Jenna C. Woods, S’25, MS’26

AngelRock BV

After an undergraduate co-op introduced her to the intricate science behind the mineral olivine, Jenna C. Woods decided to take what she learned and combine it with a master’s degree in environmental science and policy to form AngelRock BV—a startup focused on accelerating the role that olivine takes in the carbon cycle and ultimately reducing climate change. As a SpaceX employee and full-time CEO of the company, Woods hopes to pursue her PhD in environmental sciences while continuing to make an impact on the world.

Haley Waud, BHS’12, DPT’13

eggPlan

Haley Waud is passionate about empowering people to take charge of their health. After working as a physical therapist, she transitioned into product development and innovation, building new consumer healthcare products and bringing new ideas to market for more than a decade. The Northeastern Young Global Leader co-founded eggPlan after seeing how high costs and uncertainty often prevent women from considering freezing their eggs as a future fertility option. The platform helps women make informed fertility decisions by making egg freezing more financially and practically accessible.

Emily Sylvester, Roux Future of Healthcare Founder Residency’24

Mother of Fact

Emily Sylvester has spent more than two decades helping women and families build healthier lives through nutrition. Drawing on her experiences as a registered dietitian, she founded Mother of Fact, a telehealth platform that connects women with trusted nutrition resources and dietician-led care throughout pregnancy and the baby’s first year. Today, Sylvester is working to make nutrition care more accessible by integrating registered dietitians directly into women’s healthcare practices.

Lauren Steidl, Roux Founder Residency’25

Integrated Reality Labs

Lauren Steidl is the co-founder and CEO of Integrated Reality Labs, a gaming technology company transforming classic games into real-world, multiplayer experiences. Drawing on her background in fundraising, corporate communications, and marketing, she is leading the development of technology that turns smartphones into platforms for movement and shared adventure. Through her venture, Steidl is redefining how people interact with games and each other by making real-world play more social, accessible, and engaging.

Zoe Smith, E’26, MS’27

Ritua

Currently pursuing her master’s in chemical engineering, Zoe Smith is developing Ritua—because after a long day, getting a workout in shouldn’t be a pain point. Ritua delivers private, transformational, 25-minute fitness and wellness sessions that adapt to users’ needs and fit around demanding workdays.

Tanya Singh, DMSB’27

Athenova Group

Have you ever wanted to find the perfect product while supporting a local business? For Tanya Singh, that was the question that inspired her to start Athenova Group, an AI-driven marketplace that helps students on college campuses match with others to buy and sell items locally. As the future trends increasingly toward AI, Athenova Group is poised to transform the campus marketplace experience for the better.

Sophie Shrand, AMD/ S’11

Cool Jacket Productions

Sophie Shrand is an award-winning TV host, STEM educator, filmmaker, and entrepreneur whose work has reached more than two million learners worldwide. After more than a decade working in world-renowned science museums and at the legendary Second City, she launched Science With Sophie, a Telly Award-winning science comedy series. Shrand is the founder and executive producer of Cool Jacket Productions, a production company that finds joyful solutions to serious problems. She was recently included as an Obama Presidential Center Featured Changemaker in the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Hannah Sheehan, PhD’22

SauveBio

Hannah Sheehan is a scientist-entrepreneur focused on pushing the boundaries of what we can see at the microscopic level. Her journey began at Northeastern, where she first observed a persistent gap: groundbreaking research is often stalled by a lack of precision data. She founded SauveBio to close that gap, democratizing access to elite flow cytometry and equipping biopharma companies with the data they need to accelerate clinical milestones. Through high-parameter analysis and strategic insight, Sheehan is helping move discoveries out of the lab and closer to patients.

Elizabeth Raia, MMC’13

Pipe Dream

A self-described risk-taker, Elizabeth Raia has built a reputation as a storyteller who delicately grapples with bold subject matter through her short films. That’s why, along with fellow alumna Margaret Montavon, she co-founded Pipe Dream, a New York City-based film, theater, and television company championing diverse stories from overlooked and underestimated communities. Staying true to this core philosophy, Pipe Dream has produced a number of plays and short films across greater New York, with much more to come.

Joud Rai, S’27

HIYAH

Since her first year at Northeastern, Joud Rai has been making waves on campus through her research, innovation, and commitment to change. In 2025, she shifted her focus to HIYAH, a nonprofit working to increase access to menstrual, dental, and hygiene products locally and worldwide. Through donations and community service events, Rai and her team at HIYAH have made an impact that has grown beyond the region and is starting to make positive change all around the world.

Soumya Raguraman, S’27

LabMatch

As the child of immigrants, Soumya Raguraman was the first in her family to attend college. After sending dozens of cold emails for a lab position to no avail, she was inspired to start LabMatch—a platform designed to provide equitable access to undergraduate research by matching students with academic labs based on merit and fit, instead of traditional networking. As LabMatch continues to improve and scale, Raguraman is optimistic that the platform will be a sustainable resource that universities will continue to adopt.

Margaret Montavon, MMC’12, MEd’19

Pipe Dream

For Margaret Montavon, the foundation of storytelling in any medium revolves around heart, humor, and most importantly, authenticity. That’s why, along with fellow alumna Elizabeth Raia, she co-founded Pipe Dream, a New York City-based film, theater, and television company championing diverse stories from overlooked and underestimated communities. Staying true to this core philosophy, Pipe Dream has produced a number of plays and short films across greater New York, with much more to come.

Marjan Monfarednasab, MBA’26

LeafGuardian

Marjan Monfarednasab is an engineer, entrepreneur, and passionate healthcare problem solver drawn to one of the industry’s most preventable failures: hospital-acquired pressure injuries, which can develop when patients spend extended time in a single position. As founder and CEO of LeafGuardian, she built a contactless patient monitoring system that catches early warning signs before they become injuries, enabling earlier intervention and better outcomes in clinical settings.

Simran Mohinani, DMSB’20

Mohlia

As a Northeastern student, Simran Mohinani combined her passion for entrepreneurship, design, and social impact to found Mohlia, a luxury floral brand specializing in preserved roses that last for 10 years. Since launching the company, she has grown it into an international brand, partnering with organizations including the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and The Walt Disney Company while creating a more sustainable alternative to traditional flowers.

Ana Eugenia Carvajal Minvielle, E’16

Vie

Ana Eugenia Carvajal Minvielle is on a mission to fix women’s reproductive healthcare. Shaped by a yearslong struggle with a reproductive health condition, along with a family legacy of women’s advocacy in Mexico, the Northeastern chemical engineering alumna founded Vie. The precision medicine platform models individual female biology to reduce trial and error and enable earlier diagnosis—closing the gap between medicine and biology for women’s reproductive health.

Seleen Sarah Maya, DMSB’28

Lean by Seleen

Seleen Maya is a record-winning powerlifter bringing a builder’s mindset to spotting inefficiencies and overlooked problems in the wellness industry—namely, fitness and nutrition advice that treats everybody the same, ignoring the hormonal and menstrual cycle shifts that shape how women approach weight-loss. Maya’s combination of business acumen and firsthand athletic and wellness experience, along with the support of the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship’s WeLaunch program, led her to found Lean by Seleen, a women’s health coaching platform delivering sustainable weight loss through strategies.

Erin Knight, Roux Founder Residency’26

gatherwise

Many professionals say meetings are unproductive and detract from meaningful work—but Erin Knight has the data to prove it. After more than two decades at large technology and education firms, Knight has participated in her fair share of meetings lacking clear agendas, inclusive facilitation, and follow-through, a.k.a. “calendar crimes” as she calls them. When Knight’s personal caring responsibilities and Covid’s virtual meeting culture simultaneously expanded, she knew the key was to meet less often, but better. Currently pursuing her doctorate in meeting science, Knight founded gatherwise, an AI-driven meeting facilitation tool, because she believes in the profound difference better meetings can make. “If we want stronger organizations, it begins with creating better conditions for people to think together,” she says.

Nicole Khoury, E’20

Journée

As an industrial engineering student at Northeastern, Nicole Khoury developed the problem-solving mindset that would later fuel her entrepreneurial journey. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease as a teenager, she became deeply conscious of the ingredients in the products she consumed. Frustrated by the lack of clean, functional energy drinks, Khoury co-founded Journée (French for daytime), a wellness-focused beverage that combines natural caffeine with functional ingredients to support energy and cognitive wellness. Today, she is helping redefine the energy drink category with a product inspired by health, thoughtful design, and her experiences living in France.

Katie Karmelek, E’06, MS’08

Chamfr

Katie Karmelek discovered her passion for the medical device industry while earning her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in mechanical engineering at Northeastern. After a decade in engineering and product development roles, she watched as component sourcing issues slowed down product innovation at every turn. So, she launched Chamfr, a B2B marketplace connecting R&D engineers with the components they need to drive innovation in medical technology. Now leading her own company, Karmelek is committed to modernizing the medical device ecosystem while showing the next generation of founders that they can achieve both technical and entrepreneurial success.

Kellin Haley, Roux Founder Residency’26

Velzee

After more than a decade leading product teams at startups and tech companies, Kellin Haley is applying her expertise to financial wellness and retirement planning for young professionals. She founded Velzee to simplify financial planning and empower users to make smarter everyday financial decisions. Velzee combines personalized, AI-powered guidance with planning tools to help those in their early careers build healthier financial habits and plan for financial freedom.

Bridget Gleason, DMSB, MS’26

Inside Athletics

Bridget Gleason is on a mission to bring more transparency and equity to college sports. As a former D1 and D2 soccer player, she experienced the information and communication gaps that many athletes and their families face as they make important decisions about the future. She decided to shine a light on the process, creating a platform for conversations, community, and firsthand insight by connecting athletes and families as they navigate the collegiate sports world. A current master’s student at Northeastern, entrepreneurship is more than a career path for Gleason—it’s a way to build ventures that create real, lasting change.

Tori Farley, DMSB’15

Center Street Soap Co.

Tori Farley has built her career on helping young companies grow. After gaining entrepreneurial experience through co-ops and co-founding a suspenders company with her brother, she co-founded Center Street Soap Co., an award-winning, artisanal soap making business. Leveraging her expertise in marketing and startup growth, Farley helped transform the business from a small kitchen operation into a nationally recognized brand whose products are now sold in Whole Foods Market, L.L.Bean, and independent retailers nationwide. The company also donates soap remnants to recycled soap businesses across Africa and Asia that employ women to distribute this much-needed product.

