Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Robert Lord is the Co-Founder and President of Protenus, an analytics platform that leverages artificial intelligence to detect data breaches in healthcare. Protenus protects the nation’s top healthcare systems, ensuring trust for tens of millions of patients, and was named the 2016 International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Privacy Innovator of the Year.

Robert is a sought-after speaker and commentator in the fields of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, healthcare analytics, and data privacy. He has been invited to speak at premier industry conferences like the HIMSS17 National Conference, to brief at the U.S. Senate, and to provide insight to national, state, and local leaders on cybersecurity preparedness. His insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Forbes, The Baltimore Sun, and a wide array of other publications.

Robert is a Fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology and teaches courses on entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins. He has been named to the Baltimore Business Journal’s “Tech 10” and to Becker’s Hospital Review’s “Healthcare Entrepreneurs to Know.”

Before co-founding Protenus, Robert was an MD candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Robert received his A.B. in Social Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.

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.

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!