Liz Sacco is the proud owner and founder of Diabetic Dabs® Inc.. Liz developed the concept of Diabetic Dabs® after her son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. As a member of the diabetes community, Sacco is passionate about helping to simplify and improve the lives of families like her own by getting involved with helping to educate people on diabetes with speaking engagements and her commitment to giving a portion of all profits to help with diabetes research. Liz launched her business through phases of conceptualization, product development, and commercialization into marketplace. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in International Relations from Syracuse University and landed her first career position at Merrill Lynch as a Financial Advisor. Leaving her position as a financial advisor, her
attention went to caring for her four boys and dealing with her son who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Dabs® can be found on several online stores and a handful of brick and mortar retail businesses. Liz looks forward to the growth of the dabs® and is determined to make it a household name!

Mehran is a biomedical engineer with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada and a post doc in experimental neuroscience from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. In 2014, Invest Ottawa designated him the title of Honorary RisingStar CEO for the advancement of his company NeuroQore, founded in 2012. Mehran has led NeuroQore from concept to a commercial product ready for a pivotal study. Building an enterprise that promises to change the landscape of brain health remains a large part of why Mehran co-founded NeuroQore.

Dr. Ryan Stoll is on a mission to make mental health accessible by all. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology and is the co-creator of COMPASS for Courage, an award-winning program that helps anxious youth become more resilient, confident, and courageous. As a PhD, his primary areas of expertise are in pediatric anxiety, prevention, and dissemination and implementation science. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Stoll founded Obeo Wellbeing, a social impact business committed to improving the public health impact of mental health research. Through Obeo, Dr. Stoll blends his research expertise with his passions in design, marketing, and social entrepreneurship to “reinvent” mental health science into consumer-focused solutions for people, organizations, and communities. COMPASS for Courage is Obeo’s first product.

Jan Samzelius, Founder, CEO and CTO of NeuraMetrix, has specialized in quantitative methods for 40 years. Jan invented the typing cadence technology of NeuraMetrix. He has led a large number of analytical projects, ranging from measuring customer satisfaction to price elasticities to conjoint analyses. Mr. Samzelius has invented many new ways of conducting research into complex issues. His largest project was directing a reinvention of the customer satisfaction measurement system for a telecom. The high quality of the data made the unions accept instituting a bonus system for 9000 people. During the late 90s, Mr. Samzelius led an effort to enable a computer to understand text. He has been the CEO of six companies, in several cases improving profits dramatically. His experience includes one turnaround and one successful exit. Mr. Samzelius holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, graduating with honors and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Katherine, the Founder of ForLikeMinds, is an advocate, writer, and entrepreneur dedicated to promoting mental illness recovery and wellness. She is based in New York City. She was first diagnosed with major depressive disorder and then severe bipolar I disorder with psychosis over 15 years ago while in graduate school. She is in recovery. A first-generation high school graduate, Katherine has a BA, JD, and an MBA (Wharton). She is a qualified Barrister & Solicitor, New York Certified Peer Specialist-Provisional, and Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner. She has worked as a lawyer, foreign legal consultant, and entrepreneur in Toronto, São Paulo, and New York City. Katherine also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City, the largest affiliate of the leading mental health non-profit organization in the US.

Lisa McLaughlin is a social entrepreneur and the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Workit Health, a telehealth addiction care company creating an entire new channel for reducing drinking and drug use backed by the National Science Foundation. She is the recipient of the TechWeek Detroit Technology Woman of the Year award for 2017. Lisa serves as a Desai Accelerator Mentor for early stage technology companies and as an advisor to a number of biotech startups. Lisa has held leadership positions at some of world’s most respected digital health and learning companies. She developed one of the first social sector technology service models in the health informatics space and has facilitated a wide range of learning innovation labs for foundations (Gates Foundation, Hewlett Foundation) and universities. She has extensive training and experience in addiction research, crisis referral, alcohol and drug treatment aftercare, wilderness therapy, disaster response, and college completion. Lisa was previously an Innovation Fellow at the University of Michigan School of Information building social impact programs at the intersection of information science and social innovation (MSI/MSW).

Matt Loper is passionate about all things health. He co-founded Wellth in 2014 which uses behavioral economics to help motivate individuals to better manage their chronic conditions by building lasting, healthy habits. After receiving a BS in Biological Engineering from MIT he headed to Wall Street, working as a healthcare investment banker at Goldman Sachs and healthcare investor at OrbiMed Advisors. Matt enjoys tossing the frisbee to his mini Australian shepherd and surfing in his free time.

Rohan Dixit is founder and CEO of Lief Therapeutics, a mental health telemedicine company built around a breakthrough wearable device. Formerly a Harvard and Stanford neuroscientist, his work has been featured on The Today Show, CNBC, NBC, and CBS, and in The Atlantic and Forbes magazine. His primary focus for the past 13 years has been the intersection between mind-body interventions, science, and technology. As a repeat healthcare entrepreneur, Rohan has created wearable device products that monitor and augment mind-body interventions and have been used by thousands of consumers and patients.

Jay Brown is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Health Behavior Solutions, a digital therapeutics company with health apps currently in clinical testing and development aimed at improving health outcomes for individuals with mental health conditions. Jay is the Program Manager at Texas Health Catalyst, an initiative of the University of Texas at Austin’s Medical School designed to help faculty commercialize their intellectual property and community startups get connected to clinical partners. He previously managed an undergraduate program at UT Austin designed to help STEM students learn about entrepreneurial principles and get experiential learning with science-based market discovery and prototyping.

As an entrepreneur with lived experience with depression, Jay believes that it is important to share his story with others in order to normalize the condition. He volunteers with NAMI Austin to share his personal experience of living with depression with the community, and has led peer support groups for individuals living with depression.

Tarita is the CEO and founder of Travel-For-All, a global leader in accessible travel that customizes vacations and specializes in helping travelers with various ‘Specific Requirements’ – cane users, slow walkers, complex health issues (Dialysis) Cancer ALS etc., developmental disabilities, and wheelchair users. Tarita’s world changed when she was diagnosed with MS at 29. When the progression of the disease began to affect her love of travel and ability to experience the culture of distant places, she opened her travel agency with the mantra that Travel Should Be Inclusive – Not Exclusive. TFA was founded on the belief that everyone with the desire should be able to experience the beauty of the world in which we live. The truth is that the world is not perfectly accessible, there are still bumps in the road… What is spectacular about the world is that it was made to be seen by everyone; regardless of your mobility or ability. TFA works with a select group of suppliers with the same passions as ours. Choose where and when, and we will work hard at creating what your mind envisions…