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.

Milt Reder is VP of Engineering at Yet Analytics, where he and his team use Clojure(Script) to model human experience, learning and performance. He is a co-organizer of the Baltimore Clojure meetup, now in its 4th year.

Hadley VanRenterghem, originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University majoring in Biomedical Engineering.

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.

Brad Hennessie is the CEO of NextStep Robotic Inc., a company whose portable robotic ankle exoskeleton is being developed as the first ever treatment option to reverse foot drop in stroke victims. Foot drop, which occurs in a wide range of neurological and orthopedic conditions, is recognized as the inability to lift the toe during normal walking. He has been working with the inventors of this technology for 8 years, managing multiple grants with Drs. Macko, Roy, and Forrester. He started with the team as a single study coordinator and quickly grew into a leadership role over the past few years, helping manage the day-to-day tasks and long term goals for the Maryland Exercise and Robotics Center of Excellence (MERCE). MERCE is a ~$7M/year research organization originally founded by Dr. Richard Macko that is part of the Baltimore VA Medical Center and the Department of Neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Brad’s conception of the business model and commercialization plan led to the team’s successful TEDCO MII Phase I/II submission and attracting their first external investor.

Since transitioning out of the robotics lab and starting full time with NextStep Robotics, he has directed an engineering team with Dr. Gil Blankenship at the Maryland Development Center to create the first prototype of the portable ankle robot.

Brad’s early development as a leader was shaped by his 8 years in the Maryland Army National Guard where he learned the importance of having confidence in the quality of a product by being a parachute rigger.

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.

Aleberry, Managing Partner Gira Wieczorek is a founder at Aleberry, a design & strategy firm focused on helping startups navigate the fundraising process with deck strategy & design. She has helped clients raise over $150M in funding. Aleberry works alongside startups, advisors, venture capitalists, and accelerators for demo days, pitch sessions, and investor meetings.

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.