Class II

Hagit Alon, Ph.D.

Hagit is an entrepreneur in the health-tech space with extensive scientific background and VC experience. As former Chief Scientist at Joy Ventures, she was responsible for evaluating the technological and scientific side of potential portfolio companies, and helped portfolio companies design trials to prove their efficacy. Hagit is also building a women’s health company focused on menopause. Her passion lives in the intersection between biology and health, technology and innovation and she continuously strives for impact creation. In addition, Hagit has designed and executed various academic programs to shorten the path from science to product. Previously, she worked as a Scientific Officer in an ALS non-profit organization. There she initiated and led the implementation of a digital health platform aimed at creating an objective measurement of disease progression. The platform won various prizes such as the Genesis Award and the CER prize. Hagit is a mentor for startups in the health-tech domain through Mass Challenge and BizTech. Hagit holds a PhD in computational biology, from the Sackler Medical School in Tel Aviv University. She also completed two Masters degrees from the Weizmann Institute of Science (Molecular Genetics) and NYU (Computer Science).

Spectra A. I. Asala

Spectra is a startup entrepreneur, investor and the founder of B-Side Ventures, a community of mission-driven investors backing startups led by under-represented founders in digital health, wellness, fintech, future of work, community, identity, and web3. As an investor-in-residence at Techstars, she advises portfolio companies on early stage venture development and investor relations. Spectra is a global business executive with nearly two decades of experience in product strategy, operations, and new market expansion for multi-billion dollar technology companies and social impact ventures in the US, Africa, and Asia. Most recently, as the GM and VP of Product at Wistia, Spectra was responsible for a $50MM product line for 20,000 enterprise customers worldwide, including the due diligence and team integration following M&A efforts. Prior, she led product strategy and innovation teams at enterprise technology companies before their public offerings, including as CEO at a venture-backed mobility startup. Spectra is also the founder of Momentum Tech Leaders, a career accelerator for emerging BIPOC, LGBT, and first generation technology leaders and sits on several advisory and non-profit boards Spectra graduated with a B.SC. in Humanities and Mathematics from the MIT.

Rakim Brooks

Rakim is a non-profit leader and social justice strategist committed to multimodal and heterodox approaches to advancing democracy and freedom. Brooks’s career has spanned the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He currently serves as the President of Alliance for Justice, a 130-member organization that promotes democracy and equal justice under law. Rakim is interested in supporting investment in sustainable enterprises that blend public mission and consumer value to change the world. In his career, he has served as a policy advisor in the Treasury Department and a member of the Biden-Harris transition team. He has also been in private practice at Susman Godfrey, the nation’s leading litigation boutique, where he represented several high-profile clients including Senators Whitehouse, Blumenthal, and Hirono. Prior to the Alliance, he led the ACLU’s systemic equality campaign, designed to redress systemic racism. Brooks graduated from Brown University with an AB, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar with an MPhil, and Yale University with an MBA and JD. He serves on the boards of Getting Out, Staying Out; Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice; and Justice Catalyst and Justice Catalyst Law.

Shakir Cannon-Moye

Shakir is a leader with more than a decade of experience working across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to support organizations in strategy design, implementation, business process reengineering and organizational design. He currently works with innovative organizations and helps them envision, develop, and implement practices that drive economic advancement of workers. Prior, Shakir was a consultant in the social sector. Before his work in the social sector, he was a Manager at Deloitte Consulting, where he led teams in program design, organizational design, governance, and implementing large scale service delivery transformations. Shakir has also worked closely with senior leaders of multiple government agencies to help implement large-scale transformation through business process reengineering and human centered design. He is also a certified Project Management Professional and Executive Coach. Lastly, Shakir serves on the board of directors of OAR of Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church, Virginia, a community-based restorative justice organization. He received his B.B.A in Finance and M.B.A from the George Washington School of Business where he was a Presidential Fellow.