Natalia Coriano-Díaz, PhD’26

Enlace Institute

While working with homeless and vulnerable communities in Puerto Rico after recent hurricanes and earthquakes, Natalia Coriano-Díaz saw the negative impact that public policies and politics can have on population health. Today, she is turning health research into real policy change, using data and statistics to tackle issues around maternal and child health, health inequalities, and the tracking of infectious diseases. The Enlace Institute will help her connect experience and research to increase the resilience of Puerto Rico’s health care system and protect its people from natural disasters.

Aarya Dhru, DMSB’26

The I3 Competition

While in high school, Aarya Dhru saw COVID-19 devastate small businesses in her community and realized that her fellow classmates had the digital fluency—in apps, websites, and social media—that many struggling businesses needed to stay afloat. Driven by a belief in closing the resource gap for small business owners and by creating opportunities for underrepresented young people, she created the I3 (imagine, innovate, inspire) Competition, in which high school students develop tailored digital infrastructure for small business partners under the mentorship of strategists and executives, culminating in a pitch competition for a financial prize. The results are striking—more than 80 percent of team members earn internships or job offers from their business partners and go on to highly competitive higher-ed institutions.

Aashka Dave, DMSB’26

Atrium

Aashka Dave is driven to help founders succeed. While working with the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship at Northeastern, she saw that founders sometimes need talent with specific skills to help boost their ventures, but don’t need to invest in a full-time hire. Her solution is Atrium, a platform connecting startups with experienced professionals who can step in and do the work, exactly when it’s needed. In turn, Atrium helps workers build flexible careers defined by skills, not job titles or career boundaries.

Anwita Chaudhry, Khoury’28

ExpressAI

Anwita Chaudhry has been committed to making communication more accessible from an early age. At 14, she founded DesiHeart, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting speech development in neurodivergent children through creative communication programs and accessible technology. Building on that mission, the current Northeastern student now leads the development of ExpressAI, an AI-powered communication app designed to help nonverbal individuals express themselves with greater authenticity. By preserving tone, emotion, and personal identity, Chaudhry’s work is making assistive technology more human, inclusive, and empowering.

Alexandra Chabaneix, DMSB’15

Sage

Alexandra Chabaneix is passionate about helping startups solve complex operational challenges so founders can focus on what matters most. After graduating from Northeastern, she spent more than a decade working with startups to streamline operations, align teams, and turn ambitious ideas into practical systems. Becoming a parent inspired her to tackle a different kind of challenge: navigating pregnancy. The Northeastern Young Global Leader founded Sage, an AI-powered platform that helps expectant parents prepare for parenthood with personalized, week-by-week guidance.

Bronwyn Bridges, Roux Future of Healthcare Founder Residency’23

PRIMS®

Raised by a long-term care nurse, Bronwyn Bridges grew up around patients in need of specialized, ongoing care for serious conditions. That early exposure shaped the humility and patient-centered approach she now brings as founder and CEO of PragmaClin, where she is determined to change the status quo of managing diseases like Parkinson’s. A doctoral candidate and Roux Future of Healthcare Founder Residency graduate, Bridges is leading the development of PRIMS®, an AI computer vision platform that replaces subjective evaluations with objective motor assessments—expanding access to neurological care for underserved and rural communities. A mental health advocate and community mentor, she builds with the same care that first drew her to this work.

Pam Boiros, DMSB’92

Women Applying AI

With artificial intelligence growing and evolving daily, Pam Boiros is working to keep this innovative technology regulated and inclusive. By founding Women Applying AI, Boiros is curating a culture of collaboration for women to expand their professional networks, learn AI technologies, and prepare for a future where artificial intelligence is involved in many aspects of their careers. As Women Applying AI continues to grow, women around the world will continue to develop new practical, real-world skills through this supportive peer network.

Yanoh Bah, S’08

Women in Auto

For Yanoh Bah, her beliefs are rooted in the idea that women should have access to practical skills, stronger income paths, and diverse spaces that they don’t always have the chance to participate in. To manifest these beliefs, she started Women in Auto, an initiative that helps women in Sierra Leone enter the automotive workforce and develop the skills needed to create a stable income and provide opportunities for their families. With her help, women in Sierra Leone will have new pathways to continue learning and growing.

Dayna Altman, SSH’15, MPH’18

Bake It Till You Make It LLC

As the entrepreneurial force and sole operator of Bake It Till You Make It LLC, Dayna Altman harnesses her passion for mental health advocacy to create a genuine recipe for vulnerable storytelling. The author of five mental health cookbooks and a variety of mental health presentations, Altman is a sought-after storyteller committed to modeling authentic recovery and celebrating the power of healing. Her advocacy and leadership have opened doors as high-profile as the White House, where she spoke on stage alongside Selena Gomez and the Surgeon General as part of the Youth Mental Health Action Forum hosted by MTV and the Biden-Harris administration.

Jude AlBukhari, S’15

Under the Olive Tree

A Northeastern Young Global Leader, Jude AlBukhari holds a doctorate in child and adolescent psychology. She believes children shouldn’t have to experience a crisis to get the emotional tools they need to thrive—a conviction that drove her to create Under the Olive Tree, a digital platform that helps children build emotional resilience and lasting coping skills early, well before clinical care might otherwise be needed. Under the Olive Tree aims to give every child a foundation of emotional strength early enough to shape a lifetime of wellbeing.

Kariman Abuljadayel, AMD’17, MArch’18

From Northeastern to the Olympics

In 2012, Saudi Arabia made international headlines by officially lifting its ban on female athlete participation in the Olympics. Four years later in Rio de Janeiro, Kariman Abuljadayel broke barriers by representing her home country on the biggest stage in athletics. Now, she is sharing her story through the self-produced documentary From Northeastern to the Olympics, which is rooted in themes of sisterhood and representation.

Nouf Alawadhi, DMSB’22

COYA

A strategic professional and entrepreneur, Nouf Alawadhi is the founder of COYA, a global platform connecting customers with handcrafted jewelry and accessories from independent designers worldwide. Alongside her role in strategy at Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security and her master’s degree in business administration at HEC Paris, she built COYA to empower artisans—many of them women—by expanding access to global markets, supporting creative communities through purpose-driven business, and reinvesting profits back into artisans’ original communities.

Isabelle Wood, MPA’26

Ranch Lab

Hailing from a family of ranchers in New Mexico, Isabelle Wood understands the importance of land stewardship, habitat restoration, and environmental protection. She founded Ranch Lab, a startup that connects young innovators with family-owned ranches to co-develop affordable and sustainable technologies that address urgent agricultural challenges facing generational ranches. Now pursuing her Master of Public Administration at Northeastern, she is dedicated to advancing public policies that support sustainable agriculture and incentivize innovation. “Land stewardship is a tremendous responsibility,” she says, “I reframed my life at 23 years old to accept the responsibility I have for the incredible opportunity I have been given.”

Hannah Wimpy, Khoury’27

Ionova

Hannah Wimpy is a Stamps Scholar at Northeastern, attending the university on a full-ride scholarship in the honors program. She combined her interests in computer science, physics, and biochemistry to design an independent major in computational biophysics. Additionally, Wimpy has conducted research at Northeastern’s Center for Drug Discovery and completed a co-op at Harvard Medical School, where she developed computational models of ion channels to support new therapeutic strategies for pain and neurological diseases. Inspired by her passion for advancing biophysics research, she founded Ionova, a software platform that helps bridge the gap between hypothesis and experiment.

Shirley Wang, DMSB’25

Foundess

After learning that female-founded startups receive just two percent of venture capital funding, Shirley Wang co-launched Foundess, a nonprofit that empowers early-stage founders beyond gender barriers. She also co-founded Hackrah Media, a Gen Z-led impact marketing agency serving businesses from underrepresented communities. While managing both ventures, she is simultaneously studying business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurial startups and minoring in global fashion studies at Northeastern. A Boston Business Journal 25 Under 25 honoree, Wang is committed to building inclusive communities and envisions a startup ecosystem where women are fully supported, equally represented, and empowered to lead the ventures of tomorrow.

Marisa Sweeney, CPS’22

Be Well

Driven by a passion to transform women’s healthcare through holistic, evidence-based practices, Marisa Sweeney is an ardent champion for empathetic and accessible wellness. As a registered dietitian and the owner of Be Well Integrative Health Services in Morristown, New Jersey, her work integrates traditional medical care with innovative solutions that offer women with a comprehensive, personalized approach to healing. Beyond her clinical practice, Sweeney’s interest in sustainable living led her to found New Jersey VegFest—the Garden State’s official vegan food festival connecting over 30,000 annual attendees with local plant-based businesses.

Ruby Sulter, DMSB’27

AthenaStrong

For Ruby Sulter, making the gym experience healthy, comfortable, and successful for women has been a lifelong goal. Combining her passion for innovation within the health and fitness space with her co-op experience at a local wellness brand, Sulter started AthenaStrong—a company that produces lifting straps to help womenachieve their goals in the gym. Designed for women of all fitness levels, the AthenaStrong straps leverage the intersection of fitness and technology to instill empowerment during any workout.

Lee Sowles, Marymount’06, MPH’13, Roux Founder Residency’25

Kind Mind

Lee Sowles brings two decades of expertise in early childhood development, trauma-informed practice, public health, and applied compassion to her pursuit of transforming education. Drawing from her personal healing journey with mind-body practices and research-based principles, she developed Kind Mind, an education technology platform that integrates high-impact compassion practices into the school day. The platform empowers teachers to reduce challenging behaviors and bullying while fostering emotional wellness in students. By cultivating the seeds of compassion one person at a time, Sowles advocates for systemic change in education at every level.

Vallabhi Singh, DMSB’17

Creatives Around The World

As a brand strategist and early-stage investor, Vallabhi Singh applies a global curiosity and perspective to her work as a storyteller, consumer insights analyst, and brand consultant.  Inspired by her time working with high-growth startups and direct-to-consumer brands, she launched her venture Creatives Around The World (CATW) to unite the many entrepreneurs and innovators in her network and drive meaningful collaboration and social impact through purpose-driven brands and ventures. Based between Delhi and Boston, Singh leverages her international perspective and cross-cultural expertise with CATW to discover, invest in, and scale innovative consumer startups.

