Jennifer Miller is Executive Director, Commercialization for CVS Kidney Care® at CVS Health. In her current role, Jennifer has responsibility for commercial strategy, market insights, and commercial operations across a portfolio of products and services designed to support those living with Chronic Kidney Disease and End Stage Renal Disease.
Jennifer has spent over 15 years in the medical products industry, including roles in new product development, product management, global marketing, commercialization, and sales management. She has spent most of her career in the renal space with both market leading firms and start-ups, with a focus on home dialysis therapies and products.
Jennifer received her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and is currently in the Executive MBA program at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. She also serves as a Community Board member for the American Diabetes Association of Illinois. She lives with her husband, Steve, and two children in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Michael is a 3-time kidney transplant recipient; his experience as a patient with chronic conditions spans over 3 decades. He is Chairman of the American Living Organ Donor Fund and a PCORI ambassador. He is the former Patient Editor of The BMJ, and he currently sits on the International Patient Advisory Board. Michael also has experience in the payer arena. At Independence Blue Cross, he worked on the IBC-Comcast Joint Venture. He also focused on developing new products to help members engage in their healthcare. Prior to that experience, he was the CEO of a digital health
company.
Michael holds an MBA from Temple University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a published author with recent pieces in Life Science Leader, American Journal of Transplantation, and The BMJ
Linda has spent over 20 years in the healthcare industry working with several leading technology companies. She has used her experience, leadership and a collaborative approach to human and health services to work alongside her clients to deliver innovative digital health solutions to patients. As a member of the leadership team at Mozzaz, Linda has been instrumental in the company’s growth and mission to bring digital health to individuals with complex care needs by establishing relationships with health plans and providers. Linda is also active with community mental health and social services and has served as board member in non-profit organizations dealing with complex care healthcare delivery.
Since joining Mozzaz in 2013, Linda has played many roles including VP of Client Success, demonstrating her commitment and dedication to helping healthcare providers deliver services that maximize their clients’ abilities to live independently and to support them on their journey. Additionally, Linda serves as VP of Strategic Partnerships, helping partners like CVS Health bring virtual care to their members to improve engagement and promote better outcomes across the populations they serve. Linda also works closely with Mozzaz strategic partners like Microsoft, leveraging the channel and her relationships to foster account expansion in new LOB areas.
Sarah Lee is the Chief Executive Officer of Relavo. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering (2019) from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and a Master of Science in Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (2020) at JHU.
Sarah has led Relavo’s work since its initiation in September 2017 as an undergraduate design team in the Biomedical Engineering (BME) department, of which she served as the Team Leader and Project Manager. Under her leadership, Relavo raised nearly $1,000,000 in non-dilutive funding, including a National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I award and the KidneyX Redesign Dialysis Phase II award, and has grown to become one of the most successful projects coming out of the BME Design Team program at JHU. Relavo’s work has also been recognized by the James Dyson Award, VentureWell, the National Kidney Foundation, and numerous business plan competitions.
In addition to her work with Relavo, while at Johns Hopkins, Sarah was part of an undergraduate design team that aimed to develop a low-cost cryoablation device to treat breast cancer in low- and middle-income countries. She led early bench-testing efforts and helped earn a Bronze Medal at the 2016 Collegiate Inventors Competition at the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Linda Trinh Memorial Award from JHU. She also participated in the National Science Foundation, Research Experience for Undergraduates program as an REU Fellow in 2018 where she worked to develop permeable scaffolds for microvessel growth to treat spinal cord injuries, and was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society in the US.
Dalton, a former division one athlete at the University of Iowa, suffered career ending injuries from a near-fatal motorcycle accident during his sophomore year. One of the injuries (to his brachial plexus) left him with a paralyzed right arm. After about a year, during which his arm was paralyzed. Dalton underwent an experimental nerve transplant operation and eventually was able to regain full movement of his arm.
With his co-founder Eric Pahl, Dalton started OmniLife in 2016. They connected initially through their common interest in medical technology and their shared connected purpose to organ and tissue transplant.