Joy Dixon

Joy Dixon is an innovative, JEDI Engineering Leader with strong technical prowess and deep business acumen. She has worked in the tech industry for 20+ years as a people leader, software engineer, technical trainer, and network administrator. Joy is also an angel investor in the AI Ethics/ML and Web3 spaces. Joy has led and grown development teams to deliver engineering excellence in code, collaboration, and commitment. She has designed and developed applications using several programming languages in various environments and constructed online and in-person, web, animation, and game development courses. Additionally, Joy has configured and administered networks for global companies. She started a software development training company, Mosaic Presence to expand opportunities, cultivate community, and promote the Mosaic. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in African-American Studies, a Master’s degree in Software Engineering, and several professional certifications. Joy lives by the quote from the world-record holding, Olympic champion, and sports icon, Wilma Rudolph: "'I can't' are two words that have never been in my vocabulary. I believe in me more than anything in this world."

Christy Fernandez-Cull, Ph.D

Christy is the CEO and founder of DaVinci Wearables and is a science advisor to multiple VCs and startups in the areas of sensors and systems for mobility applications and autonomous vehicles. Previously, she led the sensing and perception system’s teams at Waymo - formerly Google Self-Driving. Christy was also the Head of Sensors at Lyft Level 5 Self-Driving Division, leading sensor architecture for Lyft vehicle platforms — designing machine eyes to help transform transportation of the future. Prior to Lyft, she was a technologist at Apple in autonomous systems and the Camera and Depth Hardware team that released the first-of-kind Light Detection and Ranging module in the 2020 iPad. Christy has spanned both the development of Defense technologies at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and at-scale consumer-product technologies at Apple. She received her MS and Ph.D. in Engineering from Duke University and MBA from MIT and enjoys mentorship and recruiting in STEM/STEAM.

Reuben Holdaway

Reuben is an entrepreneur and active investor in early-stage emerging technologies. He is currently an investor at Convoi Ventures—the most active pre-seed/seed stage venture capital firm in Utah. Reuben has helped build 3 startups, having experience in the startup life-cycle from pre-revenue to Series C/Pre-IPO. His most recent operating tenure was with MX, a B2B FinTech empowering the embedded finance movement. Reuben helped drive go-to-market strategy pivots and operational framework for scaling revenue, assisting in the startup surpassing $100M in annual recurring revenue. As an entrepreneur, he founded a startup focused on gig-economy staffing for the hospitality market. Reuben also founded and manages a syndicate fund, connecting community members with promising founders who are raising capital. He was recently named top-100-tech-entrepreneurs-to-watch-in-Utah by Utah Business Magazine and TechBuzz. Additionally, Reuben serves on an executive committee in his local Chamber of Commerce, focused on sustainable growth for Utah as an emerging market for business and startup expansion. Reuben is passionate about making sure Utah has a ‘seat at the table’ throughout the next wave of startup and technology innovation.

Niha Jain

Niha is an investor passionate about improving people's experiences and outcomes in the healthcare system. In her current role investing in digital health companies at a family office, she draws on experiences building early product and operations at Cityblock Health, a startup focused on better care for people on Medicaid, and launching a healthcare navigation service for patients at Mount Sinai Health System. Niha started her career in management consulting, where she conducted due diligence for private equity companies and led a team developing agricultural microfinance strategy for the government of Ethiopia. A Truman Scholar, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard University and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. Niha speaks fluent Spanish and conversational Hindi and Russian.

Verena Kallhoff, Ph.D.

Verena has deep experience helping entrepreneurs and innovators position their technology in life sciences, healthcare and crystalizing a strategic path to commercialization. A mentor and advisor to numerous startups, she also leads a number of networking and development programs in Central Texas to build an inclusive, innovative health and life science ecosystem. She is blending her broad experience in biomedical science, healthcare, business and emerging technologies focusing on opportunities of precision medicine through equitable, inclusive data, mediated by federated AI, blockchain and self-sovereign identity technologies. Verena is now starting to identify and invest in early stage health and life science companies utilizing AI and other emerging technologies with an emphasis on diversity. After completing an Administrative Fellowship at Houston Methodist Research Institute, She has held leadership positions in support of entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystems at Houston Methodist Research Institute, Dell Medical School and the AI Institute at UT Austin. A first generation university graduate, Verena received her PhD in Molecular and Human Genetics from Baylor College of Medicine and an MBA focused on healthcare administration from University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Carlos Murguia