Soumya Singh, MS’26

Orange Stack
Glossi App

Soumya Singh has a background in architecture and UX design and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in information systems at Northeastern University. She brings a unique blend of user-centered design thinking and systems-level understanding to the two startups she founded—Orange Stack and Glossi. Orange Stack offers UI and UX design services to create intuitive and visually appealing digital experiences for a product or service, while Glossi is an app that uses an AI-powered system to streamline vehicle inspections.

Khushi Shah, DMSB’27, Khoury’27

Drizzl

Imagine developing a technology so innovative that it is used and recognized by Google, Forbes, and NASA—for Khushi Shah, that is a reality. As the founder of the climate technology company Drizzl, Shah has reimagined the irrigation process. Using a variety of underground humidity sensors, users can track and manage the irrigation process of their land and plants through the Drizzl app while keeping their water bills low. Shah isn’t just helping optimize irrigation; she is making a positive impact on the environment through the collective 13.5 million liters of water saved by Drizzl users.

Ceylan Rowe, AS’03

The Fihri Foundation

Ceylan Rowe is a promoter of dignity and health for women and girls. She is the founder and CEO of the Fihri Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing period poverty by providing sustainable menstrual products to women and girls globally, with a focus on disaster-stricken areas. A former commissioner for the MetroWest Commission on the Status of Women, Rowe has spent her career advocating for women’s rights and menstrual equity. With a background in political science and an MBA from Babson College, she combines a passion for humanitarian work with strategic leadership to create lasting social impact.

Katya Pourteymour, DMSB/AMD’22

Arete Ventures Partners

Drawing on her unique background blending finance, entrepreneurship, and UI/UX design and experience leading more than 100 due diligence projects for private equity and Fortune 500 companies, Katya Pourteymour champions the belief that real estate can be both financially successful and community driven. As a founding partner of Arete Venture Partners, she reimagines how capital, design, and operations intersect to transform underutilized properties into high-performing, community-enhancing assets. Through her relationship-first approach to real estate private equity, Pourteymour is thoughtfully shaping tomorrow’s development landscape while paving the way for the next generation of leaders.

Izabella Pivo, DMSB’25

The Entrepreneurial Girl

It’s difficult for members of the university community to hear Izabella Pivo’s name without immediately thinking of the word “entrepreneur.” Since the beginning of her Northeastern experience, Pivo has been a beacon for the entrepreneurial community on campus through her work as outreach director and co-VP of WeBuild for WISE. Now, Pivo is working on her next great venture—The Entrepreneurial Girl, an entrepreneur-led media company that documents founders on their journey from the conception of their venture to its execution. With this new venture and her history of supporting more than 300 founders and their teams, she is on track to change the world.

Julieta Moradei, E’16

Overlay Capital Build

Through her work as a structural engineer and architect turned venture capitalist, Julieta Moradei has spent more than a decade driving innovation in construction. Inspired to pursue this career during her co-ops at Disney, SGH, and Arup, her core focus is digitizing one of the world’s least innovative sectors to drive its decarbonization. While designing tech campuses for companies like Apple, Meta, and Google, Moradei witnessed firsthand the inadequacies that lead to significant rework and waste. Today, she is managing partner and founder of a consultancy helping real estate owners and developers adopt construction technology, and general partner of a fund investing in early-stage property services and construction services technology with a focus on female founders. Moradei is also the founder of Women in Construction Tech, a global community empowering female founders, investors, and adopters of built environment technology.

Alexa Coulombe McGovern, Roux Founder Residency’25

Dirigo Sea Farm

Alexa Coulombe McGovern is a cancer survivor who was told her breast cancer at 29 may have been caused by environmental factors. So with her background in sales and marketing, R&D, strategy, and operations work, she’s using kelp to reduce plastic use and minimize harmful human exposure to chemicals and microplastics. Coulombe McGovern founded the Dirigo Sea Farm three years after she first learned about kelp farming. As a mom concerned by the abundance of plastic products available to her and her child, she uses kelp from her farm to create bioplastic alternatives to single-use and non-biodegradable plastic.

Sarah Martins, BHS’23

The Special Standard

Sarah Martins co-founded The Special Standard to provide therapists with tools to work smarter, not harder. As a licensed speech-language pathologist, she experienced firsthand the overwhelming caseloads and resource shortages that burden therapists in educational settings. The Special Standard integrates state standards and developmental norms into a comprehensive curriculum that improves outcomes for special education students while streamlining therapy planning to combat practitioner burnout. 

Lori Lennon, AS’04

Thinkubator Media

After a gratifying career in journalism, marketing, and public relations, Lori Lennon was seeking a new challenge. So she decided to launch her own agency empowering women in STEM through branding, communications, and coaching. As the founder and CEO of Thinkubator Media, Lennon is dedicated to elevating the profiles of women in STEM. A passionate storyteller and advocate, she worked in television news at NECN and WBZ-TV Boston, pioneering digital news content and earning multiple Edward R. Murrow and Associated Press awards. Lennon now helps amplify the diverse voices of women heard inside and outside of their STEM fields.

Anjali Laddha, DMSB’26

Degree2Destiny

To Anjali Laddha, every student at any level of their educational journey should have the ability to unlock their potential. Using the CAN system—communication, AI, and networking—Degree2Destiny aims to equip students with learning management systems, AI-powered tools, and career resources to enhance their trajectory. Since launching in 2023, Degree2Destiny has helped more than 2,000 students transform their degrees and has secured funding from the Northeastern University Startup Founder Co-op Program. With these resources, Laddha is not only helping students take the steps towards their first full-time position but also guiding them toward lifelong career growth.

Safiya Khalid, SSH’24

Community Organizing Alliance

Safiya Khalid founded the Community Organizing Alliance (COA) to empower people to actively shape and transform their communities. Drawing on her background as the first Somali American elected official in Maine and her master’s in public policy from Northeastern, she engages young people in the civic process through targeted leadership development and voter participation initiatives. In just two years, the COA has connected more than 300 individuals with leadership opportunities, systematically expanding civic participation to ensure young people have both the resources and power to lead meaningful change.

Daisy Kendrick, SSH’16

DaisyK.Madrid

Daisy Kendrick has applied an entrepreneurial mindset to a wide range of projects since graduating from Northeastern in 2016. Her guiding principle? Developing personalized solutions to address large scale problems. Her environmental nonprofit Ocean Generation harnessed social media and technology to educate millennial and Gen Z audiences about climate change, making significant waves in environmental activism. In 2024, Kendrick pivoted to fashion, founding the elevated made-to-measure shirt brand DaisyK.Madrid while challenging conventions in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

Tejaswini Kambaiahgari, MS’25

BaselineTech

Tejaswini Kambaiahgari graduated from Northeastern in 2025 with a master’s degree in product development and is an alumna of the Sherman Venture Co-op program. She founded BaselineTech, a startup developing a cutting-edge snowboarding simulator that uses VR integration and real-time analytics to track performances, giving users a realistic, immersive experience. By combining her engineering background with her passion for creating innovative, user-centered products, she’s making snowboarding more accessible and safer through mixed-reality technology, enabling year-round practice and enjoyment.

Stephanie Golik, AMD’15

Frontflip

From her start in architecture to her current role as a seasoned entrepreneur, Stephanie Golik takes opportunity as it comes. A Miami-based startup founder and designer, she is currently building Frontflip, an AI companion for real estate investors. Golik previously founded and led two venture capital-backed startups that were acquired, and also led design teams at Cruise, a self-driving car company. She originally trained as an architect at before making her way into the technology startup space, and is passionate about urban planning, painting, designing beautiful software, and helping creatives become more entrepreneurial.

Gabby Gabriel, AMD’12

Second Wind Media; GAB INC

Named one of USA Today’s Top Entrepreneurs of 2024, Gabby Gabriel is an international marketing expert, entrepreneur, author, and public speaker who has led impactful strategies and campaigns that drive growth for brands worldwide. Gabriel’s agencies, Second Wind Media and GAB INC, harness the power of storytelling with a sharp business focus to craft dynamic solutions and connect ideas, audiences, and markets. Offering services ranging from brand management to technological elevation, public relations to international expansion, she ensures every project delivers results while supporting people and companies to enable them to reach their full potential.

Cassandra Friend, BHS’24, DNP’27 

Kavalyn Custom Solutions

Cassie Friend’s military career was cut short by injuries, but her commitment to service never wavered. After leaving the Army, she pursued a nursing degree at Northeastern University Charlotte while also leading federal project performance improvement and analysis for a government consulting firm. Blending her personal experience as a veteran with her professional expertise, Cassie co-founded Kavalyn Custom Solutions, a women veteran-led consulting firm dedicated to helping service members, veterans, and their families navigate military benefits, transition from active duty, and thrive beyond their service.

Gina Dunn, AS’06, MS’13

My Paris Connect

As an American expat living in France, Gina Dunn recognizes the life-changing force of cultural immersion—and she wants to share it with others using her company My Paris Connect. Dunn started her French career in fashion communications, eventually becoming a freelance writer and working with clients like the International Chamber of Commerce, Louis Vuitton, and fashion and tech startups. Now, as the author of Paris Possibilities and founder of My Paris Connect, she is building a network that fosters meaningful connections and redefines what is possible for those seeking Paris as a destination or home.

Daniella Cohen, DMSB’26

BioBeats

For many people, music is a means of connection and a vessel for invoking emotions—for Daniella Cohen, it is a source of peace and an opportunity to help others sustain a healthy lifestyle. Combining her inherent business sense with her experience as a certified yoga teacher, Cohen started BioBeats, a biometric app that syncs the music you’re streaming with your body. Rooted in the philosophy of meditation and strength building, BioBeats aims to help users navigate certain stressors and anxieties using the power of music.

Ashleigh Chiwaya, S’26/Khoury’26 

Nuly Root’d 

Ashleigh Chiwaya was a freshman at an all-girls boarding school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, when she first realized that Black students faced a unique challenge: limited access to hair care products in academic environments. Using her experience as a hairstylist and hair store assistant manager, Chiwaya and her business partner Naomi Barrant, DMSB’26, AMD’26, launched Nuly Root’d, a vending machine venture that offers accessible and quality haircare products for students with natural hair. After competing in Northeastern’s Entrepreneurship Club Husky Startup Challenge and developing the business through a Sherman Venture Co-op, Barrant and Chiwaya are continuing to foster belonging on college campuses by making haircare more attainable for all.

