Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCP, is dean of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) and a professor of pharmaceutical sciences. She is also executive director of University Regional Partnerships for the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

Dr. Eddington is a nationally known expert in drug delivery and pharmacokinetics. Her research focuses on various medications used in the treatment of cancer, epilepsy, arthritis, and drugs of abuse and on understanding the role of biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics in elucidating the underlying mechanisms important in optimizing drug therapy. 

Under Dr. Eddington’s leadership, the School of Pharmacy has established a number of centers and programs including the FDA-supported Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (M-CERSI), which is a collaborative agreement with the FDA to promote innovation in support of the development and evaluation of safe and effective products. Dr. Eddington has designed numerous international regulatory courses for clinicians and scientists from South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, and Japan on the United States’ drug development process and the FDA regulatory infrastructure surrounding medication and device development. Most recently, under Dr. Eddington’s leadership, the School has launched a transformational pharmapreneurism initiative, which seeks to position the School’s world class faculty, its wonderful students, and exceptional staff to achieve their career aspirations and address our nation’s health care, research, policy, and societal needs.

Varghese has worked for multiple agencies with the City of Baltimore since 2011 including the Comptroller’s Office, Mayor’s Office of Information Technology and most recently the Department of General Services as a Project Manager in the Business Process Improvement Office (BPIO). Previously, he managed projects for Oracle| Micros Hospitality, Agilysys Hospitality Software and Maryland Marketing Source. Several notable projects Varghese has managed include Free Public Wi-Fi at the Harbor, Historic Markets and Penn Station, Paperless Financial Disclosures and eFirstView a mobile floorplan system for registered pre-planned building with the Baltimore City Fire Department. Varghese’s role in the BPIO is to take the department totally paperless in 5 years!

Darius Irani is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins, currently studying Computer Science and Applied Mathematics & Statistics. Originally from Upstate New York, Darius has found his home in Baltimore through involvement in his social start-up Project Charmify that does community development, educational programming, and vacant space activation in neighborhoods across Baltimore. Darius would like to combine his passion for social justice issues and technical interests and skills in STEM, by using Big Data and Machine Learning to have social impact in cities and influence social policy.

Sarah Jennings started building things as soon as she was big enough to hold a hammer, and hasn't stopped since. As the Creative Director of Brand and Ad Innovation at OATH, she is obsessed with making the advertising world a better place for consumers of content. Sarah came to Oath through AOL and Millennial Media, where she built mind blowing creatives for big brands on every kind of small screen since phones had internet. She was named one of Business Insider's 30 most creative people in mobile advertising, and loves sharing her excitement about the power of technology with anyone who will listen. Sarah's previous life was as a propsmaster and costumer, graduating from UVA and working at opera houses and other theaters around Europe and the United States. Sarah learned how to build pretty much any physical object during that time, but became more and more interested in what could be built on computers. She got her masters in Publication Design from the University of Baltimore and started working in ad tech. Sarah always tries to bring an element of spectacle to every project, digital or otherwise. When she's not getting paid to play on her phone, she spends her time with the best thing she ever made - her daughter Riley.

Joanna Guo is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University, where she is double majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science and minoring in Applied Math and Statistics.

Dr. Greg Walsh is an assistant professor at the University of Baltimore where he is the graduate program director for the MS in Interaction Design and Information Architecture as well as the UX Design program. He is an interaction design researcher who focuses on user-centered design. In his almost 20 years of Baltimore City residency, Dr. Walsh has worked at a number of Baltimore-based interaction design firms and continues to focus on innovation through mentoring start-ups in the art of user-centered design. He is ruggedly handsome and a recipient of a Google Faculty Research Award.

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.

In November 2015, Stacia became the creator and producer of Baltimore: The Rise of Charm City, a radio and podcast series that tells intergenerational stories of place and memory in Baltimore City. Baltimore: The Rise of Charm City is part of the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)’s 2015 Finding America: Localore project and is produced in partnership with WEAA 88.9.