Philly Tech Week 2018

Christoph is a Software Engineering Lead at Elsevier in Precision Medicine. He is passionate about empowering engineers to be autonomous, innovative, and fearless. His current efforts are focused on modernizing MACRO, a clinical trial platform to facilitate researchers in hospitals and universities to discover the next advancements in healthcare. When he's not wrestling with his son and daughter (5 and 2 respectively), he's roasting coffee in his modified popcorn popper or writing about engineering and Agile on his blog.

Morgan is a Principal with Genacast Ventures where his responsibilities include evaluating investment opportunities, sourcing new deals, and managing the growth of existing portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Genacast, Morgan worked at Bloomberg Beta, the venture firm backed by Bloomberg. He also spent time as a software engineer at Tapad and Market-Based Management instructor at the Charles Koch Institute. Morgan earned his BS from Northeastern University.

Jessica Estepa is the lead writer and editor for OnPolitics, USA TODAY's politics blog and newsletter, where her coverage runs the gamut from President Trump's tweets to interviewing pardoned turkeys of yesteryear. In past lives, she worked at National Geographic, E&E News and Roll Call. Other journalism things: She leads the Online News Association's Washington, D.C., group and is a fellow with the National Press Foundation. Non-journalism things: She sings constantly with the Capitol Hill Chorale and District Karaoke.

Shelly Bell is the founder of Black Girl Ventures (BGV), a social enterprise dedicated to finding creative place-based solutions to dissolve the race and gender gap in access to capital. She is the Google Digital Coach for DC - named Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 by Technically DC and one of the Top 40 New Power Women in Tech by DCA Live (2017). She is among the nation's most sought community organizers, motivational speakers and hosts in the Washington, DC Metro area. With a background is performance poetry, K-12 education and Computer Science she vibrates her passion for community building by helping people amplify their power to live the best life possible on their own terms!

Viraj leads a team of designers at Jefferson's Digital Innovation and Consumer Experience (DICE) group. He and his team are responsible for improving experience for all of Jefferson's consumers by designing new and transformative solutions. As the Director for Digital Consumer Experience Viraj & his team always look to fulfill the unmet needs of Jefferson's consumers.

Viraj is a passionate designer who likes to design for common-user needs. He has always believed that to create holistic solutions, he needs to understand the user's world from their perspective. With a bachelor's degree in architecture and a master's degree in human-centered design, Viraj's skills include research, strategy and user/consumer-focused solutions. Creating transformational patient experiences is one of his strong holds. At Jefferson, Viraj leads a team of multimedia designers, instructional designers, clinical fellows and experience designers to deliver seamless digital solutions for Jefferson's consumers. With over 20+ years of experience Viraj is able to bring ideas from different industries to transform care and learning by DESIGN.

Erin Janklow is the Founder and CEO of Entrada: Employer Sponsored Learning. A social entrepreneur with a curious and compassionate disposition, Erin developed Entrada to create an equitable and sustainable way to improve workers' lives. Entrada is a tech company that teaches service workers English as they work in only 100 days, using our scientifically designed TalkBack Method. Our product empowers service workers for success in the workplace and in their communities in only 30 minutes a day. Erin is fluent in Italian and advanced in Spanish and learned both languages in her twenties.

Erin is a Halcyon Fellow, holds an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, and a BA from Northwestern University. Her first entrepreneurial venture was teaching English as a Second Language, followed by 3 years working in sustainability and hospitality while at TripAdvisor. She is CELTA certified, facilitates energy work, and loves hiking, ancient history, and swing dancing.

Kip Wetzel is a Principal at Navigate, a Strategy and Management Consulting firm focused on the success of organizations in greater-Philadelphia. Kip leads Navigate’s Digital Transformation and Design Thinking Practice, bringing extensive strategic knowledge and practical insight from his digital leadership across a number of industries. In his role, Kip is helping partners leverage human-centered design and disruptive technologies to drive innovation around their most critical business imperatives. Prior to joining Navigate, Kip was Vice President of Enterprise Social Media Strategy at Capital One where he developed and executed a company-wide social media strategy to maximize the impact of emerging technology platforms for banking, lending, and credit business lines. Kip also spent over a decade at Comcast as a digital product manager; spanning a number of roles, Kip launched myriad cross- platform entertainment experiences for millions of Comcast users and lead the company’s transformation of customer engagement through social media. Kip is an alumnus of Villanova University and currently sits on the boards of The Philadelphia Outward Bound School and The Philadelphia Arts & Business Council.

Lori Aument currently serves as a business education instructor and is the virtual reality program coordinator, a new program, at Mercy Career & Technical High School (Mercy CTE). Lori spent fourteen years as a mathematics teacher at Mercy CTE prior to transitioning to her current role. During the past fourteen years, she worked as a key team member for developing and implementing a 1:1 computer program, facilitated professional development opportunities for faculty in the areas of technology and innovative learning practices and co-developed Mercy CTE’s IMPACT Philly program, a design thinking program. Lori’s time is spent creating immersive learning opportunities that incorporate virtual and other mixed reality programs in particularly in the areas of STEM and Mercy’s Health Occupations CTE program. These experiences provide students with a unique way of learning and retaining concepts that can be challenging. The students have responded very favorably to this kind of learning. They are excited, engaged, and work very well together when they are in the VR lab. Lori earned a B.S. in Elementary Education from Kutztown University and an M.S. in Learning Technologies with a concentration in Instructional Design from Drexel University. Lori resides in Oreland Pennsylvania with her husband, Christian, and her daughter, Evangeline (Evie). In 2015 Lori was nominated, along with three others, for the Philadelphia Inquirer “Person of the Year” award. She was also shortlisted for the 2018 Reimagine Education Awards. Lori’s students have received the following recognition under her guidance; 3rd Place University of Delaware’s Social Venture Competition, Audience Choice Award Jefferson University’s (formerly Philadelphia University) Celebration of Innovation Gala, and selected to present at the MIT Learning Innovation Showcase.