Maria is a Medical device inventor and industry leader with over 30  years of experience in startup management, R&D, scale-up, regulatory approvals and neurovascular engineering experience bringing medical device products to market. She founded Medina Medical Inc, a neurovascular company that  focused on the treatment of intracranial aneurysms, and served as its director until it was acquired by Medtronic in 2015. Maria has been part of multiple startup companies, including Ardian (acquired by Medtronic) and Concentric Medical (acquired by Stryker), where she co-invented the first ischemic stroke device in the world. She h olds over 75 patents and patent applicationsm], and is she currently  advises early-stage Medical Device companies and investors and serves on the board of Vena Medical Inc., Cognition Medical Inc. and Uphill Medical.

Nena is the director of the MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) Program at Butte College. For more than 33 years, Nena has helped students and professionals move in the direction of their dreams. She has extensive experience designing, coordinating and implementing best practices in all things student success, professional development, problem solving, communication skills, team building and strategic planning. This includes working with students, staff, faculty, community, and corporate professionals both in one-on-one and group settings, retreats and professional conferences.

Ingrid joined DxD as executive director in 2021. She has spent the past 30 years working to help underserved communities succeed in the technology and education industries. Most recently, she served as the executive director of Base 11, a nonprofit workforce and entrepreneur development company that helps women and minorities succeed in STEM. She is a trustee of the National NAACP Foundation, a Stanford Biodesign board member, a board member of Project Tomorrow as well as the Hines Family Foundation. Ingrid holds a BA in communications from California State University Dominguez Hills.

Kimberly Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of Kelton Legend, a full-service talent acquisition consulting organization specializing in hiring strategy and process development, team optimization, resource management, and HR technology utilization. Kimberly is also an Instructor at University of California, Irvine where she teaches a course on Technology Applications in Talent Management. Previously, Kimberly was a Senior Talent Acquisition Leader at companies such as NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, GE Aviation, Raytheon, and Nationwide Insurance. A Six Sigma Green Belt and Certified Project Manager, she has been fortunate to create and lead diversity initiatives that included engagement with NSBE, SHPE, SWE, NBMBAA, NSHMBA, ROMBA, Inroads, UNCF, Tom Joyner Foundation, AISES, NAAAP, and SAES.

Leland Keyt is a Regulatory Affairs seasoned leader with more than 20 years’ experience in medical device companies (start-ups, mid-size, and large MNC). She has extensive experience in the product design, development, and commercialization of a wide range of products including stents (bare metal, drug-eluting, and bioabsorbable), directional atherectomy, pulmonary valves, pulmonary assessment systems, SaMD, and glucose monitoring systems. She has developed and successfully executed regulatory strategies across the globe including US, EU, China, Brazil, and Japan. She is currently the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Apreo Health, a Foundry company.

Shelley brings over 20 years of experience commercializing early-stage medical and digital health technologies. She currently leads commercial strategy at Enspectra Health, a healthtech company with a ground-breaking technology intended to transform cancer diagnostics. Prior to Enspectra Health, Shelley has held leadership roles across marketing, business development, strategic partnerships, and international operations at HeartFlow, RapidAI, and Concentric Medical (acquired by Stryker Corp). She began her career at Synecor LLC, a medical device incubator, where she helped start five medical device companies with two successful exits (BioStent, acquired by Guidant Corp, and TransEnterix, NYSE: ASXC). Shelley received her BA from UC Irvine and her MBA from Duke University.

Marga has more than 30 years of leadership experience in medical and health technology companies at various stages of development. Most recently, she was the EVP of marketing and payor relations at iRhythm Technologies (IRTC:NASDAQ), a digital healthcare provider of cardiac monitoring services. Prior to that, she was the EVP of global marketing and product development at Omnicell (OMCL:NASDAQ), a developer of automated medication dispensing systems and analytics, heading up marketing, international sales and operations and engineering. She also served in leadership positions at Xoft (acquired by ICAD:NASDAQ) and ProDuct Health, an early-stage company in breast cancer detection. She began her career at Guidant Corporation. She currently serves on the board of directors for Total Flow Medical, HeartBeam and Bay Area Cancer Connection. Marga holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in political economics from Wellesley College.