Michael Pimental is Partner & Co-Founder of CVS Health Ventures and Senior Director of Business Development, for CVS Health. In his current role within Strategy & Business Development, Pimental has led partnership and investment activities in several key strategic areas of focus, including, diagnostic testing, social determinants of health, oncology genomic testing and dialysis services.
Pimental joined CVS Health in 2011 and held previous roles in Finance and Corporate Development (M&A). During his time in Corporate Development he was deeply involved in the strategy development and execution of transactions including the more than $70 billion acquisition of Aetna.
Pimental earned his bachelor’s degree from Stonehill College. Previous to CVS, he worked in financial services.
Prior to joining the UW Center for Dialysis Innovation and Kidney Research Institute as the Director of External Relations & Patient Engagement, Glenda V. Roberts was an Information Technology executive with over 35 years of experience. Before going on dialysis, Glenda managed the progression of her disease throughout her career via diet and exercise for over 40 years. Refusing to accept limitations, she enjoyed a fulfilling career, evolving from a software developer to a senior business executive managing multi-million-dollar business units for top-caliber corporations, including General Electric, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. Since her transplant in 2010, she’s completed eight half marathons.
Passionate. Unique. Loyal. Resilient. These words are commonly used to describe Sharron S. Rouse. Sharron is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the education and nonprofit industries. She is skilled in program coordination, leadership, community outreach, and curriculum development. Sharron is a strong educational professional with an Administrator certification focused in Educational Leadership and Administration.
A native of the Washington, DC Metropolitan area, she has dedicated her life to influencing the world as a kidney disease, dialysis, and now transplant survivor. Sharron actively shares her story to bring hope and healing to anyone facing difficult circumstances in life. To expand the scope of her reach, Sharron founded Kindness for Kidneys International, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating, encouraging, and empowering kidney warriors and their families. Sharron lives in Maryland with her husband Shawn and daughter Kyla.
Keisha L. Gibson, MD, is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Chief of Pediatric Nephrology in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also the Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion for the Department of Medicine. Dr. Gibson received her medical degree and Masters of Public Health degree in epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill. She completed a residency in general pediatrics at MUSC in Charleston and fellowship in pediatric nephrology from UNC Chapel Hill. She is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric nephrology. Her research and clinical interests focus on lupus nephritis and other glomerular diseases. In the area of epidemiology, she is interested in ethnic and socioeconomic disparities and their effect on patient outcomes. She has been involved as a co-investigator with large consortium studies such as the Nephrotic Syndrome Network Study (Neptune Study) and the Cure Glomerulonephropathy Network (Cure GN Study). Within the ASN, Dr. Gibson has served in several capacities. She has served as a member of the American Society of Nephrology’s Program Committee and worked as a founding member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She has been a Cabinet Member for the ASN Foundation Campaign and served on the ASN Glomerular Disease Advisory Group. As an ASN Treks mentor, she provides mentoring for students and residents interested in potential nephrology careers and research.
While going through Northwestern University’s dual MD/PhD program, Bilal Naved wondered why the questions they were being trained to ask patients couldn’t be encoded into more automated, digital systems. Even though medical knowledge is available widely on the internet, navigating it is still difficult, often requiring a medical degree. As a clinical engineer, Bilal is motivated to solve problems that optimize healthcare delivery. The virtual triage systems that he co-created at Clearstep have been deployed in 13+ states to navigate millions of patients. These systems are trusted by blue chip companies (CVS Health, HCA), local health systems (BayCare, Wellforce, Novant), a large multi-specialty provider group (Duly), and the largest population health management organization (Medecision).
Bilal’s work landed him and his co-founder, Adeel Malik, on Crain’s Chicago 20 Businessmen in Their 20’s list for 2020 and Forbes Next 1000. They have been featured in major press outlets including Forbes, Crain’s Chicago Business, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, MATTER, and Becker’s Hospital Review for their contributions to healthcare, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bilal is supported by the NIH’s NIDDK to innovate machine learning technologies and tissue engineering approaches for treating kidney disease. He is an active member of the NIDDK’s (Re)Building-A-Kidney consortium, has co-authored a textbook in Wiley’s Advanced Materials for Stem Cell Research. and has made peer-reviewed contributions to the fields of renal stem cell biology, regenerative material engineering, and transplant surgery among others.