Calia Brencsons-Van Dyk, Mills’90

Caliativity Productions

As the founder of Caliativity Productions, Calia Brencsons-Van Dyk has dedicated her career to helping individuals and organizations harness the power of narrative to elevate their voices, build confidence, and make a meaningful impact in their industries. With more than 25 years of experience, the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning producer, executive coach, and personal branding expert has explored many creative corners of the film and entertainment world. Today, her work with Caliativity Productions is grounded in fostering confidence and empowering individuals to step into their power (and the spotlight) through personal branding, public speaking training, and executive coaching.

Julie Brady, S’09

Balanced Beauty

Julie Brady graduated from Northeastern in 2009 with a degree in psychology and earned a nursing degree from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in 2017. Since then, she has combined her clinical experiences and passion for medical aesthetics to launch her own practice, Balanced Beauty. In addition to helping clients look and feel their best, she’s developing a program to train new injectors—not only through utilizing hands-on techniques, but also in compliance, safety, and the regulations essential to building a successful career in medical aesthetics.

Danielle Birchett, S’27

Aurora Health Tech

For Danielle Birchett, making an impact in the healthcare space has been a lifelong goal. Her dreams started to become reality this past spring: After placing first in the 2025 Demo Day competition at Northeastern, her venture, Aurora Health Tech, secured a partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital. With the help of these resources, Aurora Health Tech has been able to use transformative AI technology to detect and manage dystonic episodes in patients with cerebral palsy through a wearable device. Through personalized data tracking, families and caretakers can help improve the day-to-day lifestyles of patients and loved ones.

Claire Beskin, Roux Future of Healthcare Founder Residency’23

Empallo

Inspired by her dad, Claire Beskin originally wanted to become a doctor. But instead, she realized she might have a bigger impact on healthcare through advancing new care delivery models. After earning a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, she worked in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs, and management consulting at the Boston Consulting Group. While earning her MBA at MIT, she pitched a healthcare venture at a hackathon that led to co-founding Empallo, a virtual heart clinic offering affordable, accessible concierge-level cardiac care from home.

Naomi Barrant, DMSB’26/AMD’26

Nuly Root’d 

Growing up in Boston, Naomi Barrant noticed a gap in the availability of essential beauty products for people of color on college campuses around the city. Using her experience as a freelance hairstylist, Barrant—along with her business partner Ashleigh Chiwaya, S’26, Khoury’26—launched Nuly Root’d, a vending machine venture that offers accessible and quality haircare products for students with natural hair. After competing in Northeastern’s Entrepreneurship Club Husky Startup Challenge and developing the business through a Sherman Venture Co-op, Barrant and Chiwaya are continuing to foster belonging on college campuses by making haircare more attainable for all.

Rachel Domb, S’24

Rooted Living

When Rachel Domb was a high school athlete, she struggled to find healthier snack alternatives to the refined, sugar-filled options sold in stores. So, she began making her own. During her freshman year at Northeastern, Domb launched Rooted Living with advice and encouragement from members of the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship—and in 2020, her venture won the top prize in the Husky Startup Challenge. Now, Domb is doubling down on developing even more healthy, eco-friendly products so that consumers can “shop, snack, and support” their values, as she puts it.

Camille Martin, PhD’20

Alexandria Growth Brands

Camille Martin is reimagining the future of consumer goods one industry at a time. Her journey started with co-founding Seaspire, a company that focuses on bringing new ingredients to the market to treat cosmetic and chronic skin conditions. As a first-time founder, Martin was able to obtain $1 million in funding with the support of countless resources and experienced mentors. She now wants to leverage her ever-growing network and skillset to create a more equitable environment for entrepreneurs through her latest venture, Alexandria Growth Brands. Martin is focused on growing the businesses of a diverse group of entrepreneurs who, like her, are finding solutions to common problems.

Natasha Ibori, SSH’18

Uwana Energy

Women in the energy industry are few and far between, but Natasha Ibori is looking to change that. Through Uwana Energy, a company focused on the importance of human connection, Ibori is adding her own flare to the male-dominated field. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted life and proved how intertwined connection and energy truly are, Uwana Energy helped Nigerians receive free or reduced-cost electricity, allowing them to overcome their scarcity mindsets and return to prioritizing their mental health, finances, productivity, digital connections, families, and more.

Cassie Choi, BHS’13

Pair Team

Cassie Choi has always had a passion for healthcare and knack for serving others. Her years in medicine run the gamut, from working as an ER tech and critical care nurse to serving as director of operations for a health technology company. These experiences allowed Choi to realize that her passion lay in helping vulnerable populations and improving primary care practices, so she co-founded Pair Team with a friend who felt the same. Pair Team is a platform with a mission to simplify healthcare by creating more meaningful relationships between patients, providers, staff, and administrators, providing more support for everyone involved in the process.

Jameson Johnson, AMD’19

Boston Art Review

A lover of storytelling and collaborating, Jameson Johnson founded the Boston Art Review, a publication to foster conversations around a diverse selection of writing, art, and perspectives, during her time at Northeastern. Johnson’s goal in creating the Boston Art Review was to bridge the gaps between coverage, criticism, and community engagement in Boston, ultimately creating a platform that gives voice to people who are often underrepresented in this space.

Emily White, AS’05

Collective Entertainment

Emily White revolutionized voter turnout in an unprecedented fashion. What started with the #ivoted hashtag and showing polling place selfies to enter concert venues has turned into the iVoted Festival, one of the biggest digital music festivals ever, with hundreds of artists performing via webcast throughout the country. This undertaking, which changed the game for voter participation, would not be possible without White and her 200-volunteer team, comprised of 92-percent female, non-binary, POC, and/or LGBTQ+ individuals.

Thai-Anh Hoang, DMSB’06

EmBeba

When Thai-Anh Hoang was on an international vacation, and her toddler got a severe rash, the ointment she had brought along did not suffice. A friend gifted Hoang’s family with a homemade remedy consisting of ingredients that grew in their garden. The rash cleared up—and Hoang’s wheels started turning. Through her brand, EmBeba, she has merged generation-tested remedies with technology to create clean, effective, easy, safe, and fun products, while launching a support system for families dealing with skin issues like the ones she faced with her toddler.

Deborah Keane, BHS’86

California Caviar Company

When Deborah Keane asked her daughter what an innovator was, her daughter described the term as somebody who loves her job, does greater good for others, and keeps setting new goals with no limits. And Keane couldn’t agree more, as someone who founded the first sustainable and woman-owned caviar company in the U.S. Her business, the California Caviar Company, is run by her and other fearless women, many of whom are minorities, single-moms, and/or abuse survivors. Together, they make sure that the California Caviar Company is practicing what it preaches, sparking change, and seeing success after thoughtful, persistent work.

Gabrielle Whittle, E’21

Relevé

Gabrielle Whittle sees engineering as a perfect outlet for combining her curiosity for math and science with her passion for the arts and creative expression to effect positive change. Her knowledge and interests laid the groundwork for founding Relevé, a brand that centers on the empowerment of women through comfortable and fashionable shoes. With Relevé, Whittle is becoming the woman she aspired to be in her college admissions essay, someone who feeds her artistic spirit, but also solves real-world problems, like the infamously painful women’s high heel.

Mya Brown, DMSB’21

Jet Noire

After suffering an immense loss and going through the motions to cope, Mya Brown felt ready to create a positive disruption in the fashion industry and built Jet Noire. Brown’s goal with Jet Noire is to integrate environmental health, social equity, and economic vitality through fashion. All of Brown’s pieces are built on a triangle sliding scale, meaning a Jet Noire item can be a shirt today, a pair of pants tomorrow, and a bag the next day. Uniquely, they are also constructed to be deconstructed, just as Brown knows life can be sometimes.

Khailah Griffin, DMSB’22

UnorthoDOCx

A childhood filled with many moves taught Khailah Griffin to constantly look at the big picture. And though she always saw herself as more of a problem solver as opposed to an inventor, her venture, UnorthoDOCx, is nothing short of an innovation. The goal of UnorthoDOCx is to empower and diversify individuals in the field of medicine, show those who are interested in medical professions that there’s room for everyone in the medical world, and encourage people to unapologetically take an unconventional path to become a medical professional, like Griffin did herself.

Molly Beck, DMSB’09, MS’22

Messy.fm

Savvy, smart and spirited, Molly Beck has always loved building, inventing, and having her hand in various entertainment revolutions. Once an avid blogger, Beck realized that the podcast revolution was starting up and decided to capitalize on that. Her company, Messy.fm, is offering podcasting software solutions to companies looking to fill the gap between their internal communication and the rising trend of the thin line between entertainment and infotainment.

Shital Waters, Khoury’23

BluePlanetAI

When Shital Waters went off to college, she saw so many women were changing the world, and she wanted to be one of them. Inspired by stories, guidance, and advice provided by these women, and her belief that looking after oceans needed to be a priority, she founded BluePlanetAI. Her company focuses on tackling the challenges of harmful algae blooms using a drone. Today, Waters aspires to involve women in tech entrepreneurship and to create systems like hers that positively effect the environment.

Michelle Calderon, DMSB’21

Addition Beauty

Michelle Calderon credits her success to her diversified career journey, which includes her venture, Addition Beauty, being selected to be part of Northeastern’s NSF I-Corps program. This program puts a strong emphasis on customer discovery, which allowed Calderon to study what women want in terms of personal care products related to fertility and pregnancy. Based on her research, Calderon is using Addition Beauty to launch the first sustainable color cosmetic line that doesn’t have harmful chemicals that affect pregnant women and their developing children, empowering women to make safer choices during this critical point in their lives.

Aniyah Smith, DMSB’21

Push Beauty

A desire for representation served as a catalyst for the entrepreneurial journey of Aniyah Smith, a self-described born leader, lifelong learner, and creative thinker. Through her venture, Smith is looking to build her beauty brand, Push Beauty, to be inclusive, representative of a culture she wishes she had in the industry years prior, and a story of confidence and self-expression that everyone can see themselves in.