Carlos is an Industrial Engineer with expertise in entrepreneurship, venture capital, and lean six sigma. As an Associate at Arrowhead Innovation Fund, he collaborates with screening deals, reporting, marketing, audits, due diligence, and portfolio management. Carlos began his career in the pest control industry, working on improving costs and processes at a company in Michoacan, Mexico. He transitioned into entrepreneurship, fueled by a deep interest in tech- based startups. Carlos currently works as a program director for Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University, an innovation center focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, startups, capital, and economic development in New Mexico and the Borderplex region. He plays a role in programming design, prototyping projects, fund management, and connecting startups with investors. Carlos leverages his dual experience as an entrepreneur, investor, and ecosystem builder to support the growth of the emerging startup environment in New Mexico. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Mexico, an M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from New Mexico State University.

James Nortey

James is an attorney, advocate, and activist. In these roles, he is empowered to reinvest the blessings bestowed upon him to help open doors of opportunity for others. James is a trial lawyer who litigates and negotiates high-stakes commercial disputes on behalf of clients before U.S. federal and state courts as well as administrative agencies. As an activist for greater educational opportunities for all, he is passionate about investing in early-stage edtech and gamification of education ventures. As an advocate for socioeconomic and civil rights, James serves on the Board of Directors for numerous nonprofit organizations, including Austin Achieve Public Schools, Austin Ed Fund, and he is the Chair of the Texas Civil Rights Project. James has a B.A from Baylor University, an M.S. in Technology Commercialization from University of Texas, Austin and a JD from Harvard University.

Juan Carlos Pacheco

Juan Carlos is an innovative leader, community advocate, and disruptive entrepreneur. His passion for innovation and leadership plays out in his role as the Co-Founder and CEO of ExstoBio, a bio-tech startup that is setting the standard of patient care and leading innovation with personalized cannabis therapeutics. In addition, he is passionate about investing in other under-represented entrepreneurs. Juan Carlos has gained a diverse range of experiences, including serving at the Supreme Court of North Carolina with Chief Justice Newby, serving at the United States District Courthouse with Judge Robert Conrad, corporate law with Bell, Davis & Pitt, LLP, (executing funding objectives, developing intellectual property strategy and conducting due diligence for M&A deals), nationwide federal class action litigation with Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC, and private equity acquisitions with NextGen Growth Partners. Previously, Juan Carlos was in Catholic seminary for five years and served for two additional years as the Director of Service & Justice at the UNC Newman Center. He is a fourth year JD/MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focused on Law, Emerging Markets and Entrepreneurship.

Anna Raptis

Anna is the founder and Managing Partner of Amplifica Capital, the first female-focused fund in Mexico. She invests in early stages where technology is an enabler to drive sustainable growth in Mexico and Latin America. Anna is also a founding member and President of Mujeres Invirtiendo, an organization that aims to support and increase the participation of women in private capital in Mexico. She is also an investor with 500 Startups. Anna has more than 15 years of experience working on international energy projects, including 7 years in leadership positions within Mexico. Previously she was Country Manager for AES Mexico Development, focusing on origination and new business development, and also Commercial Director for TransAlta Mexico. She holds a Master’s Degree from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Economics degree from The University of Adelaide. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Ben Stokes

Ben is the Founding Partner of Chasing Rainbows, a pre-seed investment fund which invests in LGBTQ+ founded companies to level the playing field to ensure greater access to capital for underrepresented founders. Through various organizations, Ben mentors founders as they navigate the road of entrepreneurship. Ben has both start up and corporate experience. Before Chasing Rainbows, he was the Founder and CEO of the global, social networking platform, SocialTable. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur Ben worked at Oracle and Salesforce. He was named in the top 100 Investors for 2022 by Alumni Spotlight and was recognized by the NVCA, as one of the top LGBTQ+ investors making impact. In addition, Ben spoke at the UN General Assembly on Living with Purpose, was a guest speaker for the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Centre, and in 2021 gave the Graduation Address for his Alma Alter after being awarded Young Alumni of the Year. Ben sits on a number of nonprofit organizations’ boards, including co-chairing StartOut’s Investor Board. He received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Tasmania, and has gone on to complete his Executive MBA through The Quantic School of Business and Technology.