We’re proud to announce Dr. Mitzi Krockover as our official Chair of our Women’s Health Horizons event in Boston this October.
A nationally recognized leader in women’s health, Dr. Krockover brings decades of experience across clinical care, healthcare administration, and innovation. She was the founding Medical Director of the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center and later served as Vice President of Women’s Health at Humana, where she launched transformative programs like Humana Beginnings.
Currently, she hosts the Beyond the Paper Gown podcast and serves as Managing Director at Golden Seeds, supporting women-led healthcare ventures. She also sits on multiple boards, including the Institute for Mental Health Research and the Black Women’s Health Imperative.
A true super-connector in the field, Dr. Krockover’s leadership and insight will be invaluable as we shape the future of women’s health.
Dr. Marjorie Jenkins is a nationally recognized leader in women’s health, known for her groundbreaking work as the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health has spearheaded national efforts to integrate sex and gender evidence into medical research, education, and policy, and has held senior leadership roles at the FDA and top-tier academic institutions.
Dr. Jenny Carrillo who Brings 20+ years of leadership driving innovation in women’s health, with executive roles at Ovia Health (President), Labcorp, and Amwell, where she helped lead the company through a successful IPO. Her influence spans clinical, corporate, and digital health sectors.
Dr. Alyson J. McGregor is a globally recognized leader in women’s health and a pioneer in advancing sex and gender equity in medicine. She co-founded the first Division of Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine and currently serves as Associate Dean at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. Dr. McGregor also co-founded the Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative and advises OM
Jodi is a 3x venture-backed founder and CEO committed to transforming the business and policy infrastructure of women’s health. She has raised over $100M, scaled teams of 2–200+, and launched products that have generated $1B+ in new revenue. Founder of In Women’s Health and co-founder of the Women’s Health PAC, Jodi is now leading a national movement to fund the future of women’s health uniting research, policy, innovation, and bipartisan action.
Vasanta Pundarika is the Founder and CEO of Lotuspring, a strategic advisory firm focused on advancing sustainability in women’s and behavioral health. With nearly 20 years in healthcare and finance including 18 years as a healthcare investment banker she helps innovators align their business strategies with the broader U.S. healthcare system, driving growth, investment, and impact.
Rachel Braun Scherl is a Vagipreneur®, author, and business builder focused on women’s sexual and reproductive health. As co-founder of Semprae Laboratories, she helped create and market a new category of sexual wellness products for women, later acquired by Innovus Pharmaceuticals. She is the author of Orgasmic Leadership and co-host of the Business of the V podcast, highlighting innovation in women’s health. A frequent speaker at top institutions and conferences, Rachel has also led strategic growth for companies like J&J, Merck, Bayer, and numerous startups.
Dr. Carmen Messerlian is a Harvard reproductive epidemiologist, founder of Vie Science, and a pioneer in AI-powered fertility innovation. Her work bridges environmental health, precision diagnostics, and digital health to transform fertility from a reactive treatment model into a proactive, personalized foundation for lifelong and generational health.
Amy Beckley, PhD is the founder and CEO of Proov, and the inventor of the first and only FDA-cleared at-home hormone test that tracks hormones across the menstrual cycle. She has a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Colorado and an MBA from Kansas State University. She has been studying female reproductive hormones for 12 years
Anna Valcheva is a Venture Partner and Advisor of Alumni Ventures Group and the Founder and CEO of Astra Ventures – a strategic, capital markets, corporate & business development and investment consultancy that enables mission-aligned founders and funders advance and commercialize impact innovations in Human & Planetary Health. She works with entrepreneurs, venture capital and private equity on funding, scaling and optimizing growth revenue and sales, commercial operations, and business and corporate development, through the various stages of the private capital cycle – from seed through growth, late-stage secondary markets/pre-IPO to IPO. She consults founders and financial sponsors on appropriate exits in the strategic/M&A, secondary private capital markets and IPO equity capital markets.
