Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator™: 2023
National
It was an inspiring event as an innovative group of entrepreneurs told their stories for a chance at $75,000! Watch the 2023 National virtual finale
1st Place – $50,000 grant
Anna Li | Korion Health
2nd Place – $12,000 grant
Shavini Fernando | OxiWear
Fan Favorite – $5,000 grant
Ashley Keyes | Center Helping Obesity In Children End Successfully (C.H.O.I.C.E.S.)
| Anna Li [1st Place] |
Anna, a fourth-year M.D. and Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, is founder and CEO of Korion Health. As a lifelong patient and patient advocate, she’s had several experiences in which she felt left behind or not taken seriously by the health care system — galvanizing a fire in her to rewrite the system to be more patient-centered and break down barriers to knowledge and health care using accessibly designed technology. Update: Korion Health wins $1M Hult Prize Foundation Accelerator social entrepreneurship prize | 90.5 WESA |
| Shavini Fernando [2nd Place] |
Shavini, a web designer and developer who specializes in video games and virtual reality, created OxiWear after being diagnosed with severe pulmonary hypertension as a result of Eisenmenger syndrome. OxiWear is the first ear-wearable pulse oximeter for continuous oxygen monitoring and low oxygen warning for those at risk of hypoxia. Update: OxiWear receives FDA 510(k) clearance as a medical device |
| Ashley Keyes [Fan Favorite] |
As the executive chef for the Center Helping Obesity In Children End Successfully (C.H.O.I.C.E.S.) in Atlanta, Ashley’s passion is teaching people how to eat healthy on a budget. She loves working with children in schools to make food art and helping solve food insecurity in families. The C.H.O.I.C.E.S. Community Teaching Kitchen Project enables her to use her culinary expertise and life experiences. For about 10 years working with C.H.O.I.C.E.S., Ashley has conducted children’s summer camps, family cooking classes and mobile food pantries for communities. |
| Ariana McGee [Delta Red Tank Finalist] |
Ariana is founder and CEO of Navigate Maternity in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Navigate Maternity has created a remote patient monitoring system for prenatal and postpartum patients. Ariana experienced the disparity of Black women in perinatal care after almost dying during the birth with her fourth child. As a health care leader in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries for the last 11 years, Ariana brings a wealth of knowledge to the commercialization of their system. |
| Geoff Capraro | Geoff is CEO and co-founder of AdvanceBox, which addresses lack of accessibility to simple-to-use, on-scene rescue tools by providing them in technology-enhanced modular cabinets. Owners receive texts and emails when the units are accessed, can remotely monitor the unit, are informed about expiration dates for the rescue tools and receive automated replacements. These steps help assure preparedness and best outcomes for staff, clients and visitors. |
| Jake Pistiner | While a student in Georgia Tech’s Masters of Biomedical Innovation and Development (MBID) program, Jake’s team received acclaim from industry experts on a capstone project that focused on the unmet clinical need of preventing retained blood complications. This led to him founding and becoming CEO of CirculaTech. Passionate about health care innovation, Jake has secured and completed an NSF SBIR Phase I Award and a patent for CirculaTech’s technology. Update: CirculaTech awarded an NIH STTR Phase I grant with UPenn to complete in vivo testing for their device |
| Joy A. Cooper | Joy, an OB-GYN in the Bay Area of California, is co-founder and CEO of Culture Care, a telemedicine startup that connects Black women to Black doctors to combat health disparities. While earning an M.D. from Howard University, she co-founded Daughters of the Diaspora, a nonprofit organization that trains medical students how to teach reproductive health to adolescent girls. Her medical interests are fibroids, health equity and adolescent care. |
| Katelyn France [Minnesota Top Finalist] |
Katelyn, a PharmD student at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in Duluth, is founder and CEO of Scientists Making Your Life Easier (Smyle), LLC. The medtech and mentorship-focused company produces accessible, lifesaving medical equipment and provides opportunities for networking and assistance for under-resourced students interested in pursuing stem projects and careers. Katelyn is also a proud 2020 Empowered to Serve Scholar for the American Heart Association. |
| Kwamane Liddell | Kwamane is a health equity visionary who has used his experiences as a trauma nurse and health care lawyer to create ThriveLink (formerly Nutrible) which empowers families to enroll in health insurance, food stamps, and discount medication programs via telephone. Kwamane’s vision is to transform community organizations, churches, schools and government entities into preventative care access points. |