Binja Basimike, BHS’12, MPH’14

Kivu Venture Capital

A known leader, innovator, and adventurer, Binja Basimike has hit the ground running after landing in her current home of Congo to develop Kivu Venture Capital. This VC firm’s goal is to create a network of female African foodpreneurs who can identify the most lucrative, sustainable, and nutritious fish; help alleviate poverty and malnutrition in their own lives and in their communities; and grow their personal brands so other women and girls can see the fishing industry as one in which they can thrive. By supporting this unique group, Basimike’s goal is to create a legacy of African entrepreneurship, as well as change the perspective of what women can accomplish.

Temidola Ikomi, DMSB’17

Irawo Studio

Propelled by her mother’s creativity and work ethic, and the way Northeastern values resilience and perseverance, Temidola Ikomi launched Irawo Studio. This female-owned and family-run business creates showstopping pieces specifically for women who are unapologetically blazing their own trails and claiming their own destinies.

Birta Ólafsdóttir, DMSB’14

LDV

Following her father’s’ advice that in order to reach your full potential, you must first pursue happiness by tapping into your curiosity, Birta Ólafsdóttir launched her dream venture, Salotto, meaning living room in Italian. Ólafsdóttir has since changed the name to LDV, but the sentiment remains the same: To bring the world a retail platform for luxury vintage furniture design, where art deco meets the seventies.

Kate Weiler, MS’13

Drink Simple

Kate Weiler has harnessed the natural power of trees to create a nutritious and delicious maple water made of more than 40 plant-powered nutrients. Although this sounds complex, Weiler’s beverage is called Drink Simple—and it’s good for the planet and for people, empowering healthy minds, bodies, and souls.

Wendy Farnen Price, BHS’94, MS’00, DPT’14

Healthcore

With years working in direct patient care and her experience in her current role at Healthcore, Wendy Farnen Price has learned that in order to make lasting healthy lifestyle or behavioral changes, women need to feel and be heard and supported. One of Healthcore’s pillars includes educational, lifestyle medicine and health coaching programs—and Price is hoping to create and lead a new one titled Together With Tea, a group women’s health coaching program to empower women to make healthy lifestyle changes.

Ashley Girard, S’07

Welly’s Wellness

Living by the belief that all individuals should have access to affordable, healthy, and delicious foods, Ashley Girard looks to revolutionize the convenience store industry with her business, Welly’s Wellness. Described as a “7-Eleven, but on wheels,” Welly’s Wellness is the first mobile, self-contained storefront that sells prepackaged snacks, functional beverages, and small household goods—with a bold plan to tackle food deserts across the U.S. by opening 1,000 storefront trailers in the next five years. 

Yewande Masi, SSH’09

Ornami

Yewande Masi believes that with the daily stress, dehydration, and toxic ingredients women face day to day, basic body care just won’t cut it—innovative healing and restorative action is crucial. That’s why she founded Ornami Skincare, a brand that helps make women feel confident, built on the tenets of empowerment, sustainability, and toxin-free living.

Natasha Shazana, DMSB’13

Soko

Growing up in Malaysia, Natasha Shazana remembers walking through countless malls and wondering why nobody in bra ads looked like her. To change that paradigm, she quit her private equity job at Morgan Stanley in New York City, moved back to Malaysia, and launched her own bra company, Soko, with its name deriving from the Malay word sokong, meaning support. With comfort and empowerment top of mind, Soko brings Malaysian women utter satisfaction during what is typically an overall frustrating experience.

Tabitha Boyton, NCH’22

Res Publica

To Tabitha Boyton, a leader is someone who amplifies all voices, especially the ones that aren’t always heard—voices of the underrepresented, underserved, and marginalized. Through her media platform, Res Publica, she’s shaking up the status quo and lifting up women of color by ensuring that they have a place and a voice in academic and political discussions, debates, and publications.

Valerie Robert, Khoury’23

The Circuit

Valerie Robert believes in the power of ventures “by Gen Z for Gen Z.” Cognizant of the increasingly digital age and its intersection with our daily lives, she created The Circuit, a tech-loving student-run editorial and media platform that highlights today’s technology-related trends, developments, effects, and more, helping others stay up to date on the everchanging tech world.

Michelle Beaudette, DMSB’23

Kaolin Beauty

Michelle Beaudette is a farmer, environmental activist, and passionate self-care and sustainability advocate. Her beauty brand, Kaolin Beauty, is an embodiment of her unique identity. Created to serve both people and the planet, Kaolin Beauty is poised to be one of the first-ever brands to use regenerative organic certified herbs in all its products, which means the beauty brand’s production processes meet the highest standards in the world for soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness.

Cynthia Orofo, BHS’19, PhD’24

Culture Care Collective

Determined to address the countless health disparities that came to light during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cynthia Orofo founded the Culture Care Collective. This hybrid health support program integrates community health workers into clinical care teams to properly coordinate care for marginalized groups and increase access to healthcare at low costs.

Priscilla Marie Colon, MBA’22

After witnessing a near-fatal birthing experience in Bihar, India, Priscilla Marie Colon dedicated herself to ensuring more women receive quality care during childbirth. She received funding to start an initiative focused on educating nearly 200 birth attendants in Nigeria on how to respond to obstetric emergencies during childbirth. Now, Colon seeks to make a larger impact by creating a nonprofit aimed at reducing preventable maternal deaths and improving overall maternal health using her Northeastern business education.

Madhuri Iyer, CPS’22

EzReg

Madhuri Iyer and Amanda Céspedes have spent the past five years gaining an understanding of regulatory challenges and exploring solutions. With skills and knowledge related to complicated regulatory pathways, the duo launched EzReg to help startups in the healthcare and medical device spaces understand regulations—saving their clients money and helping them comply with FDA and other requirements along the way.

Amanda Céspedes, MS’22

EzReg

Madhuri Iyer and Amanda Céspedes have spent the past five years gaining an understanding of regulatory challenges and exploring solutions. With skills and knowledge related to complicated regulatory pathways, the duo launched EzReg to help startups in the healthcare and medical device spaces understand regulations—saving their clients money and helping them comply with FDA and other requirements along the way.

Melissa Mullen, Khoury’22

Melissa Mullen created her venture, Smile, to harness the power of artificial intelligence and humor compatibility to create meaningful connections. After moving on from Smile, Mullen has learned a lot from the entrepreneurial process and is now looking for her next project. 

Cynthia Orofo, BHS’19, PhD’24

Culture Care Collective

Determined to address the countless health disparities that came to light during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cynthia Orofo founded the Culture Care Collective. This hybrid health support program integrates community health workers into clinical care teams to properly coordinate care for marginalized groups and increase access to healthcare at low costs.last.

Hannah Ung, DMSB’23

Boxy

A true embodiment of resilience, Hannah Ung took what she learned from growing up with her family of four tucked into a small room and turned it into an opportunity that allows people to make better use of their space. Called Boxy, her venture seeks to provide a platform for people to earn a profit from their unoccupied spaces by allowing others to use these spaces for storage purposes.

Wenjun Zhang, PhD’16, MBA’21

UniWise

As an engineer and entrepreneur, Wenjun Zhang envisions a future where everyone has access to fast, accurate, and real-time healthcare diagnostic testing anywhere, anytime. With her expertise, Zhang’s venture, UniWise, will help her identify societal issues, analyze their root causes, and develop solutions to resolve unmet needs through effective and affordable access to saliva-based diabetes testing.

Jae’da Turner, DMSB’14, MBA’16

Black Owned Bos

A creative, a community builder, and an innovator, Jae’da Turner poured her time and energy into elevating her agency, Black Owned Bos, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The fast-growing agency highlights the people moving Black culture forward in the Boston area; advances Black-owned businesses, places, and spaces; and helps close existing gaps in Boston’s Black-owned community.

Samantha Johnson, E’21, MS’21

Tatum Robotics

Driven by a mentor and former coach, and her own experience on a unified track and field team, Samantha Johnson knew early on that she wanted to make a positive impact on others. Johnson is doing just that through Tatum Robotics, an organization that creates low-cost robotic solutions for the DeafBlind community.

Tahisha Charles, MA’20

Miixtapechiick

In an effort to bridge the gap between online platforms that only cater to mainstream talent and emerging local talent, Tahisha Charles created Miixtapechiick. This site is the only woman-owned journalism platform in Massachusetts, and it shines a light on local talent from the state and helps musical artists build their fanbases.

Amy Andes, PhD, S’17

Banzo Brands

With a goal of figuratively and literally making space for everyone eating at the table, food scientist Amy Andes founded Banzo Brands. The brand brings awareness to food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities by creating inclusive versions of classic staple spreads—like a no-nut butter made of garbanzo beans—which ensure people don’t feel left out, uncertain about what they’re eating, or forgotten by the food industry.

Eliana Berger, DMSB’21

Envision

Seeing firsthand the lack of opportunity for underrepresented business founders, Eliana Berger wanted to make big changes in the VC space, and that’s how her work with Envision began. Envision is a nonprofit virtual venture accelerator for young founders from underrepresented groups like BIPOC and women, which democratizes access to funding, networks, and opportunities by providing hands-on support, a welcoming community, and a broad network of mentors and investors.

Sajni Vederey, DMSB’23

Shoerzo

From a young age, Sajni Vederey has aspired to foster inclusivity and empowerment in her community. With Shoerzo, she’s doing just that by emboldening women to make fashion choices in support of their health. Vederey long observed that when diabetic women in India were advised to wear therapeutic shoes to protect their sensitive feet, the bulky, unappealing styles drove them to sacrifice comfort for fashion—and often led to diabetes-related injuries. Through Shoerzo, Vederey offers chic, traditional restorative footwear so that diabetic consumers can dress comfortably and confidently.

Nita Ugbedeojo Akoh, S’23

My Atlas

Nita Ugbedeojo Akoh says that “a resilient mind is the greatest armor” when striving toward a challenging goal, an approach she learned from her lifelong role model—her mother. With that outlook, she’s developing My Atlas, a mental health wellness solution tailored to college students. The digital application provides customized support to users at no cost, and it can identify behavioral, emotional, and physical trends, dispense insights, and help deliver personalized treatment in partnership with skilled healthcare providers.