Elizabeth Bailey has over 20 years of experience in venture capital and supporting early-stage healthcare companies. She is currently a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Foreground Capital, an early-stage, women’s health venture capital fund. Elizabeth co-founded and led Foreground’s precursor funds at RH Capital, where she and her team built one of the largest dedicated venture capital portfolios in women’s health. At Foreground Capital, she continues to manage RH Capital funds and serves as a board director for Raydiant Oximetry and Testmate Health, and as a board observer for Bloomlife, Cayaba, Mae and Twentyeight Health. Elizabeth was previously a Partner at Commons Capital, where she managed the healthcare portfolio, including Claros Diagnostics (acquired by OPKO), CodeRyte (acquired by 3M), HistoRx (acquired by Genoptix), Medical Metrx Solutions (acquired by AIG) and TelaDoc (IPO: TDOC). She holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a BA from Brown University. Throughout her career, Elizabeth has been a strong advocate of the power of business to drive social change. She has been named twice as a Trailblazing Leader in Women’s Health and received the inaugural FemForce Vanguard Award for her leadership in women’s health.
Georgie Kovacs, is the founder of Fempower Health, the go-to resource for all things women health serving women, their providers, and companies looking to build/improve on products for women. She also hosts the Fempower Health Podcast, where she interviews experts to help women better understand how to navigate their health both day-to-day and in partnership with their providers. Her mission is to minimize the years many take to seek proper diagnosis and treatment.Georgie founded Fempower Health after her first-hand experience with infertility and endometriosis. Leveraging this experience along with her 20+ year tenure in the biopharmaceutical industry and consulting, she leads this movement to empower women. With limited research dollars and women’s “training” to grin and bear it, both women and doctors are in the impossible position to diagnose and treat conditions with little information. Women deserve more and better information, insight and innovative health solutions.
Kanwal L. Haq, M.S. is a medical anthropologist dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. She is the co-author of Taking Care of You: The Empowered Woman’s Guide to Better Health (Mayo Clinic Press 2022), and the founder of TCY Women, a nonprofit organization helping women navigate health & care via education, community, and trusted tools. Kanwal and the TCY Women team are bridging the gap between community voices and systemic transformation—documenting the lived experiences of women as powerful data points: evidence that demands action, not just awareness. TCY Women’s work helps generate the insights needed to drive the policies, research, and investments that can truly reshape how women are seen, cared for, and supported—at every age and every stage. Prior to founding TCY Women, Kanwal held roles at the Yale School of Medicine and completed fellowships with the United Nations, AmeriCorps, and the University Teaching Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda. She earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Missouri, her M.S. in Medical Anthropology from Boston University School of Medicine, and is currently completing her Ph.D. in Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
Kathryn “Katie” Schubert has served as President & CEO of the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) since April 2020. She is a trusted leader and consensus builder among women’s health stakeholders, and previously served as chief advocacy officer at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM). Schubert began her career on Capitol Hill and subsequently advised organizations on policy strategy in the healthcare space. She is a board member of the National Health Council, Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, and ASPN Foundation. She is a previous president of Women in Government Relations, and in 2020 was named Advocate of the Year by Professional Women in Advocacy for her work on inclusion of pregnant and lactating populations in research, and in 2024 and 2025 was named as one of the most influential people shaping policy in health care by the Washingtonian magazine. Schubert holds a bachelor’s degree from Mary Washington College and a master’s degree from the George Washington University. When not advocating for women’s health, she’s spending time with her husband, three kids, and dog George.
Dr. Kimberley Sampson-Paine is a board-certified physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obesity Medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine. She serves as the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center and is an Assistant Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. With a focus on the intersection of obesity, metabolic health, and reproductive care, Dr. Sampson integrates medical and lifestyle interventions to optimize patient outcomes. As Vice President of NEOS, she is committed to expanding access to comprehensive obesity treatment, addressing weight stigma in healthcare, and advancing evidence-based approaches to weight management across all life stages to support women’s longterm health and well being.
Lisa is a leader in driving mission-critical change, with a strong focus on empowering female and underrepresented founders in the med tech and life sciences space. She specializes in supporting early- and mid-stage startups with organizational development, business strategy, securing non-dilutive funding, and forming a pathway to investment. Lisa brings over 25 years of experience in clinical research, digital health innovation, and executive leadership, including roles as VP and executive team lead at a national CRO and Fortune 25 healthcare subsidiary. In these roles, and as founder of her own company Alpha Millennial Health, she has successfully guided the development of transformative medical devices and life sciences products.
Liz is originally from Boston and has 25 years of experience from working in Congress and as an attorney and lobbyist. She started G2G in 2007 and oversees government relationships and operations for the firm. She serves on the Steering Committee for the Innovation Equity Forum led by the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and created Women’s Health Advocates as well as the Women’s Digital Health Network and the Breast Cancer Early Detection Coalition. She has crafted legislation and campaigns to pass and enact bills; built coalitions; ran a political action committee; and organized media events. Liz co-founded the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s D.C. Alumni Chapter, serves on its Alumni Giving Committee, and is in the Colgate President’s Club. Liz loves connecting people to government to make a difference.
