Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

Founder, Shrenik was motivated to work on Sunrise Health after watching fellow first responders struggle with PTSD and substance use issues in silence due to the social stigma surrounding getting help. After meeting Ravi while at Johns Hopkins, he decided to put his undergraduate education on hold to found Sunrise Health, a mobile application for text-based group psychotherapy that harnesses AI to make mental health care more accessible for patients and more cost-effective for providers. Beyond Sunrise, Shrenik has experience working in business development at multiple medical technology startups, and conducting academic research at Johns Hopkins and the NIH.

Olivia is a Information Security Engineer at Mapbox, She works on securing their cloud infrastructure, ensuring it performs well under high demand, and keeping everyone at Mapbox safe and secure. She also is active in the Baltimore-Washington tech scene and organizes CharmCityJS events in Baltimore, MD. She is a First Lieutenant in the Pennsylvania National Guard, working as their Automation Officer where she plans and supports network and radio communications for 500+ users. Prior to joining Mapbox, Olivia worked with various other companies to improve their security posture through automation, testing, and implementation of security best practices. Olivia can often be found playing video games, cuddling her family of pets, or sharing her love of emojis and gifs to the team. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a focus in cognitive science.

Jessica Reynolds is an international trade and investment specialist serving as Regional Manager for Europe at the Maryland Department of Commerce. Prior to joining Commerce, Mrs. Reynolds worked as a consultant for an economic development and planning firm, and as a Senior Manager and consultant in the international economic development field, working on US Government, World Bank, and other donor projects. She started her international career as an intern at the World Trade Center Institute in Baltimore. Mrs. Reynolds holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Bachelor’s Degree from Loyola University Maryland. She holds professional memberships in the International Economic Development Council and the Maryland Economic Development Association.

T.J. Tate is the Web Director of Agora Financial where he oversees the company’s technology stack.  Prior to his five years at Agora Financial he held a position at Blackboard as Senior Manager of Interactive Design where he oversaw web design, web development and web personalization efforts for many and vertical marketing teams. Over the past 10 years T.J. has architected, developed and designed technical solutions for a wide range of businesses from fortune 500 companies to Silicon Valley startups and even a well-known local brewery in Frederick MD. He is passionate about User Experience Strategy, Personalization, Data Science, and Predictive Analysis and is a huge music nerd.

Julia Spicer serves as the Executive Director for the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA) and fosters innovation and company building by bringing together private and public investment capital and high growth enterprises across stage and industry. As head of MAVA, Ms. Spicer presents industry thought-leaders and best practices in support of emerging as well as established companies. From helping the earliest of innovators secure seed capital to discussing the latest in market intelligence important to high growth enterprises, she supports the full life cycle of company growth and investment interests. Her corporate technology career, experience in private investment, and most notably, her early entrepreneurial roots as company founder provide a useful foundation for fostering the success of high growth technology companies, from start-up to exit. She joined MAVA from Columbia Capital, a private equity growth capital firm specializing in communications technology. Previously, she served as Corporate Vice President of Strategic Planning and Communications for GTE Corporation, with responsibilities for investor relations and both public policy and strategic positioning for the company’s $4B emerging technology businesses which included wireless, mobile, air-to-ground, satellite, and R&D operations. Ms. Spicer also served as President of the GTE Foundation, one of the top 20 corporate foundations in the United States, focusing principally on science and mathematics education and the arts. An industry leader, Spicer founded TechBUZZ which to date over a five year period has helped launch more than 330 early market-entry companies, which have collectively raised more than $700M in reported seed and follow-on investments. In 2008, she was instrumental in launching a first-ever Mid-Atlantic Bio initiative to further support the biotechnology industry and encourage collaboration among investors, industry, academia and companies from laboratory to exit. Spicer has served or is currently on the boards of the Network of Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), an international organization assisting disadvantaged children through chapters located in 33 countries; the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering Board of Visitors; Summit Executive Resources; and Able Flight, a scholarship program providing assistance to individuals with disabilities by challenging them through flight training. Through a gubernatorial appointment, Ms. Spicer serves on the Commonwealth Health Research Board, which has the primary responsibility to make grants for human health research, especially for those efforts that have the potential of maximizing human health benefits for citizens of the Commonwealth. Ms. Spicer is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar.

John W. Davis, II, founded Notice and Comment (N&C) in January 2013. He is the former Director of Major Crimes Division and Chief Homicide Prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice in the U.S. Virgin Islands, during the Clinton administration. Following his several years of public service, John practiced as a criminal defense attorney, debate coach, and professor of ethics and communications law at George Mason University, Howard University, and Towson University.

John has served as a consultant to numerous federal agencies through Debate Solutions Inc., a Washington, DC-based frm he launched to organize debates between student teams from leading national universities. These venues focused on actual policy issues of the day, eliciting unique insights for regulators as they considered specific rules.

Prior to his policy debate work, John served as Vice President with Northern Trust, based in Chicago, where he spearheaded the bank’s program to attract high-net-worth clients. Until recently he served as chairman of the board of directors of Sharp Dressed Man, a nonproft organization based in Baltimore, dedicated to providing professional clothing to disadvantaged men who are seeking employment.

Moss Amer works at the Maryland Venture Fund, where he serves as a board observer for several portfolio companies, including Aledade, Fugue, and Harpoon Medical.

Prior to joining the Fund, Moss worked as a Senior Analyst at TCP Venture Capital, where he helped to build a 10-company portfolio with significant positive write-ups. Select investments include RedOwl Analytics (acquired by Forcepoint), WellDoc, and ZeroFOX.

Moss graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he studied entrepreneurship and technology management. He is a 2013 Venture for America fellow.

Dan Rodricks is an award-winning columnist for the Baltimore Sun newspapers, and host of the Roughly Speaking podcast. He was previously the host of Midday, a daily talk show on WYPR FM 88.1, the NPR station in Baltimore, and the host of "Rodricks For Breakfast" on WMAR-TV, "The Dan Rodricks Show" on WBAL Radio , and a long-time contributor of features and commentary to WBAL-TV.