Melissa is a product executive with over 15 years’ experience in building products and product teams across consumer toy, EdTech, and MedTech industries. Melissa is currently VP of Product at Willow Innovations, a company dedicated to building solutions to moms’ most meaningful problems. She began her career as a mechanical engineer for Disney Imagineering, which inspired her to eventually found her own edtech startup to inspire a future generation of engineers. After her startup was acquired, she spent several years building and leading product teams at The LEGO Group’s headquarters in Denmark. She has shared her purpose-driven product beliefs on the TEDx stage and continues to share her experiences volunteering as podcast host.

Richard Rapoza has more than 30 years of experience in the cardiovascular field, with expertise in clinical research, biomaterials, development engineering, marketing, quality, manufacturing, and innovative product development. Richard has led the development, scale-up, and applicability of game-changing medical technologies, including the world’s first commercially-available drug-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold, self-expanding stent platforms for carotid and peripheral applications, and coronary stents. Previously at Abbott, Richard held executive leadership positions across the vascular business, and prior to Abbott, served in senior roles at Guidant and Advanced Cardiovascular Systems. Richard earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in chemical engineering from University of Washington.

Mike has more than 35 years of industry experience spanning a broad range of positions in general management, product development, operations, sales and marketing, clinical, regulatory, and engineering. He most recently served as chief operating officer at Minerva Surgical, a medical technology company focused on women’s healthcare. Prior to that, he was vice president of operations at Emphasys Medical (now Pulmonx), a company that develops therapeutic solutions for patients with emphysema. He was also chief operating officer of Cardeon and worked in interventional cardiology and cardiac rhythm management at Guidant, after his previous company, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, was purchased. Mike started his career as an engineer at American Medical Optics (AMO). He holds a BS in industrial engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Gabriel is the co-founder and CEO of Enspectra Health, a clinical stage, venture backed, healthtech company creating ground-breaking technology intended to transform cancer diagnostics. A former faculty member in the Stanford Bioengineering department, Gabriel brings over 15 years of experience innovating in the fields of biophotonics and medical devices. Gabriel received his BS in mechanical engineering from MIT, and his MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Fred has been practicing cardiology at El Camino Health for over 30 years. Throughout his career he has engaged in the development of the various cardiovascular diagnostic and therapeutic innovations. He is particularly well known as a leader in the structural heart valve space, having pioneered the catheter-based approach to repairing mitral regurgitation, the MitraClip. More recently he has taken an interest in mentoring innovation in the obstetrical and women’s health space. Fred is committed to supporting health equity and innovative therapeutics for low resource settings and the developing world. He is an adjunct teaching professor at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. He also advises the Village Health Works obstetrical hospital in Burundi and has been instrumental in setting up the Stanford East African Biodesign Program. Fred serves as medical director of El Camino Hospital’s Norma Melchor Heart and Vascular Institute and is vice chairman of the board of Fogarty Innovation.

Leslie has served as Outset’s chief executive officer and as a member of the board of directors since November 2014. Leslie joined Outset from Warburg Pincus where she was an executive in residence. Previously, she was executive vice president at Lutonix, a cardiovascular medical device company acquired by CR Bard. Prior to Lutonix, Leslie served as chief business officer of AccessClosure, a vascular closure company acquired by Cardinal Health. Before joining AccessClosure, Leslie served in leadership roles at FoxHollow Technologies (acquired by ev3/Covidien), Cytyc Corporation, and breast cancer diagnostics company Pro-Duct Health (acquired by Cytec). Leslie began her medical device career at Guidant Corporation. Leslie received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

Paul Yock is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, at Stanford University and Founding Co-chair of Stanford’s Department of Bioengineering. He is also the founder and former director of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. Trained as an interventional cardiologist, Paul is known for his work in inventing and testing new medical devices, including the Rapid Exchange stenting and balloon angioplasty system, which is now the primary approach used worldwide. He also invented the first intravascular ultrasound system, performed the initial clinical trials and established the Center for Cardiovascular Interventions at Stanford as a core laboratory for IVUS studies.  He has authored over 300 papers, two textbooks, and 55 patents. Recent awards include the American College of Cardiology Distinguished Scientist Award, and two of the top three awards from the National Academy of Engineering: the 2018 Gordon Prize Technology Education and the 2019 Russ Prize for outstanding bioengineering achievement. Paul attended Amherst College, studied philosophy and physiology at Oxford University and earned his MD at Harvard.