Nena was the director of the MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement at Butte College among other leadership roles in higher education. For 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.

Nicolle Cannon, Founder and CEO of Cannon Quality Group, empowers quality engineers, heads of R&D, and quality assurance professionals to improve the efficiency of their device compliance activities through the three critical processes: original design and product development, distribution, and clinical outcomes. Ms. Cannon, a mechanical engineer with a B.S. degree from California Polytechnic University, was formerly a Quality Engineer at Stryker and Medtronic before founding Cannon Quality Group over 14 years ago. Cannon Quality Group clients include numerous startups and established companies in the Medtech and Pharmaceutical industries including Stryker, Medtronic, Verily, Roche, and more.

Eric Chehab is a biomedical engineer who received his BS in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego. He received his MS and PhD from Stanford University, where he studied musculoskeletal biomechanics and knee osteoarthritis. As part of Stanford Biodesign, Eric co-developed a product called LifeBubble for umbilical cord catheter securement. In 2017, Eric co-founded Novonate, where he led as CEO through the development and launch of LifeBubble along with two accessory products and a line extension. After 2,000 clinical uses of LifeBubble in NICUs across the US, Novonate was acquired by Laborie Medical Technologies in 2023. Eric now acts as the Director of Business Development for Laborie’s OB/GYN/NICU division.

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, and a board member of Stanford Biodesign, MedTech Women, Project Tomorrow and the Hines Family Foundation. Ingrid holds a BA in communications from California State University Dominguez Hills.

Rebecca is an action-oriented and relationship-driven strategy and commercial executive with over 20 years of experience in medical and health technology companies, ranging from venture-backed startups to Fortune 200 corporations. As a dynamic strategic operator and collaborator specializing in go-to-market, commercialization, and innovative business strategies, she has consistently driven double-digit growth and developed new businesses with global impact. With a strong background in therapeutics, diagnostics, and the digital transformation of healthcare, Rebecca has a proven track record of pioneering disruptive solutions across the continuum of care for chronic conditions. Most recently, she was VP of Corporate Development and Strategy at iRhythm Technologies (NASDAQ:IRTC), a digital healthcare provider of cardiac monitoring services. She began her career at Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), where she held progressive global leadership roles in sales and marketing. Rebecca is recognized for her ability to navigate complexity and her data-driven, customer-centric approach to creating value and delivering cutting-edge products and services to patients worldwide. She holds a BSE and MSE in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the advisory board for Diversity by Doing Healthtech.

Joyce is a biotech professional with experience across clinical research & operations in the digital health, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Passionate about reducing the digital divide and fostering inclusivity and innovation in clinical research, Joyce is dedicated to designing accessible clinical solutions and creating efficiencies that not only streamline the clinical trial processes but also enable informed decision making in communities facing barriers to enable improved health outcomes. Through her work, Joyce aims to advance the future of clinical research by prioritizing patient-centric approaches and leveraging innovative digital health related technologies using patient generated health data as well as real world evidence. Joyce holds a BA in Psychology from University of Minnesota, and an MPH and MS, Behavioral Health from University of San Francisco. She is currently a board member of the University of San Francisco’s School of Nursing and Health Professions and the California Board of Peer Health Exchange.

Juan-Pablo is a Partner at Action Potential VC, and co-founder of SomosVC, a non-profit committed to increasing the representation of venture capitalists of Latin American descent. He cares deeply about health equity for patients, the diversity of management teams and Boards across the medical device industry, and inclusive company culture. Juan-Pablo serves on several MedTech Boards, was previously an investor at Lightstone Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures, and a prior operator at Medtronic and Eli Lilly. He earned an MBA and an MSEE from Stanford University, a BSEE from the University of Massachusetts, and is originally from Puerto Rico.

Sang’ona brings breadth and depth of marketing leadership experience across a range of healthcare verticals. She spent 9 years at Johnson and Johnson, where she led global and regional marketing teams to build a category-leading mega brand. She led marketing communications, agency and media management, consumer and healthcare professional marketing, global brand equity programs, demand generation, and sales enablement. During her tenure there, she also led global pipeline and portfolio strategy, new product development, and new product launch and commercialization programs. Following that, Sang’ona served as the Vice President of Marketing at iRhythm technologies, where she helped establish the brand as the undisputed category leader in the Cardiac-AI space. She built the function from the ground up, attracting top talent to the team, built key infrastructure, and launched and scaled paid media programs. During her tenure there, she was a pivotal cross-functional partner to sales, R&D, regulatory, and Medical Affairs to shape evidence generation strategy, through which she launched a stream of differentiated and superior product claims, messaging, and campaigns. Sang’ona is presently the Vice President of Marketing and Global Brand at Cynosure Lutronic, a global leader in Medical Aesthetics and Energy-Based Devices.

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.

Professor Page has been teaching Mathematics at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) since 2012. He is the 1st and only African American Full-Time Tenured Math Faculty member since the college’s existence in 1935. Page has ventured down a winding road to teaching after completing his K-12 education in Vallejo, CA and going on to complete a Bachelor’s of Arts in Applied Math with a minor in African American Studies at UC Berkeley. While at Berkeley, Page conducted undergraduate research in math on campus, UC San Diego, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Labs contributing to scientific articles as well as presenting his work at conferences nationwide. Shortly after the passing of his father, Page began and completed a Master’s of Science in Applied Math at CSU EastBay where Page began to hone in on his love for teaching young, and not so young adults. At CCSF Page has contributed to the department not only by teaching courses from arithmetic through Calculus and Statistics, but also by taking on leadership roles within his department and campus wide. Page expects to continue to help students navigate through the language and culture of Math for many years to come as well as supporting the mindset of STEM students.

Juliana Perl is an Assistant Director of Impact1 where she is developing a breath monitoring device for premature neonates, coaching innovators in pediatric & maternal health, and conducting health policy research. She studied engineering before working in healthcare strategy consulting and with global health organizations.

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 chair of the board of Fogarty Innovation.

Dr. White is a board certified plastic surgeon in Austin, Texas with a rare educational background that spans an undergraduate degree from Howard University, a medical degree from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. White’s medical training and clinical practice have allowed her to provide care in a vast array of clinical settings, including public county hospitals, university hospitals, and private hospital systems in New York, Illinois, and Texas. Her internships at Fogarty Engineering and Ethicon Endosurgery while in business school combined with her myriad clinical experiences have contributed to Dr. White advocating for technological innovations to help improve clinical excellence, value-based care, and healthcare equity.

Susan is a visionary marketing executive with a proven career in global brand, marketing strategy and market development for market leaders such as Edwards Lifesciences, Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, and Gateway computer. Susan is passionate and committed to achieving health access equity and forged partnerships to create unique educational outreach programs in underserved communities. She is a curious learner and is currently pursuing a master’s in behavioral economical from The Chicago School to complement her MBA from Xavier University. Simple joy for Susan is filling her home with the energy of friends and family, including her 5 siblings and 13 nieces and nephews. Susan also satiates her curiosity through travel and art. A highlight of her career and life was living and working in Switzerland for Edwards Lifesciences.

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.