Introducing the Experts: Meet the Five Judges of AMWA's 1st Healthcare Innovation Challenge
Dima Elissa, MBA
NeXus of Global Strategy & Healthcare Technology Innovation. Entrepreneur,?Investor, Health Equity Advocate, Community Educator, Mentor, Leader
AMWA is pleased to announce the five esteemed judges who will preside over the 1st Healthcare Innovation Challenge Start-up Pitch Competition — held 1-3 pm ET on March 25 in Philadelphia, during our 108th Annual Meeting.
Judges will select one of five women physician entrepreneurs finalists to win the Grand Prize of $10,000 in cash, a one-year membership to MATTER.health , the premier HealthTech incubator, and an AMWAxCel Fellowship.
The Innovation Challenge Judges are accomplished leaders in the healthcare and biotech industries who share AMWA’s goal of improving healthcare quality and access and are committed to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion at all levels of healthcare and medicine. They are:
“We aim to empower diverse women to leverage their skills and unique perspectives to innovate healthcare,” said AMWA’s Healthcare Innovation Challenge Chair, Dima Elissa, MBA, CEO and Founder of VisMed3D. “We are excited about the first such challenge and to engage with winners beyond this meeting through our AMWAxCel Fellowship, which offers individual, team, and group programming to help de-risk and catalyze start-up efforts and to deepen connections and know-how within our innovation community.”
“We thank the highly qualified leaders in pharma and biotech innovation who have committed their time and expertise to judge our first Healthcare Innovation Challenge,” said AMWA President Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, MD , Professor of Medicine at AU/UGA Medical Partnership. “Despite the critical contributions of women in healthcare – and the fact that more than half of the population is women – women-led startups receive less than 3% of venture capital funding. This is a serious strategic miss for our society, which we aim to help rectify through the AMWA Healthcare Innovation program.”
AMWA acknowledges and thanks the 2023 Healthcare Innovation Challenge sponsors: MATTER.health , the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub; World Business Chicago, the city of Chicago’s public-private economic development agency; and iBIO , the state trade association that represents biosciences jobs in Illinois, primarily in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, as well as Cooley LLP , who sponsored our kick-off event in Chicago in February.
Join us In-Person in Philly or via Streaming |?https://bit.ly/amwa2023 on March 25th, 2023
MEET THE JUDGES
Sandra Milligan, MD, JD , is the Head of Research and Development (R&D) at Organon. In her role, Sandra is responsible for all phases of pre-clinical and clinical development, global regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and safety. Sandra partners closely with Corporate Business Development to identify and bring into the pipeline assets for collaboration, licensing, or acquisition. Sandra serves as one of the key corporate spokespeople for Organon, in advocating for innovation, information, choice and access in Women’s Health. Sandra is a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine, and Georgetown University Law Center, and proudly served as a General Medical Officer in the U.S. Army, during the first Gulf War. Prior to entering industry, Sandra practiced general medicine in Virginia and California. She practiced business and healthcare law in California, which served as her launchpad into industry.
Geeta Vemuri, PhD, MBA is the Founder and Managing Partner of Agent Capital, where she oversees all operations, new investments, and portfolio management. Prior to founding Agent Capital, she managed corporate venture capital arms, Baxter Ventures and Baxalta Ventures, with more than $300 million under management. Dr. Vemuri has extensive experience in biotech and healthcare investments and has served on the boards of several companies, including Cempra, Covagen, Gadeta, Naurex, Ocular Therapeutix, Protez Pharmaceuticals, Syntimmune, and True North Therapeutics. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Sciences and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Nancy Phelan is a healthcare and biotech industry veteran with 25+ years of experience. She has a broad background in global commercial operations, marketing, sales, sales management, and market access, and has held leadership roles at Merck, Pfizer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Nancy excels in leading high-performing teams, creating effective customer marketing strategies, and building commercial capabilities. Nancy has also served on multiple boards, including Marina Biotech and HATCH@Takeda. She is the SVP for Indegene's Omnichannel Activation global business and an Independent Board Member for FemmePharma Consumer Health. She is also an Advisory Board Member for several organizations.
Alina Su, PhD is the current CEO of NovaXS Biotech Corp and a former Project Associate at UCSF Innovation Ventures. With experience in advancing academic discoveries to commercialization and patient benefit, they evaluated scientific discoveries in the Catalyst Awards Program. Alina leads the development of new drugs and therapies to improve patient outcomes at NovaXS, resulting in groundbreaking medicines for cancer, Alzheimer's, and other serious illnesses. Alina holds a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard Medical School, a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a degree from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Paul Kirchgraber, MD, MBA is currently the CEO of Labcorp Drug Development, having joined the company in 2007. He has held several leadership positions within the organization, including SVP and head of clinical trial testing solutions, SVP of Covance Central Laboratories, and VP and GM of Americas with Covance Central Laboratories. Prior to his time with Labcorp, he worked as the VP and global medical director for Quintiles Laboratories Ltd. Dr. Kirchgraber is certified in anatomic, clinical and cytopathology and has practiced pathology in Syracuse, New York. In addition to his role at Labcorp, he is also the President of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations and received the Dr. Larry Zaroff Man of Good Conscience Award in 2020 from the American Medical Women’s Association. Dr. Kirchgraber holds an MBA from SUNY Binghamton.
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MEET THE AMWA Healthcare Innovation Challenge 2023 Start-up Pitch Finalists
KMI, Koos Medical Innovations, Inc. enters the healthcare industry with the first disposable, non-surgical gown that meets FDA standards. Our goal is to improve healthcare workers' safety by providing effective gowns, a critical aspect of personal protective equipment.
HeartScreen Health’s mission is to find and monitor early heart disease by allowing doctors to listen to a patient’s heart remotely sounds during telemedicine through the microphone of a patient’s smartphone.
Spave Science , Inc. is a pre-clinical stage company that develops neuroprotective treatments that delay neuronal cell deaths at a critical time for ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury.
EndoGlow - Surgeries are becoming more complicated; EndoGlow designs medical devices that allow the surgeon to see through tissue and make better, real-time surgical decisions. Passive surgical instruments are no longer acceptable.
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NeXus of Global Strategy & Healthcare Technology Innovation. Entrepreneur,?Investor, Health Equity Advocate, Community Educator, Mentor, Leader
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GLOBAL CANCER CARE AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE.
1 年The day nearing.... God Almighty Bless every minute towards this event. Thanks Dima for reposting. https://globalcancerke.org