Chloe Welch, DMSB’23

SOAR

As co-founder of the sports supplement venture SOAR, Chloe Welch knows that the success of her company falls partly on her shoulders. Is the responsibility daunting? Yes, but this entrepreneur also finds it thrilling, from managing teams to making hard decisions to delivering assertive pitches. Welch and her SOAR co-founder Hanna Zainab Elzaridi are breaking into a male-dominated industry, and gaining valuable experience as non-tech founders creating a tech product. Thanks to collaborations with Northeastern student engineers and innovators, SOAR’s first kiosk will soon land in a Boston-area gym.

Hanna Zainab Elzaridi, DMSB’23

SOAR

Growing up, Hanna Zainab Elzaridi learned to embrace differences and challenge traditional gender roles. Today, her forward-looking mindset serves her well as co-founder of SOAR, a sports supplement vending machine venture that enables gym goers to quickly concoct customizable beverages on site. As a female innovator in the male-dominated fields of fitness and supplements, Elzaridi—along with her SOAR co-founder Chloe Welch—credits Northeastern’s entrepreneurial ecosystem for helping the venture take flight. Together, they are making the sports supplement industry more convenient, sustainable, and inclusive.

Alexis Musaelyan-Blackmon, S’25, Khoury’25

Dephend

Alexis Musaelyan-Blackmon is passionate about leveraging data, AI, and computational biology to unlock solutions to society’s complex cybersecurity problems. Enter Dephend, this entrepreneur’s cutting-edge answer to constant, increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks and other email-based threats. As a woman founder and CEO in a male-dominated field, Musaelyan-Blackmon has faced her fair share of challenges—and she’s committed to supporting, inspiring, and advancing other women innovators in tech.

Debpriya Das, DMSB’23

Bioland

Debpriya Das has a proven track record in furthering education, having discovered her self-described “secret talent” for teaching biology at a young age. At just 19, she became a respected and inspiring high school biology teacher in her native Bangladesh. Now, with Bioland, Das combines her love of science with her leadership knowledge and diverse background to power a positive difference, improving education in the biosciences. Her motto? If a changemaker is passionate about a cause, there’s no challenge they cannot overcome.

Kristine Aleksandrovica, DMSB’23, SSH’23

Stulitito

With skills in supply chain, finance, and strategy, Kristine Aleksandrovica relishes the idea of using disruptive innovation to transform the economy while also improving sustainability. For more than 10 years, she’s dreamed of launching an eco-friendly furniture company that uses recycled materials, a so-called better IKEA of the future. Aleksandrovica’s concept for her venture, Stulitito, utilizes cutting-edge green materials—like a leather alternative sourced from the root structure of mushrooms—to build furniture manufactured using ethical labor practices and a transparent supply chain.

Marine Nimblette, S’23

Businesses United in Diversity (BUD)

Marine Nimblette’s background is in behavioral neuroscience, but this activist is also passionate about uplifting her community by advancing ideas and practices that are innovative, inclusive, and generationally sustainable. Through Businesses United in Diversity, Nimblette merges her interest in improving health and wellness outcomes with confronting challenges faced by Black entrepreneurs and showcasing Black-owned businesses. Each day, she works to promote diversity in her community by representing an array of voices and perspectives.

Sima Bou Jawde, BHS’27

Enrich Academia

As a woman in the Middle East pursuing a college career, Sima Bou Jawde observed that young learners must often overcome complex socioeconomic and cultural conventions to unlock doors to an education. Enrich Academia aims to help international students surmount the hurdles they may face in continuing their education by providing mentorship, resources, and practical tools to ensure success. Jawde ultimately hopes to dismantle barriers to access, and create equal opportunity for scholars from diverse and distinct backgrounds.

Jessica Pogranyi, DMSB’13

Cara a Cara

As a first-generation American, Jessica Pogranyi learned the importance of resilience, hard work, and connectedness at a young age. Then after years of working in corporate roles, Pogranyi embarked on a new challenge in 2020 as a founder of Cara a Cara—a sustainable mezcal brand distilled with rainwater and grounded in a deep commitment to doing good and fostering connections between communities. Her next goal is to create a closed loop wastewater treatment system by building an onsite water treatment plant  to process and reuse water for irrigation and cleaning.

Melissa Withers, S’02

RevUp

Having spent her career working in male-dominated industries, Melissa Withers was compelled to launch her own investment platform, RevUp, to write her own story and help close the funding gender and diversity gap. As one of the first revenue-based funds for early stage companies, RevUp has directed more than 60 percent of its investments to companies led by women or people of color. Withers is now working on a special season of her podcast (Un)founded, where she will tell and promote the stories of women and funders “louder and prouder than ever before.”

Johanna Davenport Calica, S’12

La Porte

Johanna Davenport Calica uses fashion to create points of connection between people, places, and cultural movements. Since 2018, her sustainable and gender inclusive luxury resortwear brand LA PORTE has garnered widespread industry recognition for its approach to inclusive and ethically made swimwear. With her venture, Davenport Calica seeks to provide women with a shopping experience that takes into account those who may not have been born female but identify as female or nonbinary, as well as women who want to wear gender-fluid clothing.

Massiel Eversley, BSN’06

Nisus Life

As a mother of three, nurse leader, and health advocate, Massiel Eversley is committed to making nutrition simple and attainable for women at every stage of their pregnancy journey. Her product, Nisus Life Postpartum & Lactation, is a vegan, all-in-one postpartum and lactation protein powder that fills a critical gap in the maternal health product category. Ultimately, Eversley seeks to bring more awareness to women about the necessity of getting healthy postpartum, as well as the importance of the choices they make about their health through supplementation, prevention, and resources.

Ammy Lowney, SSH’05

JUICYGREENS

To Ammy Lowney, healthy food is more than just fuel—it’s an opportunity to support and educate the community, promote sustainable living, and create a more equitable hospitality industry. With four locations in the Boston area, JUICYGREENS serves a healthy plant-based menu while supporting other small businesses and local youth organizations through wellness initiatives. She is currently working to launch a farm-to-dorm rooms meal program that provides healthy food and snacks to students who stuggle with food security.

Helene Servillon, AMD’12

JourneyOne Ventures

Helene Servillon is passionate about changing the venture capital status quo to create a more equitable business ecosystem for women. Despite having no prior finance background, no investor connections, and no experience in investing, she embraced the challenge of pivoting her career and founded JourneyOne Ventures, a 100 percent woman- and minority-owned early stage fund investing in highly regulated and misunderstood industries. Servillon counsels budding entrepreneurs to work hard and smart, and to believe in themselves—two maxims that she learned from her role model, her mom.

Shanae Chapman, CPS’12                                       

Nerdy Diva

After years of witnessing inequities in the product development and startup workplace, Shanae Chapman launched Nerdy Diva in 2018. As a boutique, Black woman-owned tech solutions company offering research, design, training, and content strategy, Nerdy Diva’s mission is to inspire creative problem solving in tech and society, with a focus on increasing access and opportunity for everyone. Chapman applies industry best practices and academic research principles to fuel her work, while partnering with companies that care about their impact on communities, society, and the world.

Taja Lester, Mills College, MBA’11

Health Equity Capital

As the founder and managing partner of Health Equity Capital, Taja Lester invests in entrepreneurs who are committed to improving health outcomes in communities that she knows well, based on her lived experience. Health Equity Capital aims to change the current state of healthcare in the United States by funding high-performing ventures that drive more equitable health outcomes in three target populations: women, racial and ethnic minorities, and people over age 65. Lester is adept at identifying and nurturing investment opportunities, particularly at the intersection of the life sciences and health equity sectors. 

Madison Rifkin, DMSB’21

Mount

Madison Rifkin’s entrepreneurial journey began when she was 12 years old, when she won an innovation competition by developing a new kind of bike lock. Her latest venture, Mount, enables owners of vacation rentals and boutique hotels to provide their guests with adventure equipment rentals such as bikes, scooters, kayaks, paddleboards, surfboards, snowshoes, and beach equipment to enhance their vacation experience. Rifkin says she seeks to build a new type of company led by amazing women in leadership to give a voice to those who haven’t gotten one before.

Dania Alnahdi, Khoury’22

Cora Care

Though Dania Alnahdi wasn’t sure she had the courage to launch her own business, she took a leap of faith with Cora Care, inspired by her experience of having a sick pet. Her innovative product, Cora Care Strips, provide pet owners peace of mind by giving them direct, affordable, instant knowledge about their pet’s health. As a Middle Eastern, Muslim female entrepreneur in a male-dominated area and a longtime advocate for diversity in technology, Alnahdi aims to encourage other women to pursue their passions in entrepreneurship and feel more comfortable in technology and engineering spaces.

Gina-Maria Garcia, AMD’15

BUYa Beauty

Gina-Maria Garcia is disrupting the human hair extension industry with a first-to-market innovative invention with ethically sourced human hair. Her BUYa Beauty human hair extensions come directly from willing sellers in Europe and Southeast Asia, and are meant for women with thin or fine hair. Garcia cites her mom, also a Northeastern graduate, as her greatest supporter, whose help on many levels got her to the launch stage. In the future, she would like to mentor other budding female entrepreneurs in the Northeastern community.

Lilly Stairs, AMD’15

The Chronic Boss Collective

Leading with passion, empathy, and vulnerability, Lilly Stairs seeks to create a networking membership for women leaders with chronic conditions, giving them a space to call their own and to thrive in their careers. Diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases at 19 years old, she is launching the Chronic Boss Collective, a community for ambitious businesswomen living with similar chronic illnesses. Stairs says she is particularly energized when surrounded by fellow female leaders, and is excited to achieve her dream of positively impacting the lives of the millions of women.

Chahhat Lakhwani Melwani, DMSB’18

Cleyo Beauty

Chahhat Lakhwani Melwani felt overwhelmed by the variety of skincare products on the market, not to mention the number of steps involved in many skincare routines. To make skincare easy, effective, affordable, and kind to sensitive skin, she launched Cleyo Beauty. Since then, she has overcome many challenges in funding, the supply chain, and manufacturing, and she plans to scale her business from Chile to include the U.K. and other countries. Melwani believes that connecting with like-minded individuals who are innovative and have entrepreneurial ambitions like she does can result in great things.

Divya Malpani, DMSB’22

Skinvest

Making skincare clinical but cool was the goal of Divya Malpani in launching Skinvest, a line of gender-neutral products that help tackle the most prominent concerns of Indian skin. Since launching her company in February 2022, Malpani has overcome her hesitations related to hiring and trusting the employees she has needed to ensure that her business grows. Now selling in the U.S. as of January 2023, her Skinvest brand has six new products coming out and ambitious plans to expand to other countries with large Indian populations such as the U.K., Canada, and the United Arab Emirates.

