of rooms have been blocked for the Innovation Summit (Nov 5 and 6, 2025). Please contact hotels directly to confirm availability and to book your room(s) and be sure to reference the “Dartmouth Innovation Summit” for the discounted rate.

Courtyard by Marriott

10 Morgan Dr, Lebanon, NH 03766
Rates start at $159/night, + taxes and fees
Link: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1745525097145&key=GRP&guestreslink2=true&app=resvlink

Residence Inn

32 Centerra Pkwy, Lebanon, NH
Rates start at $269/night, + taxes and fees
Link: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1744740937204&key=GRP&guestreslink2=true&app=resvlink

Hilton Garden Inn

35 N Labombard Rd, Lebanon, NH 03766
Rates start at $219/night, + taxes and fees
Link: https://www.hilton.com/en/book/reservation/deeplink/?ctyhocn=LEBHAGI&groupCode=DIS&arrivaldate=2025-11-05&departuredate=2025-11-07&cid=OM