Megan Dover is Co-founder and Principal of Cross Border Impact Ventures (CBIV). At CBIV, she invests in Series A stage health technology companies in North America and Europe that address unmet needs for women and children globally. Key health focus areas for the fund include maternal & newborn health, sexual & reproductive health and chronic conditions that impact women and children such as oncology, cardiovascular health, mental health, gut health and respiratory health.
She has in depth experience in venture capital, impact investing, venture advisory, M&A, business strategy, Financial Planning & Analysis and angel investing. Prior to the launch of CBIV, Megan was the Senior Investment Manager for the Every Woman Every Child Innovation Marketplace at Grand Challenges Canada, and acted as a venture advisor to support the fundraising efforts of a portfolio of early stage health technology companies in raising equity and grant capital. Megan brought expertise in a number of areas to the role, having previously held roles in finance and strategy for a public mining & metals company, worked in management consulting for a global consulting firm, been part of an R&D team for a biotech startup and as an advisor and angel investor at the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL). Megan obtained her MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, receiving a Dean’s list ranking. She also earned her Engineering degree with Honours from Queen’s University, specializing in Biomedical Research within Chemical Engineering.
Millicent Gorham was named the inaugural CEO of the Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention (AWHP) in March 2023, having been involved with AHWP as the Chair of its Board of Directors since its creation in October 2022. Most recently, Millicent served as the Executive Director of Movement is Life (MIL), a nonprofit focused on physical activity and improved mobility, reducing and eliminating health disparities, health equity, and improving health outcomes and quality of life. She previously served on the MIL volunteer steering committee for 11 years. She is also the former Executive Director of the National Black Nurses Association, Inc., which represents 308,000 African American nurses in the United States. Millicent was appointed to that position in October 1995 and held it for over 25 years. In that role, she oversaw administrative, fund development, advocacy, marketing, communications, conference planning, and program implementation, with a staff of five and a budget of $2.4 million.
Dr. Neel Shah, MD, MPP, FACOG, is Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health, and visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School. He is the co-founder of the March for Moms Association, a coalition of more than 20 leading organizations dedicated to increasing public and private investment in the wellbeing of mothers, and the founder of Costs of Care, an NGO that curates insights from clinicians and patients to help delivery systems provide better care. His work to build equitable, trustworthy systems of care is featured in the documentaries “Color of Care,” produced by Oprah Winfrey, and “Aftershock,” which is currently streaming on Hulu. Dr. Shah serves on the advisory board of the National Institutes of Health, Office of Women’s Health Research.
Priya Bathija, is a nationally-recognized healthcare executive, attorney, and policy expert. She is currently Founder and CEO of Nyoo Health, which serves as a strategic partner for hospitals and health systems as they improve women’s health. Previously, she was at the American Hospital Association where she led policy efforts and strategic initiatives on value, health equity and maternal health. She started her career as a healthcare attorney and served as in-house counsel and a member of the executive leadership teams at ProMedica and MedStar Health. Priya is also a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. In addition, she is a Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington board member.
Dr. Roberta Marongiu, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience in Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, is leading groundbreaking research to understand why devastating brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affect men and women differently.
Her work focuses on how biological sex and hormonal changes during menopause influence the development and progression of these diseases. By uncovering these mechanisms, Dr. Marongiu hopes to move beyond today’s “one-size-fits-all” treatments and help design precision medicine strategies that consider each patient’s sex and hormonal status.
Dr. Marongiu’s lab takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining gene therapy and genetic tools, advanced imaging, laboratory models, and computational analyses. Her work has attracted support from prestigious organizations, including the National Institute of Health, the American Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s disease/ Michael J. Fox Foundation.
It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Dr. Sipra Laddha that she would choose a
career in medicine. You could say medicine chose her. Born in India to medical doctors, Laddha moved to the U.S with her parents in the 1980s. Her parents were on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic in New York City. After high school, Laddha enrolled in New York University majoring in history with a minor in chemistry and psychology. Laddha excelled at NYU. She graduated within three years and was accepted at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Buffalo, New York. At 20 years old, she was the youngest in her medical school class. After she graduated at 24, Laddha began her residency at Emory Medical Center in Atlanta.