Adebukola Ajao, CPS’21

For All Things Digital

Adebukola Ajao is a freelance writer-turned-digital media entrepreneur with a passion for mentoring, storytelling, and driving awareness through powerful marketing campaigns. As the founder of For All Things Digital, Ajao helps entrepreneurs access information and resources in the digital marketing sphere including grants, free coaching opportunities, and financial guidance. Her community oriented approach to educating business owners through the lens of popular culture makes strategic marketing more accessible, affordable, and digestible for all people.

Caroline Klibanoff, SSH’18

Made By Us

Caroline Klibanoff is a founder and strategist committed to strengthening democracy, uplifting youth, and connecting tomorrow’s leaders with their role in shaping America’s story. She’s inspired by organizations that are innovative and ambitious, yet transformative, even when they are civic or public facing. As executive director of Made By Us, Klibanoff brings the nation’s history to younger generations in novel and meaningful ways via a network of museums, historic sites, and archives—and in doing so, educates and engages learners as they discover their passions and step into active citizenship.

Denisse Esther Mayers Paulino, MBA’17

DEMP Agency

Passionate about creating positive, lasting social change, Denisse Esther Mayers Paulino is increasing access and opportunities for clients from underrepresented communities. As founder of DEMP Agency, an Afro-Latinx, woman-owned brand strategy, marketing, and design firm, Mayers Paulino aligns creativity and strategy to uplift minority-owned businesses and other organizations. Through her work in sectors from healthcare and education to finance—with partners that include Boston Public Schools, InnoPsych, and the Social Innovation Fund—Mayers Paulino expands equitable opportunities for creativity, learning, and personal development.

Laura Kozuszek, CPS’21,’22

Island Sustainability Solutions

Laura Kozuszek is a strategist, consultant, and environmentalist who thrives on tackling complex societal issues that arise at the cross-section of the natural environment and human interaction. Her multifaceted background includes studying biology and economics, working in disaster management, and earning her advanced certification as an open-water scuba diver. Today, as the founder of Island Sustainability Solutions, Kozuszek partners with island and coastal communities to design and implement resilience and sustainability solutions that address the effects of climate change.

Manvi Kottakota, Khoury’26

Jot

Manvi Kottakota is co-vice president of Northeastern’s Entrepreneurs Club, takes part in co-op, and attends classes as a data science student. With so many responsibilities, she observed that she and her busy classmates lacked a streamlined, singular tool to take notes, keep them organized, and share among each other. This inspired Kottakota to create Jot, an AI-powered, personalized, notetaking and task management platform that helps users organize their notes and thoughts effortlessly. “I noticed that brilliant ideas and important information get lost due to inefficient sorting,” she says.

Aleena Jacob, BHS’24

Harvard Medical School’s MEDscienceLAB Forensics Program

For Aleena Jacob, attending Harvard Medical School’s MEDscience summer program in high school was life changing. It exposed her to learning opportunities in science, prompted her to pursue a career in medicine, and led her to work as an EMT and medical assistant. Later, while on co-op at Harvard Medical School, Jacob helped develop a forensics medicine-centered curriculum within the same MEDscience summer program that she had attended. The MEDscienceLAB Forensics course immerses students in engaging theoretical murder mysteries, and combines clinical and laboratory work to provide a simulated case experience. “I’m committed to merging scientific knowledge with practical experience,” Jacob says. “And I’m eager to promote health awareness, and contribute to innovative approaches in both healthcare and education.”

Nicole Guadagno, E’25

Remetra

For a decade, Nicole Guadagno lived with constant pain stemming from an autoimmune disease. It took over her life until just a year and a half ago, when her medical team was able to control the disease in remission. Upon reaching this milestone, she knew that she wanted to help other people in similar situations. Her venture, Remetra, is a wearable device that provides autoimmune disease symptom management by measuring inflammatory markers and transmitting the collected data to a mobile platform for analysis. “I wonder what today might look like if people could be liberated from disease and be empowered by their new health,” Guadagno says. “This is what inspires me daily.”

Muskaan Gill, E’26

ZOR!

Muskaan “Mukki” Gill began her entrepreneurial journey with the personal mission of helping her younger brother, Zor, who suffers from epileptic seizures. As a child, she learned that dogs could be trained to predict seizures, which led her to question how she could take this special canine ability and make it more accessible for humans. Her solution was to develop a wearable device named ZOR!, which is a non-invasive, portable device that can predict seizures through a patient’s breath analysis. “The venture I’m building is a commitment to make seizure prediction technology accessible, affordable, and life-changing by putting the power into the patient’s hands,” Gill says.

in Naomi Rajput, S’26

Eden AI

Naomi Rajput has an extensive background the healthcare sector. Not only is she a pre-med student, but she’s also worked as a medical assistant, phlebotomist, and pediatric researcher. These experiences led her to notice the workflow inefficiencies in the American healthcare system, including communication gaps between administration staff and physicians, overly complex electronic health record portals, and more. Rajput’s venture, Eden AI, is a voice-based AI system that automates healthcare administration. Eden reduces manual work for medical offices and serves as a personal assistant for patients: calling doctors, coordinating care, and organizing health records in minutes.

Cheuk Yan (Kat) Tse, AMD’24

Terms and Conditions

Cheuk Yan (Kat) Tse, a Hong Kong-based lifestyle blogger, entrepreneur, and communications major, wanted to create a safe place for authentic and meaningful conversations surrounding self-care and mental health. Through her fashion and wellness magazine, Terms and Conditions, she’s achieved just that. Tse’s magazine was inspired by her journey to overcome various physical and mental health challenges, and the women who helped her along the way. “Meeting a group of empowering women online has turned my life around. It’s inspired me to innovate and believe in myself,” Tse says. “I believe that influencing just one person in society to feel better about themselves is already life changing.”

Samantha Asprelli, DMSB’26

Give n’ Glow

Samantha Asprelli has spent her life giving back to her community. She’s led food pantry drives, volunteered with nonprofit organizations, and built a network of connections along the way. After volunteering with the Wonderfund to pack feminine hygiene kits, Asprelli launched Give n’ Glow, which repurposes secondhand beauty products for women in need while also minimizing makeup waste. “This endeavor is fueled by the belief in the transformative power of beauty products for confidence,” Asprelli says. “The journey has just begun, but the vision is clear: Give n’ Glow wants to ensure that every woman facing adversity can experience the joy that beauty products bring.”

Kadesh Simms Conroy, DMSB’01, MBA’08

Wishing Well

A managing director at the Wellspring Group, Kadesh Simms Conroy, DMSB’01, MBA’08, is also the founder of Wishing Well, a mobile app currently in development that provides life-changing financial resilience through group economics. Early in life, Simms Conroy recognized that despite hard work and ambition, her community was vulnerable to economic uncertainty because it lacked access to traditional financial institutions. Simms Conroy’s app enables people to pool their resources, creating a financial safety net for each other, as well as facilitating interest-free loans, giving community members a sense of security and increasing their economic opportunities.

Ashley Cummings, DMSB’08, AP’09

Natural ASH

A registered nurse and former accountant, Ashley Cummings is the visionary founder behind Natural ASH, crafting an all-natural skincare line tailored for women in their maternal and reproductive years. Her dedication to motherhood and holistic wellness next led her to establish nurASHed, a lactation wellness counseling service focused on empowering breastfeeding success among Black women. With a bachelor’s and master’s in accounting and finance from Northeastern, Cummings blends her financial acumen and healthcare expertise to elevate women’s health and tackle healthcare disparities in society.

Meaghan St Marc, AMD’10

Rev’d

Meaghan St Marc is the founder and CEO of Rev’d Indoor Cycling, and the newly launched Rev’d Franchising LLC. As the founder of two successful startups, she has demonstrated a unique ability to identify market opportunities and build successful business strategies. St Marc is characterized by her strategic vision, strong communication skills, and commitment to fostering a positive work environment. Passionate about empowering others, she is actively involved in mentorship programs for aspiring entrepreneurs. When not on the podium or in the boardroom, St Marc spends time with her husband and their children in their Boston neighborhood.

Marissa Mullen, AMD’15

That Cheese Plate

Marissa Mullen is a Brooklyn-based, two-time best-selling author, entrepreneur, food stylist, and content creator. She is the founder of That Cheese Plate—a global community for cheese plate inspiration, pairings, recipes, and tutorials. Featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, the Rachael Ray Show, Live with Kelly + Ryan, Business Insider, and Food + Wine, among many others, Mullen is known for pioneering the cheese and charcuterie trend in popular culture today through her signature Cheese By Numbers method, educational classes, and compelling storytelling.

Kaitlin McCarthy, E’09

Ionic Development Co.

As the founder of Ionic Development Co.—one of the first women-owned development firms in Boston—Kaitlyn McCarthy has worked in the real estate development, engineering, and construction industries for over 15 years. She has grown Ionic to three people (all women) and works on life science, office, retail, and affordable housing projects, always with an eye toward improving the communities they are in. McCarthy completed her BS in civil engineering from Northeastern University, her MBA at Harvard Business School, and consulted for several Fortune 100 companies during her time at the Boston Consulting Group.

Rama Doddi, CPS’24

RegINTL

When Rama Doddi pivoted her career from human resources to regulatory affairs—a specialty that ensures health-related products meet regulatory agency guidelines—she grappled with understanding FDA regulations and guidance documents. Doddi realized she could simplify this complex set of challenges by creating RegINTL, a thorough, user-friendly database that can be shared with entrepreneurs as well as small- to mid-sized organizations. “This toolkit holds the potential to serve as comprehensive guidance for the safe production of drugs, biologics, and medical devices,” says Doddi, “not only in the United States but for global citizens at large.”

Linh Dinh, CPS’25

ATURE

Linh Dinh observed that small- and medium-scale enterprises in her native Vietnam lack access to strategic marketing and established retailers, resulting in consumers missing out on unique, locally sourced and culturally rich goods. Through ATURE, Dinh plans to elevate these commodities, as well as the artisans and farmers who generate them, by using storytelling to transform merchandise into valued belongings—while also boosting economic opportunity for creators and building authentic connections with buyers. “I understand the market, the cultural nuances, and importantly, the heart and soul behind the products ATURE will represent,” she says.