| Luciano Sewell | After his mom was improperly diagnosed and untreated during the Covid-19 lockdown, Luciano discovered his purpose and became determined to find a way to make primary care more affordable, accessible and unbiased. So he built an AI system that understands the burden of health care systems, lack of health care professionals and how conscious or unconscious bias impacts people who are under-resourced. That system is NERG, a machine-learning platform that translates wearable device data into AI health. |
| R’Kes Starling | R’Kes is founder and CEO of Reveles. As a pharmacist, he has over 20 years of health care executive experience in providing high-touch pharmacy services, clinical reach operations, specialty drug distribution and clinical management to patients with rare and complex diseases. To ensure medical discoveries, new treatments and scientific advances, Reveles is pioneering representative clinical trials with a full range of tech-enabled solutions, including AI-powered engagement and decentralized clinical trial solutions. |
| Ray Cheung | Ray has dedicated his career to advancing sustainability and reducing harm from climate change. After spending most of his life in China, where he led efforts to deploy clean technologies, Ray returned to his hometown Los Angeles and founded SmartAirLA. The company has developed an interactive chatbot powered by AI that equips respiratory and cardiovascular patients to protect themselves from air pollution and better self-manage their conditions. |
1st Place – $3,500 grant
Katelyn France | Smyle, LLC
Fan Favorite – $500 grant
Andrea Bishop Thomas | Mount Olivet Lab School, Inc.
| Katelyn France [1st Place] |
Katelyn, a pharmacy student at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, is founder and CEO of Scientists Making Your Life Easier (smyle), LLC. The medtech and mentorship-focused company produces accessible, lifesaving medical equipment that provides opportunities for networking and assistance for students interested in pursuing stem projects and careers. |
| Andrea Bishop Thomas [Fan Favorite] |
Andrea is executive director of Mount Olivet Lab School, Inc. Established in 1980 as a community outreach of Mount Olivet Baptist Church, Lab School provides services such as nutritious food and wholesome, structured activities for children and families. Since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, Lab School has continued its meal service program and hosted a food shelf, Nourish, that has served residents in more than 34 zip codes in the Twin Cities area. |
| Friendly Vang-Johnson |
Friendly is founder and principal of Friendly Hmong Farms (FHF), which serves more than three dozen bipoc farming families and communities in Washington and Minnesota. FHF is a food hub, community-supported agriculture (CSA) social enterprise, technical assistance provider, microloan financer, advocate, community-based participatory action research and consultant firm. It pursues food sovereignty, land reparations and racial justice through several ventures including the Food for All Youth Leadership Program and the PNW bipoc Farmland Trust. |
| Jennifer Timm | Jennifer is founding director of Bridges Health, an interprofessional clinical education model and student-led, faculty-guided network of clinics and programs through Winona State University that brings accessible preventive health, wellness and social care to under-resourced people and families. As an associate professor in the Department of Graduate Nursing at Winona State University and a registered nurse, she teaches others to design, implement and evaluate evidence-based approaches and strategies to improve community and public health outcomes. |
| Nichol Dehmer | Nichol is founder and CEO of YardHomesMN, which creates a customized financing program that brings safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable housing to low-income veterans and youth through its Y-Help program. She formally worked as a banker and CPA before working in housing. |
| Phillip McGraw | Phillip is founder of Living Naturally Abundant, a community-focused health and wellness organization with a mission to provide unique opportunities for physical health and mental health awareness. Phillip has used poetry and photography to vent his frustration and perception of poverty, drugs and crime. In 2019, Phillip won a filmmaker’s fellowship called Doc U Fellows to direct For Justice Forgotten, a well-received local documentary about police brutality. |
| William Swanstrom |
Bill’s consulting company, Crowsnestllc (set up after retiring from banking), contracted with River Valley Health Services four years ago to lead an agency and board turnaround. Since, he’s helped River Valley Health Services raise $500,000. Relatively new to nonprofit health care as a licensed provider, leader and fundraiser, he has been astounded at the difficulties of high-risk, uninsured patients to gain access to basic health care. His decades of leadership in the U.S. Navy, financing health care, high technology and main street businesses have helped him get to the bottom of issues. |