Laddha became Chief Resident and helped women patients with mental health issues. During that time, she became pregnant with twins. She also suffered from postpartum anxiety. That experience gave her a unique perspective in how women are treated in the medical system and the lack of resources and services that are available. Laddha says the medical system “normalized suffering” for women patients. Laddha later set up a private practice in Atlanta and also worked for Veterans Affairs. She also worked in different health care systems specifically to see where the gaps were in women’s medical coverage. That information and her own experience led her to co-founder LunaJoy, a digital mental health clinic that treats women at every stage of their lives. LunaJoy has 20 providers and has teamed up with several OB-GYN offices. To date, more than 1,000 clients
have logged on to LunaJoy and received the care and treatment they needed. Laddha is also mother to twin eight year old boys, a five year old boy and a three years old girl.
Dr. Somi Javaid is a board-certified OB/GYN, surgeon, and founder of HerMD, a pioneering healthcare platform dedicated to closing the gap in women’s health. She specializes in menopause, sexual health, and gynecology, ensuring women receive expert, compassionate care that has long been overlooked in traditional medicine. With fewer than 0.4% of women of color in the U.S. successfully securing venture capital funding, Dr. Javaid is reshaping the landscape of both women’s healthcare and investment in FemTech. Her work has earned her a spot on Worth Magazine’s 25 Groundbreaking Women (2025) and Inc.’s Female Founders 250 list (2024). A sought-after speaker and advocate, her expertise has been featured in Forbes, Vogue, and TEDx. As the host of The disruptHER podcast, she continues to challenge outdated norms and push the industry forward.
Tianna Meyers is the founder of Sovereign Femininity, an adaptive AI platform built to surface and stabilize multidimensional patterns in women’s health across physiology, behavior, emotion, and relationship dynamics. She is a systems thinker and writer developing new frameworks grounded in female neurophysiology and hormonal cycles.
Tracy Warren is an influential leader who devotes deep experience in entrepreneurship and early-stage venture capital investing to American Heart Association Ventures as Senior Managing Director. Passionate about women’s and children’s health, she leads the investment strategy for the Go Red for Women Venture Fund. Notably, Tracy has been an active and successful investor in women’s health through Astarte Ventures, a firm she founded in 2013. Pre-seed investments in Alydia (sold to Organon for $240M), Maven Clinic (the first women’s health unicorn) and Materna Medical have produced significant cash on cash returns, validating the investment case for women’s health. Tracy served as venture capital manager for Healthworx, the venture arm of CareFirst BCBS, prior to joining AHA Ventures. She was previously co-founder and CEO of Astarte Medical, a health IT start-up focused on early life nutrition and gut health for preterm and critically ill infants. Among other game-changing roles, Tracy was co-founder and executive director of FedIMPACT, which commercialized technologies from Department of Energy national laboratories, and co-founder, board chair and CEO of NellOne Therapeutics, Inc., a regenerative biologics company. Tracy is a co-inventor on three patents and has authored numerous articles on early nutrition and pediatric care. Among many board positions, Tracy served on the Board of the Children’s Research Institute at Children’s National Medical Center, where she chaired the Technology & Innovation Advisory Committee, and the Clemson University Research Foundation Board. Tracy holds a BS in Accounting and International Business from New York University and MBA at Columbia Business School in Finance.
Yana Bassovitch is the Founder of TIME2PAUSE and a Certified Integrative Health Coach who helps women 40+ reduce inflammation, balance hormones, and regain energy—without restrictions or rigid diets. Drawing from her background in psychology, human development, and business, Yana offers a science-based, compassionate approach rooted in techniques and research from institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and the NIH. Specializing in perimenopause, menopause, metabolic shifts, and post-GLP-1 weight challenges, Yana’s work helps high-performing women understand how hormonal changes affect their physical and mental well-being. Her methods blend intuitive eating, neuroscience, and personalized habit change to achieve sustainable, long-term results. Yana speaks at corporate wellness events, leads educational workshops, and works privately with clients who are ready to stop guessing and start living with intention. Whether navigating burnout, blood sugar instability, chronic inflammation, or brain fog, her clients gain tools to rebuild trust with their bodies and create real momentum. Yana’s mission is to empower women to lead with clarity, confidence, and vitality—especially during midlife, when ambition often collides with burnout and hormonal change. She helps women move beyond the cycle of confusion and self-blame to understand what’s really happening in their bodies. When women recognize the biological and emotional shifts beneath the surface, they stop fighting themselves—and start leading from a place of strength, balance, and self-trust.
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