Kerrian Johnson, MBA’25

Fruit Juice Studio

Kerrian Johnson observed that in the creative sphere, the contributions of Black women are often undervalued and the women themselves are frequently undercompensated. Enter Fruit Juice Studio, an accessible design firm for Black women entrepreneurs and creatives where they are seen, heard, and receive support in raising their brand visibility through contemporary, yet nostalgic influences. “My journey alongside my business partner, Kyra Marshall, has been about answering a clear need in our community for a place where creativity, opportunity, and resources intersect,” says Johnson.

Hannah Kim, BHS’28

Bok Bok

Hannah Kim is determined to better peoples’ health and wellness by improving food practices and decreasing their reliance on external supplements—and she’s doing that by combining her pharmacy and business acumen with her entrepreneurial mindset. She’s created Bok Bok, a naturally fermented K-balsamic vinegar that delivers health benefits in additive-free forms such as liquids, pearls, blocks, and powders that support the body’s homeostasis. “Contributing positively to global health, especially at a time when the world is more health conscious than ever, drives me to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries of what my venture can offer,” says Kim.

Mary DeVega, CPS’22, L’25

MPowered

Mary DeVega aims to elevate women in underserved communities who seek employment or are re-entering the workforce by arming them with career training, education, and development opportunities. After surmounting her own personal and professional challenges early in life, DeVega’s dedication to social responsibility spurred the creation of MPowered, her staffing venture that provides women with professional tools, resources, and support to help them succeed. “My relentless pursuit of education and continuous learning underscores my commitment to fostering positive change in society,” she says.

Emily Zeledon, DMSB’26

Las Mujercitas

Drawing on her passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and social responsibility, Emily Zeledon aspires to empower women coffee producers in Nicaragua, her home country. Las Mujercitas was born in 2021, after Zeledon observed the lack of economic opportunities for rural women in Nicaragua’s lucrative coffee industry, including restricted access to the land, credit, and training essential for farming. Las Mujercitas aims to open pathways to global markets and sustainable agricultural practices, and to promote recognition of and certification to women coffee producers.

Sofia Urrutia, DMSB’24

Palmarosa

A first-generation Panamanian American, Sofia Urrutia spent her formative years immersed in the two cultures, an experience that today inspires her to make a positive impact in the world. With her jewelry brand Palmarosa, Urrutia not only recognizes that accessorizing is a key to an individual’s self-expression, but she also partners with and uplifts Panamanian artisans. “It is important to create social change through whichever career path I choose,” says Urrutia. “I have been working on every facet of Palmarosa for almost two years now, iterating and pivoting as I go.”

Fatema Janahi E’22

Palm

Fatema Janahi has a background in engineering and a passion for technology and entrepreneurship. So it’s not surprising that she wants to build a bridge—and a community—with her e-commerce platform, Palm. Janahi recognizes that Bahraini women like her want to express themselves through unique fashion but don’t have access to local designers in the MENA region. Building on a venture she first created as part of the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship, she is developing Palm to amplify artisans across the Middle East and empower women with access to clothing that honors both traditional and modern sensibilities.

Dominique Schreiner, Khoury’22

Cake Denim

Cake Denim cofounder Dominique Schreiner integrates her cutting-edge tech skills with her commitment to inclusive design and sustainable denim industry solutions. She and sister Darrel launched their innovative brand in 2019 to upend denim design and empower women with jeans that fit well. Both sisters obtained master’s degrees in computer science to evolve Cake Denim into a brand that honors the diversity of women’s bodies and contributes to a cleaner, fairer, and more sustainable world. Together, the Schreiners are leveraging technology to reduce waste, improve working conditions, and lead the way in stylish and ethical fashion.

Darrel Schreiner, Khoury’22

Cake Denim

As cofounder and CEO of Cake Denim, Darrel Shreiner pairs her technological expertise with a passion for sustainability and inclusivity. She and sister Dominique launched their innovative brand in 2019 to upend denim design and empower women with jeans that fit well. Both sisters obtained master’s degrees in computer science to evolve Cake Denim into a brand that honors the diversity of women’s bodies and contributes to a cleaner, fairer, and more sustainable world. Together, the Schreiners are leveraging technology to reduce waste, improve working conditions, and lead the way in stylish and ethical fashion.

Claudia Tobar, EdD’20

Kamina

Claudia Tobar wanted to address inequality and gender gaps in the financial industry by offering innovative products designed to assist women and non-banked individuals in managing their financial stress and enhancing their economic wellbeing. So she co-founded Kamina, teaming up with financial institutions and together developing an inclusive financial wellness platform to help people manage their money. In addition to her role at Kamina, Tobar contributes articles on education, innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship to local and international media. She is a social activist and has spearheaded campaigns like #Liberenalosniños, advocating for children’s rights.

Becky Mashàido, Khoury’22

KiAsili Naturals

A Black woman engineer, Becky Mashàido is passionate about science, technology, and leveraging her knowledge to better the experiences of marginalized Black communities worldwide. When she moved from Africa to go to college in the U.S., Mashàido struggled with finding oils for her natural hair. Her answer: launching KiAsili Naturals, products for Afrotextured hair made from plant-based oils indigenous to African communities. Now she plans to reimagine an inclusive beauty industry using AI, empowering Black girls and women with the technical and social tools needed to collectively launch their own innovations around the globe.

Mariana Charakapoulou Travlou, S’19

Nous Health

From an early age, Mariana Charakapoulou Travlou has felt a strong call to care for others.  While pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology, she experienced serious injuries following a horseback riding accident, which halted plans to start her own professional practice. Charakapoulou Travlou’s challenging recovery led her to reimagine how she could make a positive impact in her community, and from this experience, she launched Nous Health. This women-led digital health venture aims to bridge the gap between mental health services and accessibility, reduce stigmas, and leverage AI to enhance therapy outcomes.

Hayley Oleksiak, SSH’18

Open Space Sandbox

Driven by a passion for smart, sustainable development, Hayley Oleksiak aspires to create public spaces that nurture economic growth and community wellness. While working as an urban planner and analyst in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, she saw firsthand the gaps in how communities engage with park planning and design—often with limited tools to advocate for their needs. Oleksiak was inspired by her childhood love of the video game SimCity to found Open Space Sandbox, a public design tool that empowers communities to develop equitable and vibrant open spaces through gamification.

Calypso Newman, NCH’21

Rock Badger

On a mission to unite technology and creativity to empower global, social, and commercial change, Calypso Newman believes that “innovation starts with art.” She founded Rock Badger in 2022 to help clients harness the immersive power of digital technology and art to tell their stories, visualize their impact, and take on issues like climate change. Rock Badger has recently developed Web3 concepts for an international motor sports team and a Premier League football club. Since launching her start up, Newman has been busy growing her business, implementing an internship program, and teaching workshops on commercial art and innovation.

Debbie Madueke, DMSB’19/SSH’19

Replast

Debbie Madueke is an experienced financial analyst and problem solver with a dual mission of inspiring economic and environmental impact in her home country of Nigeria. Madueke launched her recycling venture, Replast, to decrease pollution in Nigeria by providing high-quality material for reuse, creating income opportunities for local communities. Madueke is determined to harness the adaptability and resilience she has honed since coming to the U.S. at age 17 to contribute to a more sustainable, prosperous future for Nigeria. She also looks forward to inspiring other women to lead and launch businesses that tackle global challenges.

Violetta Skittidi, NCH’19

Formulaw

Violetta Skittidi is a law school graduate, legal technology entrepreneur, and committed advocate for women in the tech sector. Her dedication to innovation, sparked by an undergraduate course, ignited when she observed firsthand that legal technology was not keeping pace with digitization, and that effective legal management systems were out of reach for many small and midsize enterprises. As cofounder and COO of Formulaw, Skittidi’s mission is to offer innovative legal management solutions that reduce costs, improve efficiency, and increase access to critical legal tools for small businesses. Skittidi is also dedicated to mentoring and supporting other women entrepreneurs.

AJ Addae, S’20

SULA LABS

AJ Addae is a chemist, clinical researcher, published author, and doctoral student in chemical biology. She is also the founder and CEO of SULA LABS, an innovative research and development lab that creates and tests skincare products for Black-owned beauty brands and melanin-rich consumers. Her vision for the venture sprang from Addae’s desire to close the inclusivity gaps in R&D and clinical testing that she observed as a post-graduate cosmetic chemist. She is dedicated to using science as a tool for social impact and aspires to empower other women of color to envision and pursue careers in research and cosmetic science.

Melissa LaCasse, Roux Founder Residency’22

Tanbark

Motivated to transform her climate concerns into tangible action, Melissa LaCasse drew upon her husband Christopher’s expertise in molded fiber packaging and her background in media and sales to bring Tanbark to life in 2022. This manufacturing startup looks to replace single-use plastic with bio-based solutions, innovating the pulp and paper heritage industry in their home state of Maine. As CEO and co-founder, LaCasse upholds the values that led her to entrepreneurship: perseverance, empathy, and a deep-seated belief in making a positive impact on the world. Tanbark stands as a testament to her commitment to sustainability and her drive to leave a positive legacy for future generations.

Michelle DeBlois, Roux Founder Residency’22

ReMo

As a public school teacher with a specialty in literacy, Michelle DeBlois experienced firsthand the struggle of meeting her students’ diverse reading needs. After two decades in the classroom, she launched her venture, ReMo, to center readers’ identities, celebrate community, and empower educators to embrace learner variability. This web-based application connects young people with books that they’ll love, while allowing educators to foster a passion for reading on a wider scale. DeBlois is passionate about providing students of all ages with the opportunities to grow into the best versions of themselves. “My north star is building with community through service,” she says.

Rachel Cossar, Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator’22

Virtual Sapiens

As a former rhythmic gymnast and professional ballet dancer, Rachel Cossar is fluent in the language of physical expression and communication. After retiring from the Boston Ballet in 2016, she quickly realized that her skills in presence and body language were in high demand in the business world. Fascinated by how people communicate in professional environments off the stage, Cossar started a consulting practice to provide personalized feedback and coaching that would eventually become Virtual Sapiens. Her AI startup aims to help teams master their presence and communication at scale, empowering more people in a remote world.